Xu Beihong, Standing Horse, 1939

by Atelier Liesjes

Inscription: Instead of staying forever in the stable, pursuing solitude, he sees the dust moving in the wind across the vast desert and the white grass at harvest height. He is determined to follow the source of the river; the horse will beat anything he encounters. He pauses while galloping, but he will never die and never shirk his duty. Staying in Xinghai in May 1939, Beihong. For my beloved wife, Jingwen, to keep.
Seal: "Descended from the King of the Eastern Sea" (rectangular seal) and "Unconcerned about retiring a sage" (square seal)

Horses were one of Xu Beihong's favourite themes, and one of the subjects he painted most often.

Xu Beihong (19 July 1895 - 26 September 1953) was a Chinese painter from Yixing, Jiangsu province. He is best known for his ink paintings of horses and birds. In 1915, he moved to Shanghai. Here he lived off selling his works. In 1917, he travelled to Tokyo in Japan to study painting here. Back in China, he was given a chair at Peking University. From 1919, Xu studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris.