In July 1893, KURODA Seiki, a 27 year old artist of Western-style painting, returned to Japan after having studied for nine years in France. Although he had originally gone to France in order to become a jurist, he became interested in painting. Recognizing the significance of culture and his own talent, he changed his mind and decided to become an artist. He studied under Raphael Collin, a Salon artist of pleinairism who taught Kuroda academic painting. In 1891, Reading was accepted at the Salon.
Kuroda's return to Japan was to bring about considerable changes in the Japanese art world. Until then, works in the style of the Barbizon School, which were advocated by the Italian artist Fontanesi at the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko founded in 1876, were the mainstream. Kuroda then introduced pleinairism, a style of bright colour tone which emphasized the subtle changes of light and atmosphere. The Japanese were fascinated by this new style and referred to it as the "new" style or the "purple" style. Based on the tradition of Western art, Kuroda also emphasized drawing the human body and professed that nude sketching should form the basis of painting. In those days, it was considered morally inappropriate to openly exhibit nude paintings. However, once Kuroda was put in charge of the Western Painting Department newly established at the Tokyo Art School in 1896, anatomy and the sketching of a live nude model were included in the curriculum.
The reason Kuroda placed emphasis on the study of the human body was that, in his mind, "compositions" ranked highest among all types of paintings. In Western painting, the pose and other factors would symbolize a particular meaning or concept. Paintings depicting myths, history, or themes such as love or courage, in which figures painted in such a manner were combined, were considered highest in status. Following such values, soon after his return to Japan, Kuroda experimented with compositions based on Japanese themes and motifs in such works as Talk on Ancient Romance and Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment. In 1898, he became professor of the Western Painting Course at the Tokyo Art School. He then worked hard for Bunten, an annual exhibition organized by the Ministry of Education, which was established in 1907. He also led a busy social life becoming member of the Imperial Art Board in 1910, chairman of Kokumin Bijutsu Kyokai [The National Art Association] in 1913, and member of the House of Peers in 1920. The latter part of his life was dedicated mostly to activities as an art educationist and an executive official of the arts.
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