Woman in Chapel

A woman in a chapel — the Yumeji-style bijin occupying a Christian sacred space — turns the quality of devotion that characterizes his religious compositions toward a figure who also inhabits his secular romantic world. The chapel as setting imposes a quality of hushed attention and interiority on the figure, the sacred space amplifying rather than suppressing the emotional intensity that Yumeji valued. The bijin in chapel is both a devotional and a romantic figure, her feeling for whatever or whomever she directs it toward carrying the same quality of absolute commitment.