Sketch for the Portrait of Tachihara Suiken
Watanabe Kazan Japanese
Not on view
Tachihara Suiken was the father of a close friend of Kazan's. The completed work is now lost, but several surviving sketches reveal that the artist rejected the concealment of physical defects in favor of a sympathetic realism. In this sketch, the only embellishments that refer to the subject's social status are his sword and the book tucked into his robe. His shriveled mouth and unshaven chin, adroitly captured by the Western technique of chiaroscuro—which Kazan had studied—enhance the impression of intense self-determination made by this eighty-one-year-old samurai.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.