Footnotes

徐悲鴻（款） 奔馬 紙本水墨 鏡框裝裱

Provenance: Max Morris (1910-2017), acquired in China in 1957, and thence by descent

Published and Exhibited: Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Modern Chinese Paintings from the Hafkin and Other Collections, Coventry, 11 July - 9 August 1964, no.42.

來源：Max Morris（1910-2017）舊藏，於1957年購自中國，並由後人保存迄今

展覽著錄：赫伯特藝術博物館，《Modern Chinese Paintings from the Hafkin and Other Collections》，考文垂，1964年7月11日-8月9日，編號42


Max Morris was born in London's East End to Russian immigrant parents. In his youth, he began working in his family's shoe business, P.Morris & Sons based in Shoreditch High Street. He served in the RAF during World War Two, as a French interpreter for air support crews in France, reaching the rank of sergeant.

In August 1957, Morris was part of a small trade delegation to China with the aim of fostering better understanding and trade between China and the UK. During this time, he visited some artists' studios and acquired paintings, some of which were later exhibited at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.

In the 1980s he taught English at Toynbee Hall to primarily immigrants and was an active patron of the arts and charities. Two days before his 106th birthday he was awarded the British Citizen Award for his charitable work in a ceremony at the House of Lords on 7 July 2016.

Xu Beihong is widely recognised as the father of modern Chinese painting, both for his innovative ink works that revitalised the traditional Chinese form, and for his willingness to embrace Western techniques.

Winning high acclaim for their bold and lively styles, the horse paintings by Xu Beihong were highly admired amongst collectors and connoisseurs for their strength and vivacity, whilst also expressing Xu's desire to show his own feelings of patriotism.

Born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, in 1895, Xu grew up in an artistic family and showed talent at an early age. In 1915, he moved to Shanghai, then a melting pot of Chinese and Western cultures, to begin his studies. There he met Kang Youwei, the scholar and political reformer, who became his mentor and greatly influenced Xu's thinking about the need to incorporate Western practices and ideas into Chinese art.

Throughout his life, Xu Beihong championed the revitalisation of Chinese painting through the integration of Western-style realism and Chinese brush techniques. Here, using sharp tonal contrasts between black ink and white paper, Xu's swift rendition of the noble steed embodies the spirit of traditional 'ink play'. The horse's natural pose is deftly captured in abbreviated brushwork, however, the horse's accurate anatomy and the convincing foreshortening of its body reflect Xu's solid grounding in Western academic art. The powerful demeanour of the unleashed unmounted animal may convey a Western influence, but its mane and tail, blowing unnaturally in opposite directions, testify to the artist's ultimately subjective approach.

Xu employed freehand strokes, only outlining the critical parts, such as the nose, the chest and the hooves. Xu Beihong studied the anatomy of horses and observed their postures and expressions in great detail; the shape of the large muscles at the neck, breast and back is accentuated with ink washes executed in various tones, giving life to a remarkably robust figure, whilst, at the same time, reinstating Xu Beihong's position as a leader of one of the first generation of innovative artists seeking to reinvigorate the long tradition of Chinese aesthetics.

Xu's powerful and passionate images of horses, a traditional symbol of Chinese martial spirit, were intended to inspire patriotic resistance during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

See a related ink on paper depiction of a 'Heavenly Horse' by Xu Beihong, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published by Shi-yee Liu, Straddling East and West: Lin Yutang, a Modern Literatus, New York, 2007, p.52.