Chinese fan painting of two cats by the artist Xu Beihong. The cats, one with eyes wide, the other asleep, crouch on a rock under a leafy branch. Xu Beihong (1895-1953) was born in rural Yixing, Jiangsu Province. His father was a private school teacher and Xu began painting at the age of 9. He traveled to Tokyo to study art, returning to China to start teaching at Peking University Arts School. Throughout his lifetime he traveled extensively, studied, taught and exhibited throughout Europe as well as Asia. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xu became the president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of the China Artists Association. Most famous for his paintings of horses and other animals, Xu fused European realism with Chinese traditional painting. He believed that art should be understood by the people.

Dimensions: Size of art: 21 1/2" long x 10" high