Lot 81: KURODA SEIKI (1866-1924)

KURODA SEIKI (1866-1924)
Kogetsu [Moonlight Reflecting on Water]
Signed S.K. and dated 1897
Oil on wood board, the reverse inscribed Kuroda Seiki-shi utsusu [painted by Seiki Kuroda]
32.5 x 24.1cm.

Hakuba-kai Exhibition, Tokyo, 1897

The painting is listed as no.82 in the catalogue of the 2nd exhibition of the Hakuba-kai, 1897. This catalgoue is reprinted in The Bijutsu Kenkyu [Journal of Art Studies], no.354 (Tokyo, 1992), p.93-118

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Kuroda Seiki has been called the "Grand Old Man" of Western painting in Japan. He was both a talented artist and blessed with social status and wealth - his family were influential members of the Satsuma clan. He went to Paris in 1884 to study law, but was captivated by the Paris art world and abandoned law for painting. Kuroda trained under academician Raphael Collin (1850-1916), then moved to Grez-sur-Loing in the suburbs in order to paint directly from nature. He spent two years there in the company of fellow artist Kume Keiichiro (1866-1934) doing some of his best work. When he returned to Tokyo in 1893 after nine years in France he became the centre of the Japanese art world. Unhappy with the bureaucracy of the Meiji Bijutsukai, he joined with other young painters and founded an association of Western-style painters. This they named the Hakubakai, [White Horse Society] after their favourite brand of unrefined sake, Shirouma, which can also be read hakuba or "white horse". This, combined with his job as an instructor at the newly formed Western Painting Section of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Kuroda introduced a younger generation of Japanese artists to his impressionist-influenced plein-air style.

With certificate of authenticity issued by the Tokyo Bijutsu Club, dated 25th August 2008, no.008-1255