Xu Beihong (1895-1953), noted painter and educator in the fine arts, played an important role in the development of Chinese art in the 20th century. Today, his work is still highly venerated, and in October this year his 1936 painting The Eagle and Pine fetched HK $21.275 million, about US $2.75 million, at an auction held by China Guardian in Hong Kong.

Xu painted The Eagle and Pine when he was 41 years old for He Jian, then chairman of Hunan province. The painting is a superb example of Mogu, a "boneless"style popular for landscapes and pictures of birds and flowers, in which the artist applies colors directly to the paper without outlines. It shows an eagle, midair with its wings spread, above a twisting pine branch. Xu uses various techniques which are sometimes precise and realistic and at others more impressionistic, that bring the spirit and movement of the bird to life. Its plumage is leaf-like, each brushstroke a suggestion, whereas its piercing eye, glaring side on at the onlooker, has a darker, more detailed quality that draws the attention. The image of the eagle, here representing soaring aspirations, is one that Chinese painters have an abiding fondness for. Few, however, can capture its essence as Xu did in this painting.

Xu studied Chinese poems, essays, calligraphy and painting with his father from a young age. By the time he was 17 he was accomplished enough to become an art teacher in Jiangsu province's Yixing city. In 1916, Xu entered Fudan University in Shanghai to study French, supporting himself with part-time jobs, and independently, studying drawing in his spare time. The following year he went to Japan to study art and in 1919 traveled to the École Nationale Sup��rieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied oil painting and drawing. He spent the best part of a decade in Western Europe, observing and appreciating Western art.

He returned to China in 1927 and subsequently gained a number of important posts, including dean of the Fine Arts Department of the Nanguo Art Academy in Shanghai, professor at the Fine Arts Department of the Central University, and president of the National Art School of Beiping. From 1933 Xu successively organized exhibitions of Chinese art and his own works in France, Belgium, Italy, the U.K., Germany and the Soviet Union, and in 1950 he became president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The Xu Beihong Arts Award established in 2003, fifty years after his death, is considered the highest award in the field of Chinese calligraphy and painting.

For Xu, painting was a process of continual study. He believed in the importance of good technique, which could always be improved, and learning from past masters. He also saw the value of drawing from Western techniques, excelling both in oil painting and traditional Chinese ink painting, as well as in drawing. His paintings show diverse artistic styles and combine techniques from both traditions.

Xu created paintings covering a wide range of forms, including landscapes, portraits, and images from history and legends. The flowers, birds, landscape and animals produced under his brush are valued for being life-like and vivid. He is widely recognized for his paintings of horses, which demonstrate his unique style that fused Chinese and Western painting techniques.

In recent years Xu's works have fetched higher and higher prices under the hammer. At the end of last year, his painting titled Jiu Zhou Wu Shi Le Geng Yun (The Ploughing Season of China ), which portrays farmers tilling their land with an ox, was sold for RMB 266.8 million, or about US $40.02 million, smashing previous records for his paintings at auction. Many of his paintings fetched over RMB 10 million. Those that have fetched over RMB 100 million include Ba People Fetching Water , Chun Shan Shi Jun Tu , which portrays 10 horses, and Jiufanggao, (The Connoisseur of Horses ).

After Xu died in 1953, his family donated his 1,200 works and collection of 1,000-odd paintings and pieces of calligraphy from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and the modern period, and around 10,000 books and rubbings from tablets and artworks to the country. The following year, his former residence on Xinjiekou North Street in Beijing was opened as the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall to house his works. Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China, personally wrote the four-character inscription meaning Former Residence of Beihong that appears on the memorial hall gate.