Among Kishida Ryusei’s works, we know of one more painting of the same title, Village Girl, executed in crayon and watercolors, also dated March 26 of 1919 (Taisho 8) and now in the collection of the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki. Ryusei began to paint a girl named O-Matsu in the summer of 1918 and would thereafter continue to use her as a model together with his daughter Reiko. This O-Matsu was Hayama Matsu, the daughter of a local fisherman or peasant from Kugenuma (Kanagawa Prefecture) who was three years older than Reiko and her regular playing mate. Ryusei would publicly show a Village Girl painting for the first time at the sixth exhibition of the Sodo-sha art association in December 1917 and thereafter painted numerous variations. He declared being intrigued by “a certain, robust beauty that is characteristic for the girls from the countryside. There is this dull and unrefined, somewhat old-fashioned goodness to them.” Apparently, O-Matsu was thrilled to pose for the painter. The locals of Kugenuma would often introduce their daughters to sit for Ryusei. O-Matsu, who was told that she did have the pretty features to become the subject of a painting, was deeply moved when Ryusei’s choice fell on her. For the artist, the “Village Girl” paintings were a means to explore different techniques, including watercolor, pencil drawing or traditional Japanese light colors, in order to capture that beauty in all its possible aspects.

Ryusei had finished another painting of the “Village Girl” series (with the sitter holding an apple) one month earlier on February 25. He had spent one and a half months on the work. He recounted “When I painted this work, I felt fully confident in the nuance of the face, its acuity. But still I was not satisfied. I felt I had to focus more strongly on portraiture. I was certain at that time that I would succeed in expressing that extraordinary, profound beauty in a person’s face.”

In 1919, the year when this version of “Village Girl” was painted, Ryusei wrote a brief text, “About Drawing”. He states, “When looking at the drawings of the most gifted masters, they appear direct and simple, intuitive and effortlessly in touch with nature’s profundity. The impression of immediacy is particularly strong in them.”

Possibly in search for a new approach, Ryusei completed another Village Girl on April 21 of the same year, this time in an almost frontal view. On April 30, Ryusei finished another work of the series, showing the O-Matsu slightly to the left of the  viewer, and on June 1 added one painting with the girl seen in a three-quarter view gazing to the right. Ryusei continued the series throughout the years from 1919 to 1922. During that time, the artist often reflected on how oil painting and drawing aim to express the same kind of beauty. “But,” he stated, “it is drawing that provides the most straightforward means to capture the essence of things.” Ryusei made the present painting amid a period when such reflections preoccupied his mind on a constant basis. Interestingly, the Village Girl painting of April 21 gives away the impression of a more grown girl, compared to the childlike appearance we perceive in the present work.

Kishida Ryusei (yoga painter; 1891–1929)
Yoga painter, born in Tokyo as a son of Meiji entrepreneur Kishida Ginko. Ryusei studied at Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society) with the yoga painter Kuroda Seiki. Under the influence of the literary journal Shirakaba (White Birch), he developed interest in Postimpressionism and Fauvism and founded Fusain-kai (Charcoal Art Association) with Saito Yori and Kimura Shohachi. During the Taisho period, Ryusei incorporated elements of Renaissance painting into his art, acquiring a renown for his portraits of his daughter, Reiko. He was interested in Song and Yuan dynasty painting and experimented with ukiyo-e and Nihonga. Ryusei died on the return trip from Manchuria in 1929.