Style Imitating Art: “Breton Woman” by Kanae Yamamoto

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Salazar. You can read why she picked this work here.

The Artwork

Breton Woman (or, Woman of Brittany) by Kanae Yamamoto

About the Artist: Kanae Yamamoto

Kanae Yamamoto was a Japanese artist credited with originating the “creative prints” movement which encouraged self-expressive printmaking in contrast to the commercial studio print systems being used during his time.

He was born on October 24, 1882, in Okazaki, Japan, to Ichirō and Take Yamamoto. Shortly after Kanae’s birth, his father moved to Tokyo to study Western medicine. He and his mother joined Ichirō 5 years later where they took tenement housing in the San’ya area. To help support the family, his mother did sewing work and joined her sister as a maid in the Mori household. Through the connections made from her work, Take was the model for the painting Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon by Harada Naojirō in 1890. These experiences with artistic individuals likely contributed to Kanae’s growing interest in art.

Due to financial constraints, Kanae discontinued his formal schooling at the age of 11 and became an apprentice wood engraver. His training was focused heavily on book and newspaper illustration which included letterpress printing and photoengraving. As quickly as he was mastering his printmaking skills, printing technology was undergoing equally quick changes. Upon completing his apprenticeship at 18, he began to doubt his future prospects in the rapidly changing industry which shifted his aspirations to becoming a painter instead.

He knew his father had no money to finance art school, so he took odd printing jobs to fund it himself and secretly enrolled in the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1902. His first oil paintings were shown publicly in 1905 before to his art school graduation in 1906. He learned that his family was still suffering from financial woes so he made his way out on his own to support himself as an artist. By the 1910s, he began to develop an interest in Western art trends as European influences began making their way into his work.

In 1912, he left for Paris after the family of his love, Mitsu Ishii, forbade them from marrying. During his time in France, he created many woodblock prints with much of his productivity occurring while in Brittany. He returned to Japan in 1916 after learning of the death of his teacher, Sakurai Torakichi. That year, he took over Sakurai’s printing company, married Ieko Kitahara, published an instruction book on oil painting, and completed a number of paid subscription prints.

In 1919, he founded the Japan Children’s Free Drawing Association which helped to promote the idea of democratic education in Japan. He established the Japan Peasant Art Institute in 1923 which received government funding for national expansion in 1925. Around this time, he really began shifting his focus from printmaking to painting, founding “the Shunyōkai association for painters who wished to maintain connections with Japanese traditions in the face of the Westernization of academic painting in Japan.”

In 1935, he returned to Tokyo to focus full time on painting and remained there for the rest of his life. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1942 which left him partially paralyzed and unable to paint easily. Despite his paralysis, Kanae continued to paint as much as he could until his death on October 8, 1946, following surgery for a volvulus. He was 63 years old.

About the Art: Breton Woman

Woman of Brittany is a 1920 woodblock print on paper colored with ink and oil colors. The paper dimensions are 15 1/16 × 11 5/8 in. (38.2 × 29.5 cm) and 25 × 19 in. (63.5 × 48.3 cm) with the matting. It was gifted in 1991 by James A. Michener to the Honolulu Museum of Art.

This painting is an excellent illustration of the European influences that Kanae applied to Eastern subject matter. He has represented a Breton Woman using Japanese techniques which has created the image of an ethnically androgynous and seemingly very disappointed woman.

It’s a cool piece. It’s kind of dark and gloomy. And the woman is very stern and severe. These are not traits that would generally appeal to me. But I still found it to be fantastic inspiration for a winning outfit for me!

References/Resources:

• Kanae Yamamoto: Wikipedia
• Woodblock Dreams: Sosaku Hanga – Kanae Yamamoto
• Woman of Brittany: Wikiart
• Woman of Brittany: HoMA

About My Outfit

I took a fairly straightforward approach to this one drawing my inspiration from the Breton woman’s clothing. Her black dress and vertically striped bodice led me to this combination of a black slip dress with a vertically striped duster. I wore a velvet ribbon with pearl ends tied around my neck to mimic her bow and added pearl earrings to coordinate.

Although the artwork is more black, white, gray, and tan, I was satisfied with my chosen color palette of black, white, and grayish purple. I love the muted shade of purple that appears in the stripes on my duster and they coordinate beautifully with these purple shoes which are often troublesome to coordinate.

If a hat appears in the artwork, you can be sure there will also be a hat on my head! I found this super pretty ombré cloche sun hat at my favorite wholesale shop and I couldn’t resist it. When I bought it, I had no idea what I would ever wear with it. Well, now I know exactly what to wear with it because it was the absolutely perfect head topper for this outfit and this art challenge.

That is it for this week’s Style Imitating Art look. I am entirely pleased with the resulting outfit for this challenge, I just wish I had somewhere to go!

How do you think I did? I hope you enjoyed it and feel inspired to play along! 

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the artwork as well as Terri’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, May 9, 2023, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all style! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Joining with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress and Duster-Torrid / Hat-Wona Trading / Belt, Necklace, Earrings-Old / Shoes-Miss Arty