A new museum dedicated to Chinese art pioneer Xu Beihong opens in Chongqing.

Xu Beihong (1895-1953) ranks among the leaders of Chinese art's modernization in the 20th century. He spent his time in many places, but the mountainous city of Chongqing, where he lived from 1937 to'46, held a special place in his heart.

There he witnessed the plight of ordinary people during World War II. He was motivated to create paintings to encourage the public to have faith in the final triumph of the war. He held painting classes and often met other cultural figures and discussed a future national fine arts academy.

Chongqing was also his home base when he undertook a three-year journey throughout the country and then Southeast Asia and India, during which he painted, exhibited and raised funds for Chinese back home for their resistance against invaders.

Xu's wife, Liao Jingwen (1923-2015), once said that in his later years, the master artist often recalled his time in Chongqing.

"Paintings he created there feature places in Chongqing, such as Hualongqiao and Panxi. He developed a strong attachment to the city while he was there," she said.

An Unwavering Strength to Overcome All Obstacles, an ongoing exhibition in Chongqing through Sept 13, pays tribute to Xu's time in the metropolis along the Yangtze River by showing 23 of his paintings.

The exhibition's opening was part of the inauguration of the Peon Art Museum Chongqing on June 19. Peon is Xu's French name. He attended Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1920s.

The new museum comprises two mansions in which Xu had lived between 1942 and 1946, inside the Shi Family's Residence. It's a place of gardens and mansions blending Chinese and Western architectural styles built in 1931 by Shi Rongting, a wealthy businessman in Chongqing.

After returning to the city from his journey abroad, Xu was invited by Shi, an art lover himself, to move into his family estate. For the next four years, the two mansions became Xu's home and studio.

A renovation project completed last year gave Xu's former home a face-lift to turn it into an art museum in his name.

It's estimated that Xu created more than 300 artworks while he was in Chongqing. He held a solo exhibition in the city in 1943, showing oil paintings, Chinese paintings and sketches that attracted thousands of visitors in three days.

Xu is known for depicting figures in history and fables to hail heroism. He often painted galloping horses, flying eagles and roaring lions to symbolize perseverance, sparking patriotic feelings among fellow Chinese to not give in to invaders. Xu also presented the hardships of ordinary people in a realistic way.

At the center of the current exhibition is Baren Jishui (People in Chongqing Drawing Water), a 3-meter-long ink painting produced in Chongqing in 1938. It shows residents of the city climbing flights of stairs to fetch water from the river, with many having to repeat the routine several times a day.

While expressing his compassion for the ordinary people in the painting, Xu brightened the tone by adding clusters of lush bamboo and plum blossoms to indicate people's persistence.

When the painting appeared at an exhibition in Hong Kong in 1938, it moved many in the audience, including an Indian diplomat, who wished to buy it. Since the painting was inscribed with "a gift to my beloved wife", Xu is said to have painted another one for the diplomat.

Xu Ji, Xu Beihong's grandson and the Chongqing exhibition's curator, says the two pieces look much the same except for one difference: Xu Beihong changed the face of the young man in the center of the original work into his own face. The second painting sold to the diplomat fetched 171 million yuan ($24 million) at a Beijing auction in 2010.

The original Baren Jishui was also on show at Nation and Era, an exhibition held at the National Art Museum of China in 2018, showing how Xu Beihong encouraged people to strive for independence and righteousness through his works.

Wu Weishan, director of the National Art Museum of China, then said the work revealed the humane side of Xu Beihong, who came from a humble background, growing up in rural Jiangsu province in East China. Wu quoted the artist as often saying, "People may have no pride, but cannot live without integrity."

Huang Zuolin, head of Chongqing Normal University's fine arts college, attended the Chongqing museum's opening. Huang says the national spirit can not only be understood in art depicting historic events and notable figures, but it is also well presented in works like Baren Jishui that "show common scenes of daily life to reflect the suffering of people at the grassroots in difficult times, as well as their unyielding courage".

The museum has re-created Xu Beihong's studio and study. And it has opened to the public a basement of some 130 square meters in one of the mansions.

Built with bricks, the basement was where he stored books and took shelter from bombings during wartime. The basement also kept Xu Beihong cool during Chongqing's infamous summer, allowing him to paint and sometimes hold lectures for young artists and meet friends.

He often received noted artists, including Zhang Daqian and Wu Zuoren, there to talk about a future national fine arts academy. Xu Beihong headed the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing from 1946 until his death.

He sought to reform classical Chinese painting by infusing oil-painting approaches and influenced many young artists.

The current exhibition also has dozens of paintings by four other artists－Li Keran, Li Hu, Zong Qixiang and Zhang Anzhi, all of whom were inspired by Xu Beihong to establish their own styles.

Xu Qingping, the son of Xu Beihong, says the new museum is dedicated not just to the memory of his father but also other artists who thought about the well-being of ordinary people and strove for the country's future.

"It stands as a monument to their devotion and tenacity," he says.