After Dinner

Makoto Saburi was born in Nagoya, and after graduating from Tokyo Fine Art School, he began to exhibit his work in Tel-ten Exhibitions. He went to Europe in 1927, and lived in France. Using France as a base, he traveled to Italy, Spain, Holland and other countries. During his travels, while being influenced by European painting traditions, he began to pursue his own painting style. A work he had painted during his stay in Europe received special prize in the Tei-ten Exhibition in 1931, and he received this award a number of times. Although he had been thriving as an artist, in 1936, at the age of 38, he killed himself.
His specialty was mainly portraits, and he repeatedly did paintings consisting of a combination of three people. "After Dinner" is one of those paintings. From this painting's picture formation, i.e. the position of the two people on the right side, the posture of the woman on the far right, and the napkin sticking out of the table top, it is thought that this was painted around 1930, the same time as his "A Corner of the Poor Cafe" which belongs to Hiroshima Museum of Art, was painted. This was his first work to receive special prize at Tel-ten Exhibition. In this painting, human skeletal structure is expressed with vigorous brush strokes, while emphasizing the strong light coming from above. This picture formation reminds us of Rembrandt's paintings, which Saburi is said to have seen in Holland and been influenced by. Large-boned people are brought out from the bluish-black background. thereby providing a sense of dignified existence.
(Source: Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998, P. 105.)