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Hi, I was wondering if anyone could identify the artist that painted this please? Many thanks

The horses were painted by the famous artist, Xu BeiHong, and the inscription was done by Politician and renowned calligrapher, You YouRen.

The silk and the style of mounting makes me think this might be a multiple woodblock reproduction by Rong BaoZhai.

The label on the scroll roller would have their seal below the description.

Oh thank you that is really interesting to know.

an anonymous forger, who is trying to pass off this picture as by Xu Beihong, a prominent painter who died in 1953 and is best known for his pictures of horses

My father bought it when he was working in China in the early 1950s. Unfortunately I never discussed the painting with him before he died, and I can’t read the calligraphy, so I’ve no idea if it’s genuine or not.

That's interesting, I would not have guessed this picture is from that time. I am afraid I am more skeptical than Mikeoz about this one. He certainly knows his stuff, but I think that the likelihood is vanishingly small that this is an original by two of China's best known and most widely imitated 20th century artists. Rongbaozhai did make excellent woodblock prints of mid-20th century Chinese artists' work, but as far as I am aware, Xu never painted horses in vertically separated compositions like this; when he depicted more than one horse, they were normally arranged on a consistent ground plane. The horses in your picture are also more filled in than was typical for Xu.

Looking through my father’s records, he was in Chungking 1948-49, and Shanghai 1950-54. I don’t whether forgeries were being made at that time.
Can you translate the calligraphy & seals?

My brother has another framed painting which I have attached

Inscriptions and seals,
1,
八駿圖　　　Picture of Eight Steeds
右任題　　　Inscription by Youren
Seal; 于任　Yu Ren
戊子春仲　　In Spring of the Year of　Earth-Rat (1948)
悲鴻　　　　Beihong
Seal; 徐　　Xu

No.2.
丗六年初寒　In the Beginning of Winter of the 36th Year of Republic (1947)
悲鴻　　　　Beihong
Seal; 悲鴻　Beihong

With regards,
I.Nagy

Thank you so much

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