Self-Portrait

Light from the upper left strongly illuminates the artist's forehead in a composition that closely resembles a self-portrait by Rembrandt. According to recollections by Tsune's friend Nakahara Teijiro, a sculptor, Tsune purchased a very expensive book of Rembrandt paintings at the Maruzen bookstore in about 1909 and studied it so thoroughly that the pages became grimy from repeated turning. The expression in this self-portrait earned it the nickname "sourpuss," but, as in Rembrandt's own self-portraits, Tsune seems to have deliberately contorted his expression. He entered this painting in 1910 in the fourth Bunten exhibition, for which it was accepted, along with his Seaside Village, which is Impressionist in style. A self-portrait by Tsune was also awarded a prize at the seventh Taihei Yogakai (Pacific Painting Society) Exhibition in 1909, but whether that painting was this self-portrait cannot be determined.