MITSUTANI, Kunishiro (1874-1936)
Nude
c.1900
Oil on canvas
80.3×65.2cm

There is a French artist who was active at the end on the nineteenth century named Jean-Paul Laurens. He was an instructor at a private art school, Académie Julian and because this school accepted many students from abroad, many painters from abroad had received his directions. Among them were Fusetsu Nakamura, Takeshiro Kanokogi, and Kunishiro Mitsutani.

After their return to Japan, these three pupils of Laurens went their own way. Fusetsu inherited the intent of the history painter Laurens, Kanokogi mastered the academic line depiction, and Mitsutani applied the light and shade method to his works with which Laurens skillfully differentiated light and shadow.

The light shining on the waist, the shadow cast by the back and the line of the muscles, the light from the right shoulder to the breast and the shadow under the armpit, light on the face and the shadow covering the hair, treatment of the background to emphasize the shining part; all of these determine the form (form and the movement of the body) of the entire image.

This type of work made at art schools tend to have over-cautious brush work and portraying too much. But in the daring brush work and the treatment of the light and shade method, we can already see the individual character of Mitsutani.

(Toru Arayashiki)