Ryuzaburo Umehara

Ryuzaburo Umehara studied at Toba High School, Kansai Art Academy and Académie Julian. Training under Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Asai Chū is recorded. Kuo Po-Chuan is recorded as having studied under Ryuzaburo Umehara. The recorded working language is Japanese. Employment is recorded with Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts. Positions recorded include Imperial Household Artist. Distinctions recorded are Order of Culture, Person of Cultural Merit and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Ryūzaburō Umehara • Born — 9 March 1888 • Birthplace — Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan • Died — 16 January 1986 • Occupation — Painter

He attended the Kansai Academy of Art (also known as Kansai Art School) in Kyoto, Japan. He studied under Asai Chū along with Sōtarō Yasui. One of the artists he admired early in his career was Pierre-Auguste Renoir, while another formative influence later on was Georges Rouault. Professor of Art History Torao Miyagawa wrote that: "Umehara is one of the few Japanese artists of this period who found his style early in his career and then proceeded to perfect it over the years. He is also one of the first Japanese Western-style artists to discard any conscious effort to impose the formal rules or even the emotional overtones of traditional Japanese painting on the Western techniques. He favoured and exploited oils as a means of individual expression, utilizing the texture and strength of these pigments with a boldness and simple directness unrivalled by any of his contemporaries, and not observable to any degree in Japan until after World War II."