A great artist

There are many famous artists in China, but only three are very familiar to the common people. They are Xu Beihong, Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian. Here I want to introduce Xu Beihong to you who I admire so much.
He was born in July 19th, 1895, in Jiangsu province. That year, China lost the war to Japan and the Chinese were suffering great disaster. That time his family was living a poor life. His father named him Shoukang and started to teach him when he was only six years old. His father had a great expect on him and he stared to learn painting from his father when he was nine years old. However he didn’t want to follow his father’s load to be a painter in the country, what he wanted to be was a great artist. So after he had saved some money, he went to Shanghai for further development. But life in Shanghai was not very plain sailing, several months later he run out of his money without any achievement, so he had to return to his hometown. That time, he was already very famous for his painting in his hometown so he was employed to be a painting teacher in a middle school.
The year when he was 17 years old he married a girl as his parents’ hope. But he was very unsatisfied with his marriage so he changed his name to Beihong which meant great sorrow. His father died when he was 19, so he had to work very hard to support his family. He went to Shanghai again for his dream, there he met some good friends who gave a lot support for his study and life. He went to Japan to study painting when he was 22, after that he was employed to be a tutor in Pecking University by its principle Cai Yuanpei.
With a great effort, he finally got the chance to go to France to study painting with his second wife Jiang Biwei when he was 24. During his years abroad, he met many famous artists and studied from them which had a great influence on his painting. When he returned to China in 1925, he was already very famous home and abroad. Later, he traveled in Europe and produced a lot of great artistic creations. He conducted many art exhibitions in Europe in his late thirties. He also put forward the “seven laws” in charcoal drawing. He was invited to conduct art exhibitions in India by the famous poet Tagore and became good friend with him.
During the War of Resistance against Japan, he created the famous painting Yugongyishan in order to inspirit the Chinese to hold on fighting for their freedom and their country. He also contributed all his money made by selling his paintings to support his country.
In his late forties, he suffered a serious disease, but he still kept on drawing and teaching. He divorced when he was 50 and a year later he married Liao Jingwen. He made some political achievements in his fifties and published some books on painting. His physical condition got worse but he still kept working. Then in 1953, he died from cerebral hemorrhage when he was 58 years old.
The reason why I admire him so much is not only he created a lot of great paintings but also his faith in achieving his goals and his patriotism. Just like a running horse which appeared many times in his paintings, he was always working hard to achieve his dream during his life. I think I should learn from his steadfast belief whatever I come across in my way pursuing my dream and never give up in my life.