Male Nude in Plaster

This work depicts a plaster figure. At the time, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts had two exams, one based on drawing the human form from a plaster mold and one based on sketching from a live model. This work was Xu Beihong’s exam sketch of a plaster figure. There was a “6” next to it, which indicates that it was sixth in the class. Many people took the exam at the time, about 300 or 400, so sixth was actually a very good score.