![]() A woman sits enjoying the cool against a background of a lake, Ashinoko in Hakone, and mountains on the far shore. Although this painting is nowadays widely known under the title Lakeside, it was originally submitted to The 2nd Hakubakai Exhibition in 1897 entitled Summering. Together with Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment, it was also exhibited at the International Exposition held in Paris in 1900. |
Mrs. Teruko Kuroda ![]() ![]() Kuroda spent the summer of 1897 in Hakone with his wife, Teruko. It was during this stay that this painting was executed. His wife recalls the occasion as follows: "It was when I was 23 years old. I went to watch my husband at work on the lakeside. He told me to sit down on the rock over there, so I did and then he said, 'Good, from tomorrow I shall study that.' There were rainy and foggy days so that it took about a month in all." The sombre landscape of the Japanese highlands in the summer and the humid atmosphere are exquisitely captured with a pale colour tone and smooth brushstrokes in a snapshot-like composition. Lakeside |
Comments Made by Kuroda "Nowadays, there are quite a few different kinds of pictures in Japan. It seems awkward to refer to them collectively as nihonga [Japanese painting]. The reason is that the traditional so-called Japanese painting differs in taste from paintings such as the relatively new oil painting. However, although the way of painting may be different, the fact that oil painting can be done in Japan, i.e. the fact that it can be created by the Japanese mind, proves that it has finally been Japanized and become a slightly different Japanese-style oil painting." ('Kaiga no Shorai [The Future of Painting]', in Meika Homonroku [A Record of Visits to Celebrities], ed. by Shokei Ishikawa, 1902, vol.I.) ![]() ('Bijutsu Sawa [Chatting on Art]', Shumi, January 1912.) ![]() ('Watakushi wa Kou Omou [This is What I Think]', Mizue, November 1916.) |
![]() stamp (1967) |