Xu Beihong is the founder of modern Chinese art, an outstanding painter and art educator, especially famous for painting horses.

The galloping horses in his pen are either running or jumping, or neighing or whispering, in a variety of postures, outstanding, and vigorous, and heroic.

The first painting Xiao Yao took out was Xu Beihong's masterpiece "Eight Horses".

This brush is hearty, majestic, and expressive, and should be Xu Beihong's middle-aged masterpiece.

This work, with a strong and powerful brush, uses Chinese ink painting as the main means of expression in terms of technique, and also refers to Western perspective and anatomy, etc., to vividly depict the sassy and heroic posture of the horse.

Looking at the smudging, all of them are applied according to the shape and structure of the horse, and the ink color is rich and light, which not only expresses the shape of the horse, but also does not affect the charm of the ink color.

Xu Beihong's horse is the product of the fusion of East and West, and this fusion is extremely successful.

This work shows extremely high artistic skills and Guangbo's artistic accomplishment, which is a model of ancient for modern use and foreign use for China. The horses in the painting, with their unique shapes and magnificent momentum, create a new and unique style, give people vitality and strength, and show an uplifting and positive spirit.

"Eight Horses" can become Xu Beihong's masterpiece and is well-known all over the world, which is indeed admirable in terms of artistic height.

There are two main reasons why it is so highly regarded:

First of all, his paintings of horses clearly and intensively express the author's thoughts and feelings and the spirit of the times, and this feeling and spirit are closely related to the thoughts and aspirations of the general public, and are more easily understood and welcomed by the masses.

The horses he painted are all unruly horses without saddles and reins, or galloping in the wilderness full of autumn grass, or standing and looking forward to the spring breeze and willow banks, or thirsty for drinking in the long river, or staying in the grass. This is very different from the horses of the royal horse farm written by ancient painters in China or the famous horses contributed by foreign countries led by the Yuanren.

His horses are a symbol of the desire for freedom and the desire to gallop forward, mainly showing the heroic momentum and tireless spirit of the horse, and sometimes also reflecting the mood of melancholy and anxiety, which is the mental state of the horse in his paintings, and it is also the expression of the artist's own mood and personality, which is more in line with the characteristics of the era in which he lived.

Secondly, his artistic achievements in painting horses are closely related to his creative path, which is very noteworthy.

The era when he studied, grew, developed, and matured in art was an era of intense turbulence and transformation from before and after the May Fourth Movement to the founding of New China.

In terms of painting, there is a contradiction between a long national tradition and a strong influence of Western painting, a contradiction between the content of new ideas and the old form, and a contradiction between various tendencies such as innovation, conservatism, eclecticism, blind adaptation or simple combination.

Although Xu Beihong is well-versed in Chinese and Western culture, the leading ideas of his creation have always insisted on reflecting real life, expressing the spirit of the times, insisting on innovation and creation, opposing blind obedience and conservatism, and insisting on carrying forward the excellent traditions that the public likes to see, and at the same time absorbing foreign beneficial factors to develop and enrich the expressive ability of traditional art.

In his practice of painting horses, he creatively embodies these spirits and principles, not only giving full play to the brush and ink skills of "depicting gods in form" and Chinese ink freehand painting, which are full of vivid rhythmic changes, but also combining boldness and subtlety, showing the author's strong personal style. Therefore, his achievements in painting horses also clearly reflect his creative path worthy of attention.

Xu Beihong has a lot of paintings with horses as the theme, and this painting is definitely a masterpiece of the same kind, plus this is a large-scale work, about one meter wide and three meters long, Xiao Yao estimates that the value of this painting should be about 120 million.

Next, he got the "Zodiac Book" in his hand. This set of albums is not only a unique product in Xu Beihong's life, but also one of the more rare works even in the history of painting.

Xu Beihong is a master of modern animal painting, this set of albums is based on the theme of the zodiac, and "Zodiac Picture" is the only painting in his life, and it is also the only book at home and abroad.

The animals in the album are accurate, cleverly composed, and elegantly colored.

In order to highlight the different personality traits of the animals, the creative techniques changed accordingly.

In the past, the chic, mighty, and heroic temperament and charm of the animals in Xu Beihong's pen were transformed into well-behaved, elegant, and docile.

For example, the depiction of a thin and agile mouse with no bones and then a slight hook of whiskers, the honest and diligent cow combines lines and blocks to highlight the body structure, the fierceness of the tiger is weakened and replaced by meekness, the rabbit is cute, the dragon rides the clouds and spits water from the mouth, borrowing from the traditional composition to express light and shadow with different levels of ink, the spirit snake is entangled with the branches of the tree, showing a tranquil appearance, the horse is drawn to highlight the momentum and strong posture, the warm goat is standing quietly in front, the monkey climbing on the tree is outlined with burnt ink to highlight the texture of the body hair, the rooster is strong and stands proudly from the side, and the loyal dog and the fat pig are also outlined with ink bones to reflect the body structure。

Xu Beihong's solid sketching foundation and realistic skills are vividly displayed in this set of albums.

Considering the artistic value of this painting and the uniqueness of the subject matter, Xiao Yao estimates that the value of this painting should be at least about 100 million.

The next three works are relatively ordinary, and the highest price is not more than 20 million.

After seeing the last three oil paintings, Xiao Yao was surprised and delighted.

Each of these three oil paintings is a masterpiece, but Xiao Yao has not seen any relevant records.

The three oil paintings are Self-Portrait, Little Soldier, and Blood and Fire.

The artistic achievements of these three works are very high, even surpassing "The Portrait of Miss Jenny" and "Put Down Your Whip".

In particular, "Blood and Fire" is not at all worse than Mr. Xu's oil paintings "Jiufang Gao" and "Yugong Moves Mountains", and even surpasses it.

This is a rare work depicting the theme of the Anti-Japanese War, the particularity of its subject matter, coupled with the superb artistic appeal, once this painting is revealed, it will surely become Mr. Xu's most influential work!

In addition, this is a large-scale oil painting, its value is immeasurable, and once it is put up for auction, it will definitely shock the art world and set a record for the highest auction of Mr. Xu's work. If you have to estimate the price, Xiao Yao thinks that it should be at least 300 million yuan, and even if it is auctioned for 500 million yuan, it is normal.

Even "Little Soldier" and "Self-Portrait", once they are auctioned, they will definitely be able to fetch a price of more than 100 million.

These three of Mr. Xu's oil paintings were definitely a surprise, and Xiao Yao felt that this was probably one of Mr. Xu's 40 lost oil paintings.

Mr. Xu created more than 100 oil paintings during his lifetime, 40 of which were lost in Xinjiapo due to the war, and most of them have not been heard from since.