Villa in Enoura

Born in Kyoto in 1888, at his 15-year-old, Ryuzaburo Umehara started to study painting with renowned Western painting artist of Meiji Time, Asai Chū, then in 1908 pursued study abroad in France and later was taken in by great master in impressionist painting, Pierre-Auguste Renoir as student. After his return to Japan, Umehara promoted the domestication (Japanization) of western painting with his works blending impressionist light and shadow, fauvist colours and traditional Japanese art. Villa in Enoura (Lot 407) presents intense colour contrast with bright colours such as cardinal red, canary yellow and emerald green. The short stonewalling and exuberant branches and leaves depicted by vigorous and thick lines reveals the early sign for his emphasis on the weight of round
brushstrokes and halo in the afterwards works. While the appearance of home and figures are expressed in simple brushstrokes, presenting a quality of unadorned beauty and interest, which demonstrates artist’s deviation from pure objective painting and an introduction of subjective understanding and emotion.