Willow Trees in Grez-sur-Loing, France 1901
Asai Chu （1856-1907）
Work Descriptions
"Willow green,” a yellow-green color with a tinge of white that has been beloved in Japan since the Heian Period (794–1185), beautifully accentuates the painting. A female farmer pushes a wheelbarrow through a piece of open land with a row of willow trees whose branches extend like huge brooms. The end-of-summer sunlight streams in, and the willows quietly cast their shadows on the stone bridge.
1901
Oil on canvas; framed
59.5 × 79.5 cm
Asai Chu
Asai Chu was born in Tokyo. Asai studied under Antonio Fontanesi at the Ministry of Industry School of Fine Arts, where he learned the Barbizon school style of landscape painting. Asai went to France to inspect the 1900 International Exposition in Paris. After returning to Japan, he became an instructor at the Kyoto College of Technology and established the Shogoin Western Art Institute to train the next generation. His establishment of organizations for ceramics and lacquerware artists breathed new life into the Kyoto handicrafts scene.
