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Lot Essay
This Xu Beihong galloping horse shows all four hooves off the ground, head turned back and neighing, mane and tail flying. The legs are steely and forceful, the hindquarters resilient, and the ink richly varied in tone—a typical mature freehand horse painting. Two collector seals of Wu Yunrui and Wu Qingxia appear at the lower right.
Wu Yunrui (1892–1976), a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu, was a founder of modern Chinese sports science and China’s first sports master’s graduate in the U.S. He taught at universities and later founded the East China Institute of Physical Education (now Shanghai University of Sport), serving as president for twenty-four years. Wu Qingxia (1910–2008), a Xiling Seal Art Society member and leading Shanghai School female painter, helped found the Chinese Women’s Painting and Calligraphy Society. They married in 1955 and collected modern masters’ works together.
Wu Yunrui and Xu Beihong worked together at National Central University from 1927 and moved west to Chongqing during the war. According to Xu’s wife Liao Jingwen, Wu often helped Xu in his later years of illness. In 1938, Xu painted Wounded Lion for Wu; in the 1950s, the Wu couple donated it to the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum. This galloping horse testifies to their friendship.
Wu Yunrui (1892–1976), a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu, was a founder of modern Chinese sports science and China’s first sports master’s graduate in the U.S. He taught at universities and later founded the East China Institute of Physical Education (now Shanghai University of Sport), serving as president for twenty-four years. Wu Qingxia (1910–2008), a Xiling Seal Art Society member and leading Shanghai School female painter, helped found the Chinese Women’s Painting and Calligraphy Society. They married in 1955 and collected modern masters’ works together.
Wu Yunrui and Xu Beihong worked together at National Central University from 1927 and moved west to Chongqing during the war. According to Xu’s wife Liao Jingwen, Wu often helped Xu in his later years of illness. In 1938, Xu painted Wounded Lion for Wu; in the 1950s, the Wu couple donated it to the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum. This galloping horse testifies to their friendship.