Yasui Sotaro made his name as a portrait painter with works such as the 1934 Portrait of Mr. Tamamushi (Tohoku University) and Portrait of Chin-Jung (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). Thereafter, commissions for portraits never ceased. The woman depicted here is Fukushima Keiko, an essayist and the wife of the collector Fukushima Shigetaro. The Fukushimas spent the 1920s mainly in Paris and London, acquiring many works by contemporary artists such as Matisse, Rouault, and Picasso, and brought them back to Japan.
While in Paris, they had asked Derain to paint a portrait of Keiko, but her ill health prevented its execution. Regretting that lost opportunity, they selected Yasui to paint it after returning to Japan. Keiko went to Yasui’s atelier in Mejiro, Tokyo, and modeled for him. Yasui was usually mild-mannered, but he directed a fierce, even terrifying gaze at his models. Keiko wrote that it was exhausting. Also, Keiko deliberately wore a suit with narrow stripes that would be difficult to paint, testing Yasui’s abilities with the “costume that would be Yasui’s downfall.” Yasui, however, found that challenge aroused his ambition. Silent conversations between artist and model, collector can be seen in this painting. From the latter half of the 1930s, Yasui began using gorgeous colors. This painting shows the result of the Yasui style. The Fukushimas were satisfied with the resulting painting and became close friends with Yasui.