Vieillad au Chapelet, Kawadzu

"Vieillard au Chapelet, Kawadzu" (Old Man with Rosary, Kawadzu) from 1940 depicts an elderly Japanese man at prayer in Kawadzu, a small spa town on the Izu Peninsula. The rosary — either Buddhist juzu beads or possibly Catholic (Kawadzu has a small Christian community associated with early missionary history) — gives the figure a specifically devotional character, the old man's hands occupied with contemplative practice. Jacoulet's Japanese figure subjects tend toward this kind of ordinary spiritual life.