Xu Beihong (1895 - 1953)
'Horse', ink on paper, singed by the artist with seal, 40.5 x 30.5cm,...

Xu Beihong (1895 - 1953)

'Horse', ink on paper, singed by the artist with seal, 40.5 x 30.5cm, framed and glazed.

徐悲鴻 馬，水墨紙本，玻璃畫框

Provenance: Audrey Grace Tidmarsh and thence by descent to the present owner.

Audrey Grace Tidmarsh worked for Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War Two. Audrey accompanied Edward Wharton-Tigar, an SOE agent/operative, when he was transferred to China to set up and run a new SOE operation. For the rest of the war, Audrey was based in Kunming, Yunnan, where it is likely she acquired the present painting. After the war ended, Audrey was based in Calcutta, where she worked for the Foreign Office un till 1947. 

Audrey’s husband, Lance Desborough Walford had been in the army in Singapore when it was captured by the Japanese. Audrey and Lance lived in Singapore from 1948 until 1955 before returning to Suffolk, England. 

During World War II, Xu travelled to Southeast Asia, holding exhibitions in Singapore and India. All the proceeds from these exhibitions went to Chinese people who were suffering as a result of the war. Between 1939 and 1941, he held solo exhibitions in Singapore, India and Malaya (Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh) to help raise funds for the war relief effort in China. After he returned to China in 1942, Xu stayed in Yunnan to raise further funds for the war effort by completing a large number of paintings of horses. Xu's passionate images of horses, a traditional symbol of Chinese martial spirit, were intended to inspire patriotic resistance during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).