Portrait of a Lady

Yanagi Keisuke traveled in 1903 to the United States, where he formed close ties with Takamura Kotaro and Ogiwara Morie. He built a studio, designed by Ogiwara, next to Nakamuraya in Shinjuku, and produced several exceptional portraits before his sudden and untimely death in 1923. During a posthumous memorial exhibition at Mitsukoshi Tokyo, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, resulting in the loss of many of his works. This painting, one of the few that survived, portrays his wife Yae. She is known to have introduced her junior at Japan Women’s University, Naganuma Chieko, to Takamura, and the two later married. In the portrait, Yae’s intense gaze directed outside the picture and her firm expression convey a sense of her composure and strength of character. (F.R.)