Xu Beihong Memorial Museum, situated at Shoulu Street, Dongcheng District was the Former Residence of Xu Beihong. The residence was donated by the wife of Xu Beihong to the government after his death in year 1953. One year later, Xu Beihong Memorial Museum was founded on his former residence as commemoration of the well known artist of modern China.
In year 1966, Beijing began to construct subway system and unfortunately, the original site of the museum was situated right within the clearing area for the subway. Thus, the museum was demolished. Anyway, the museum was rebuilt in year 1973 under the instruction of President Zhou, People’s Republic of China. Finally, the new building of Xu Beihong Memorial Museum, located at Xinjiekou North Street, with seven exhibition halls was officially opened to public in year 1983.
The paintings of Xu Beihong, which consists of oil painting, Chinese national paintings, sketching and calligraphy are exhibited within the halls. The Hall 1, 2 and 7 has displayed the most significant representatives of the Chinese national painting of Xu Beihong; while there are 101 pieces of Xu’s sketch are displayed in Hall 2 and Hall 7 as well. Oil painting is exhibited at Hall 3 and 5 on the other hand. The hall 4 is responsible to tell visitors regarding the whole life of Xu Beihong through pieces of precious painting as well.
Currently, the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum has collected a total of 1286 pieces of genuine copy of Xu Beihong which consists of Chinese national paining, oil paintings, water-colored painting, powder painting and calligraphy. Besides that, there are also 1134 pieces of art works of ancient well known artist of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties as well as modern artists which collected by Xu Beihong. Xu Beihong Memorial Museum is in fact a treasure house especially for those who love arts and paintings.