[Audio Guide]
Painted in a palette of dark browns, at first our eyes are drawn to the model’s white collar and cuffs. The large collar signifies youth, and the way she meets our gaze also gives the impression of a young woman. From 1922, Maeta Kanji spent about two and a half years studying in Paris, where he was able to view Western artworks from all periods firsthand during his visits to numerous museums and exhibitions. After his return to Japan, his pursuit of a realism that prioritized a sense of texture, volume, and reality resulted in the creation of works with a great sense of poetic individuality. Ordinary people were an important subject for Maeta, and he periodically painted half-length portraits of figures seated in chairs. For the present painting he used one of his students as a model, and the young woman’s features are those of his wife, Aiko.
