Nude 1906

Fujishima Takeji made this painting, Nude, sometime in his career, and it feels like he was really exploring the properties of oil paint, pushing it around on the canvas to see what it could do. There's a looseness to the application, see how he's layered thin washes of color to build up form, especially in the figure's back and shoulders? You can almost feel the give of the skin, the soft curve of the muscles underneath. And then there are these little pops of brighter color, like the yellows and blues in the cloth the figure is sitting on, that add a kind of vibration to the whole thing. It makes me think a bit of Bonnard, in the way he's using color to create a mood, a feeling, rather than just describing what he sees. Both artists see the work as a conversation, a kind of call and response between the artist and the medium, and the viewer is invited to join in.