Yasushi Tanaka (Japanese, Tanaka Yasushi:田中保; 13 May 1886 – 24 April 1941) was a Japanese-born artist and art teacher, best known for his portraits of women.

Life

Tanaka's father was a businessman. After his death in 1902, the family went bankrupt and fell into poverty. As soon as he completed his primary education, Tanaka left home and emigrated to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in 1904, where he made his living washing dishes and working as a peanut vendor, while studying English in night classes at Broadway High School. He also studied painting on his own until he was able to arrange formal lessons with the Dutch painter,

Fokko Tadama Fokko Tadama (16 May 1871 – 25 May 1937) was a Dutch painter in the style of the Hague School, known primarily for coastal scenes, who spent much of his career in the United States. He was also a teacher and focused primarily on Japanese immig ...

, who would later serve as a patron to

Shimizu Toshi was a Japanese painter in the yōga style. Life and work He originally planned to have a career in the military, but failed the qualifying exam at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. After considering other options, he decided to become a p ...

and other Japanese-born painters in Seattle. He had his first solo showing in an exhibition room at the

Seattle Public Library The Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the public library system serving the city of Seattle, Washington. Efforts to start a Seattle library had commenced as early as 1868, with the system eventually being established by the city in 1890. The syste ...

in 1915 and presented works at the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

later that same year. Over the next two years, his first nude portraits received much negative criticism. As a result, however, in 1917, he met and married the writer and art critic, Louise Gebhard Cann; daughter of Judge Thomas H. Cann. He continued to exhibit for several more years, winning a few awards, but he and Louise decided that the art market in the United States wasn't receptive to his work and they moved to Paris in 1920. There, he exhibited at the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

, and

Salon des Tuileries The Salon des Tuileries was an annual art exhibition for painting and sculpture, created June 14, 1923, co-founded by painters Albert Besnard and Bessie Davidson, sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, architect Auguste Perret, and others. The first year's ex ...

. One of his paintings was purchased by the French government. In 1924, eight of his paintings were acquired by

Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni General was a Japanese imperial prince, a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from 17 August 1945 to 9 October 1945, a period of 54 days. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Hirohito twice over, Prince H ...

and

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka General was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War. Son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Em ...

, who were in France studying at the

École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM, literally the "Special Military School of Saint-Cyr") is a French military academy, and is often referred to as Saint-Cyr (). It is located in Coëtquidan in Guer, Morbihan, Brittany. Its motto is ...

. The following year, he sold a painting to the

Musée du Luxembourg The Musée du Luxembourg () is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' M ...

. He would live on the in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

from 1923 until his death. In 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, most of the Japanese in France were compelled to return to Japan but, having an American wife, he was able to stay in Paris. He died during the

German Occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

. After the war, Louise took his ashes to Japan for interment. A retrospective was held at the Marseille Gallery in Paris in 1946. His unsold paintings remained with Louise until after her death, when they were discovered by an art collector who took them to Japan and, in 1976, presented the first showing of Tanaka's works in his homeland. Most of them are now in the collection of the in Saitama. His papers are held at the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

.Tanaka's letters to Frederic Torrey
@ the Smithsonian. Includes a photograph of Tanaka; possibly by

Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (; April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to t ...

Selected paintings

Tanaka-Cliffs.jpg, Cliffs Tanaka-Leda.jpg,

Leda and the Swan Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the sa ...

Tanaka-Dancing.jpg, Dancing Woman
in Costume Tanaka-River.jpg, Evening on the River

References

External links

More works by Tanaka
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Yasushi Japanese artists 1886 births 1941 deaths People from Saitama Prefecture Japanese emigrants to the United States

Life

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links