Morning

Saito went to Kyoto and studied under Chu Asai and Takeshiro Kanokogi. In 1906, he went to France. After returning to Japan, he introduced the new European trends from Impressionism onwards to the Japanese art circles. In 1912, he formed Fusain-kai. In 1924, he founded Osaka Fine Arts School. That year, he also formed a group called Kaijusha and served as chief editor of the magazine Bijutsu Shinron. He was also active as an art critic.

Having sympathized with the new French trends from Impressionism onwards, upon his return to Japan, Saito stressed individual art placing emphasis on the artist’s subjectivity and attracted attention as a standard-bearer for innovation in the yoga circles in Japan. This painting was the first work Saito submitted to the Bunten in 1915 and together with Harvest, which won special recognition the following year, it is a representative example of his work dating from the Taisho period. While the mainstream at the Bunten in those days was a realistic style, this is an innovative work in that the subjectivity is strongly set forth. The influences of Gauguin and Puvis de Chavannes, whom Saito studied while in France, can be identified here and there. The restrained, sober color tone, the sorrowful look of the nudes, and the combination of an unrealistic landscape which is neither Western nor Oriental and figures provides the image with a wondrous poetic sentiment.