Sakamoto Hanjirō
1919
Conté Crayons
From Mr. I’s Collection
Sakamoto Hanjirō
1889-1969
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture. Sakamoto moved to Tokyo with fellow painter Aoki Shigeru and studied at the Fudosha and Taiheiyō Western painting institute. Endorsed by Yamamoto Kanae, he became a coterie member of print magazine, ‘Housun’. His first selected work was in the first Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 1907. He received a third-place prize in the fifth Japan Fine Arts Exhibition. He participated in founding the Nika-kai in 1914. He traveled to France to study the following year, and after returning to Japan, he received high acclaim for his works. Unaffected by people or the times, he instead immersed himself in his works in a naturalistic manner, painting with an attachment to nature and things familiar to him. He especially appreciated horse companionship and frequently painted many works of them. The perspective of the world from which he draws transcends reality and has been described as ‘ethereal’.