Morning Toilet 1893 Kuroda Seiki
After a period of two centuries of isolation during the Meiji period many young Japanese were sent out to Europe and the United States to absorb Western culture and knowledge. Most of the young students were sons of samurai families. Back in Japan several of them became famous artists, writers or scholars. Kuroda Seiki is one of these well known pioneers.
In 1884 he was sent to France by his family (when he was 18) to study law. After some time he came to the conclusion that as a painter he could be of more importance for his country than as a lawyer.In Paris he studied panting under the guidance of Raphael Collin, a classical painter and later studied the plein air art of painting in the French countryside. During his stay in Paris he witnessed the turbulent changes that took place in the Paris painting scene. After 10 years he went back to Japan and became the leading advocate of modern Western (plein air) painting. In 1895 Kuroda caused a row when he introduced the nude as a well respected form of art in Japanese painting by showing his painting "Morning Toilet" (see above) on an important national exhibition. Just before he left France he had painted the life size nude standing in front of a mirror and took it with him to Japan. He considered the nude as his masterpiece. Unfortunately the painting was lost during World War II. In 1900 Kuroda received international recognition for his exceptional triptych "wisdom, impression,sentiment" (see right). In his later years he became the well respected grand old man of modern painting in Japan The Kuroda Memorial Hall in Tokyo exhibits many of Kuroda's works.