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湖水と女 (Lake and Woman) by 村山槐多 / Kaita Murayama (Japanese) - Oil on canvas / 1917 - Pola Museum of Art (Hakone, Japan) #WomenInArt #JapaneseArt #OilPainting #Art #KaitaMurayama #村山槐多 #村山 #MurayamaKaita #ポーラ美術館 #PolaMuseumofArt #womensart #portraitofawoman #artwork #JapaneseArtist #ModernArt #洋画
"Lake and Woman" (湖水と女) by Japanese artist Kaita Murayama (村山槐多) is hailed by some as Japan’s "Mona Lisa." It was completed just a couple years before the Yokohama-born, Kyoto-raised artist passed away of pneumonia at age 22 in 1919. Murayama’s painting skills were lauded during his short life, as he joined Japan’s Art Institute (日本美術院) at 14 in Tokyo and earned multiple awards and exhibitions. His posthumously-published poetry and writings have also earned significant recognition as he identified as gay and resisted the doctrine that homosexuality was a "developmental phase" during an era when few Japanese openly wrote about homosexuality. In 1916, Murayama moved to a boarding house in Nezu, and began to feel love for a model "Otama-san" (お玉さん) and the boarding house "auntie" (おばさん). It was initially thought that the model for "Lake and Woman" was this "auntie," but in recent years the theory has been that the model was Misao Sasa, the wife of Kaita's patron, Hidematsu Sasa. Misao, a distant relative of Maruyama, was a tall, slender beauty around 31 years old when "Lake and Woman" was painted. Her husband, Hidematsu, known for his large build and carefree nature, is said to be the model for Maruyama's 1916 のらくら者, translated as "The Slacker" or "The Lazy Man." In "Lake and Woman," Maruyama depicts a Japanese woman sitting by a lake surrounded by mountains in the background. Her hair is tied up in a fashionable updo that frames her beautiful facial features. Her dark eyes and tightly closed mouth suggest a strong will, and exude a sense of unapproachable sublimity. She is wearing a light green kimono with a navy blue haori coat. The background exudes a sense of nostalgia yet loneliness, and the painting composition are reminiscent of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but in a modern post-impressionism fusion of European and Japanese artistic styles. The painting received an Encouragement Award (奨励賞) at the 3rd Japan Art Academy Prototype Exhibition (第3回日本美術院試作展).
June 9, 2025 at 11:38 PM