Galloping Horse (Battle of Changsha)

Inscription: You may be burning with anxiety or anxiously awaiting the result of the second Battle of Changsha on the tenth day of the eighth month of the Xinyi year (1941). Beihong was staying in Penang.
Seal: “Ordinary man from Jiangnan” (Square seal with relief characters)

This version of Galloping Horse was painted during the second Battle of Changsha in autumn 1941. At that time, the war between China and Japan had reached a stalemate, and Japan wanted to thoroughly defeat China before expanding the war to the rest of the Pacific. To make the Republican government surrender, they waged battle in Changsha several times, in an attempt to capture Chongqing, a vital strategic transportation point between north and south. In the second battle, China suffered a defeat, and Changsha was occupied by the Japanese. Xu Beihong was in Penang, Malaysia, holding exhibitions to raise money when he heard the news. He was very anxious about the battle. He stayed up through the night painting Galloping Horse to vent his anxiety.