Nude Study I

This undated nude study belongs to the long sequence of single-figure female paintings that occupied Terauchi Manjirō continuously from the late 1920s until his death in 1964. Shown half-length in three-quarter view against a quiet background, the figure displays the painter's settled studio manner — a sculptural drawing of the contour along the shoulder and arm, the flesh modelled in long smoke-coloured halftones over a warm ochre ground, and the surrounding tones held to a narrow range of muted browns and greens. The work belongs in spirit and treatment to the same Kōfūkai and Nitten tradition that produced the 1947 and 1950 nudes now in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and exemplifies the figural language for which Terauchi was honoured with the Imperial Academy of the Arts Prize in 1950 and elected a full Academy member in 1960.