Xu liked the Western classical paintings of the Renaissance Period very much and diligently copied them day and night. After he came back to Beiping (present-day Beijing) in 1927, he served as president of the Beiping Art Institute, dean of the Art Department of Nanjing Central University and later as principal of the Beiping Vocational Art School. After the liberation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xu worked as president of the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of the Chinese Artists' Association.

Learning from Western paintings, Xu also incorporated his knowledge of human anatomy and modeling in his figure paintings. During his eight years in Europe, he studied the classic, romantic and impressionist painting styles and tried to understand their different ideas. After he came back to China, he blended them with traditional Chinese painting. He considered Chinese and Western painting different branches of art with respective advantages and he thought they should be combined, absorbing the essence and rejecting the dross.

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