Saburosuke Okada "Beside a marsh"

Born in Saga, Saburosuke Okada started as a painter when he joined the school of Yukihiko Soyama in 1887. In 1891, Okada became a member of the Meiji Art Association. In the following year, he joined the Taikokan, and studied under Masaaki Horie. Through Keiichiro Kume, Okada became acquainted with Seiki Kuroda, and joined the Tenshin Dojo. In 1896, when the Western Painting Department was established at Tokyo Art School, Okada was appointed an assistant professor.

Around the same time, he became a founding member of the White Horse Society. In the following year, Okada traveled to France as the first Japanese to study abroad under government sponsorship. Like Seiki Kuroda, Okada studied under Rafael Collin. Upon his return in 1902, he became a professor at Tokyo Art School. In 1912, he joined with Takeji Fujishima to found the Hongo Institute of Painting, where he trained a large number of painters. In 1937, he received the first Order of Culture along with Takeji Fujishima.

Employing elegant technique, Saburosuke Okada painted a number of beautiful women. Even when he painted Mt. Fuji, the surface of the famous volcano looked like a woman's skin. According to one of his students, Mr. Kazuo Tamura, now a famous painter in Japan, Okada concentrated on painting people and did not paint landscapes unless it was familiar to either Okada or his friends. Thus, although we are unable to pinpoint the location, the marshy landscape depicted in this work must have been familiar to him.

This painting was produced in 1919, seventeen years after Okada returned from France, where he had came under the influence of Pleinairisme. We can see traced of his master, Raphael Collin, in the clear colors which receive the cool morning light, and in the elegant purple used in the background and in the trunks of the trees. The curving lines of the trees, which seem to surround the marsh as they extend from the foreground into the distance, reminds one of Claude Monet's famous painting, Les peupliers de l'Epte (The Tate Gallery, London).

According to the complete catalog of Okada's works compiled by Mr. Tamura, Okada produced as many as 32 oil paintings in 1919. In what was a seminal year for this painter, he was also appointed a member of the Imperial Art Academy (the Teikoku Bijutsu-in) and received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Rays.

Click picture for larger view.(87.9KB)

Saburosuke Okada
(1869-1939)
Beside a marsh

1919
Oil on canvas
34x46cm