Stroking the Cat

Xu Beihong, also known as Ju Péon, was a Chinese painter, primarily known for his Chinese ink paintings. He was one of the first Chinese artists to articulate the need for artistic expressions that reflected a modern China at the beginning of the 20th century. He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes—a show of his high proficiency in an essential Western art technique. He was one of the four pioneers of Chinese modern art who earned the title of "The Four Great Academy Presidents."

Today we present something less monumental painted by him. Stroking the Cat was created in 1924, in the last of Xu's four years of study at the famous École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In the year he graduated, he was in an extremely creative state of mind. In this painting, Xu presented himself and his wife Jiang Biwei (also an artist). They were both very fond of cats. Xu had cats throughout his life and featured them in a number of paintings that he produced.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

P.S. We all love cats! Here you can see an overload of cats by famous artists!