Chinese Lady in Red

A Chinese Lady in Red — Hanko's pendant to his Japanese bijin subjects, depicting a Chinese woman in the distinctive red silk robes and ornate hairstyle that Japanese artists used to evoke continental beauty. The Chinese beauty (chinjin no bijn) was a recognized genre in Japanese painting, and Hanko's Meiji-era version participates in a centuries-long Japanese fascination with Chinese aesthetic ideals even as Japan was rapidly Westernizing. The boldness of the red against the woman's black hair creates the most direct chromatic statement in his generally refined palette.