polity republic of chinaconcept:era modern
Galloping Horse
Group of ink-on-paper paintings by Xu Beihong (c. 1930s–1950s), type-example node for his signature galloping horse subject. The galloping horse (奔馬, bēn mǎ) became Xu Beihong's signature motif — synthesising Western academic anatomical accuracy with the expressive brushwork of Chinese ink painting. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the image became a patriotic symbol of China's indomitable spirit under occupation. The most iconic motif in Chinese 20th-century modernist painting.
Scholarly Significance
Type-example node for Xu Beihong's signature galloping horse ink paintings; iconic image of modern Chinese art's nationalist period.
Notes
- ·Xu Beihong studied horse anatomy extensively at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1919-1927); this academic training gave his horses a musculature and dynamic realism absent from previous Chinese horse painting.
- ·The horse as a patriotic symbol during the Sino-Japanese War: speed, freedom, power, and refusal to be broken under foreign domination.
- ·His brushwork integrates Western three-dimensional anatomical shading with the speed and directness of Chinese ink — wide, wet brushstrokes for the body; fine, quick strokes for mane and tail.
- ·The signature composition: horse in full gallop, hooves just leaving the ground, body horizontal, mane and tail streaming — became a universally recognised image in 20th-century Chinese visual culture.
- ·Xu Beihong donated major collections of his works and his collection of Western and Chinese art to the Chinese state; the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum was established in Beijing in 1954.