Ishibashi Kazunori

was a Japanese painter active in both yōga and nihonga. His name can also be read Ishibashi Wakun and he used the art name Gyūgagen.

Ishibashi is perhaps best known for Woman Reading Poetry which is currently on display at the Shimane Art Museum. Said to have been modelled after an English actress, the work is widely considered his masterpiece and has been designated as a Prefectural Cultural Property of Shimane.

Life Born in Shimane Prefecture in 1876, Ishibashi studied in Tokyo under Taki Katei, with whom he lived for five years. From 1903 he studied in London, initially at a private life drawing class before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools. He also became a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1919 he was involved in discussions for Matsukata Kōjirō's unrealised Kyoraku Bijutsukan ("Sheer Pleasure Arts Pavilion") alongside Kuroda Seiki, whose diary records their meeting with , Bernard Leach, and Frank Brangwyn. While in Japan he joined the selection committee of the Teiten.

Works

Ishibashi Kazunori's works include a series of thirty-seven panels of the four seasons for the medical students' dining hall at the London Hospital (no longer extant); Several works are held in the British Museum.

Ishibashi displayed A Favourite Book and A Peaceful Evening for the 1915 War Relief Exhibition;

Lady Reading Poetry, now at the Shimane Art Museum, is said to have been modelled on an English actress and is generally considered his masterpiece. Both it and Old Lady (1919), now in a private collection in his birthplace of Izumo, have been designated Prefectural Cultural Properties of Shimane. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, his works show a "determination to keep distinct ... the two spheres of Western portraiture and Japanese decorative art".

Gallery