Study for The Foolish Old Man. 1940

Here we have Xu Beihong's 'Study for The Foolish Old Man', and it looks like it was probably made with oil paint on canvas, though I can't be sure. The composition is classically figurative but the palette feels very modern, or at least not traditionally academic. I can really get into the way the figures seem to be painted with such quick marks. There is a lot of texture, surface and the physicality of the medium on display here. The paint isn't too thick, but certainly not thin, and it's a little opaque. It's pretty easy to tell what kind of brushes were used in its making, I love that the process is so visible here! The way the colour in the figures blends and softens but is still distinct, like looking at a Rubenesque nude through frosted glass, really draws me in. I can almost see Picasso riffing off this, somehow. It's so amazing how art works across time!