《芭蕉黑猫》徐悲鸿 108x54.9cm 中国画 中国美术馆藏

徐悲鸿的动物画善于捕捉动物最为传神的瞬间，除了马，他的猫也很有代表性。据徐悲鸿之子徐庆平回忆，为了观察猫的娇敏，将猫画得传神，徐悲鸿家里甚至同时养过8只猫。“虽然父亲每天下班后特别累，但他还是坚持坐在躺椅上，一边拿着乒乓球跟猫耍着玩，一边观察猫的神态和动作。”其猫画或托物寄兴，或用以酬答友人。1937年，徐悲鸿创作了《芭蕉黑猫》，画芭蕉之下，一黑猫趴在石头上，回首凝望。笔墨几乎全以没骨法画成，虽然处处运用的均是黑墨，但是结构之处的交待没有丝毫含糊，可见其笔墨驾驭之功力，十分洗练，神情毕现。

XU Beihong is good at capturing the most vivid moment of animal. In addition to horses, his painting of cat is also most representative. According to his son XU Qingping’s recall, his family even raised eight cats at the same time for the sake of his father to observe. "Although my father was particularly tired after getting off work every day, he still stuck to the couch while watching the cat's demeanor and movements while holding a ping-pong ball and playing with it."His cat paintings are either to convey his feelings, or reward friends. XU Beihong crated theBlack Cat under the Plantainin 1937, a black cat lying on the stone under the plantain, staring back. Nearly all the ink was used for bone-free water ink portrait,black ink was used everywhere, however the explanation of the structure was not slightest vague, showing his capacity of ink and brush control, and the small creature looked alive.