Gate and Posters

Having studied at Rinsaku Akamatsu’s art school and Kawabata Gagakko, Saeki entered Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He went to Paris in 1924 and received advice from Vlaminck. He returned to Japan in 1926 and participated in the foundation of the 1930 Association. The following year, he went to France again. In a raging touch prepared to use up all his vitality, he depicted the poetic sentiment of the back streets of Paris overlapping with his own imagery.

Having graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Saeki went to Paris, where he met Maurice de Vlaminck and became an ardent admirer of the style in which he painted dynamic landscapes in swift touches. This painting is a view of a back street in Paris, where Saeki lived, Rue du Ch_teau near Montparnasse Station. The substantial image of the dark brown gate and the bright color contrast of the red, blue, white, and other advertisements are beautiful. The letters in the advertisements written in a lively touch produce a particularly wonderful effect here. Though, in this painting, the letters are still only one part of the advertisements, in later works, the letters dance boisterously across the picture as if to reflect his passion and a depressing poetic sentiment gradually becomes adrift.