Xú Bēihóng Memorial Hall 徐悲鸿纪念馆

新街口北大街5号
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of North, Around the Back Lakes

This museum was demolished in 2013 and reopened in a new hall nearby in 2019.

Xú Bēihóng (1885–1953) studied in Paris and travelled in Europe and Japan, put Chinese ink-and-brush technique into his Western oils, and brought Western techniques to introduce a new liveliness to the rigid forms of Chinese painting. The official line is that he ‘absorbed Western techniques into his Chinese painting’ and that he thus espoused Máo’s policy of ‘making ancient things service the present and making foreign things serve China’. However little interest you have in art, you will still almost certainly find his paintings of horses familiar, not only because copies can be found on sale at many souvenir shops in China, but also because of their popularity in the West, particularly in the 1950s.

It is tempting to say as you view the rest of the work that he wouldn’t have won so many prizes if he hadn’t been a good communist. But the oils are worth seeing for their distinctly Parisian influences, with hints of Degas and Corot, and a Cézanne-like style applied to Chinese landscapes, some labelled to elucidate a communist moral. Portraits of Máo Zédōng include one that makes him look startlingly jolly.

There’s a hagiographic account of Xú’s career and items preserved from his study.

▶ Xú Bēihóng Jìniànguǎn, Xīn Jiē Kǒu Běi Dàjiē 5, t 6221 9899, xbhjng.com; Tue–Sun, 10am–2pm, free; m Jī Shuǐ Tán (Line 2) exit D and m Xīn Jiē Kǒu (Line 4) exit B, b to 积水潭桥南站: 22, 47, 88, 409, 508, 特13; to 新街口豁口站: 27, 44, 331, 347, 498, 618, 620, 特12, 运通104; to 新街口西站: 105, 111.

Next in North, Around the Back Lakes: In the Depths of Many Flowers (walk)
Previously: Déshèng Mén Arrow Tower
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.

For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.