Today is the birthday of painter Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿), born this date in Yixing, Jiangsu in 1895. Xu studied painting in Shanghai until at the age of 22 he was hired by Cai Yuanpei to teach at Peking University. After a two-year stint at the university, Xu traveled to France where he studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and later wandered around Europe, drawing and painting. He returned to China in 1927 teaching at several universities and academies and then organizing one of the first major overseas shows for contemporary Chinese painters which traveled to France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union. During World War II, Xu organized another show in Singapore; the proceeds the show going to aid those suffering as a result of the Japanese invasion. After the founding of the PRC, Xu was named as the first president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Xu’s paintings were immensely popular abroad, especially among the Nanyang Chinese community in Southeast Asia.
He died of a stroke in 1953 at his home in Beijing.
Also on this date in 1864, Zeng Guoquan (曾国荃), the brother of late-Qing überofficial Zeng Guofan (曾国藩), ordered his engineers to blow