Hsü Pei-Hung

Born June 19, 1895, in the district of Ihsing, Kiangsu Province; died Sept. 26, 1953, in Peking. Chinese painter and graphic artist.

Hsü studied in Shanghai with his father, Hsü Ta-chang, and in Paris (from 1919) with P. A. J. Dagnan-Bouveret. In 1934 he visited the USSR. From 1949 to 1953 he was the director of the Central Academy of Arts in Peking and the chairman of the All-China Association of Writers and Artists.

Hsü worked in the “birds-and-flowers” and “men and objects” genres. Most of his works were executed on paper in india ink and watercolor. He was one of the first Chinese artists to paint in oils. Hsü was among the founders of a new direction in 20th-century Chinese art, combining national traditions with the achievements of European realist painting. His works combine soft modeling with bold line. Hsü’s paintings on nature subjects (for example, The Resting Horse, 1930, india ink on paper, Museum of the Art of the Eastern Peoples, Moscow) are permeated with the spirit of clear poetry, and his genre and historical compositions (for example, Reflections on the Field of Battle, 1935, Museum of the Art of the Eastern Peoples) are often filled with heroic emotion. Hsü’s portraiture is noted for both psychological and sociological depth (for example, the portrait series of exemplary workers and heroes of the People’s Liberation Army, 1950, india ink on paper).