Kanji Maeda - Kanji Maeda

Western-style painter. Born in Tottori Prefecture on October 1, 1896. After graduating from Kurayoshi Middle School, he moved to Tokyo and entered the Aoibashi Western-style Painting Institute, where he was taught by Kuroda Seiki. In 1921 (Taisho 10), he graduated from the Western Painting Department of the Tokyo Fine Arts School, exhibited his work at the Teiten Exhibition, and the following year went to study in France. He was devoted to Courbet's Realism, and was also influenced by Fukumoto Kazuo's materialistic view of history, aiming for his own unique realism with a strong social consciousness. In 1925, he returned to Japan and exhibited "Portrait of a Young Lady J.C." at the 6th Teiten Exhibition, which was awarded a special prize. The following year, he founded the "1930 Association" with his comrades, and also opened a realism research institute at the Free Art Room in Hongo/Yushima. Although he considered texture, volume, and a sense of reality to be the requirements for realistic painting, his own style gradually moved toward Faub-esque subjective expression. After being selected as a special prize winner and not judged at the Teiten Exhibition, he was a judge for his work "The Sea" in 1929 (Showa 4), which won him the Imperial Fine Arts Academy Prize. He died the following year on April 16, 1930. His other representative works include "Two Workers," "Nude," and "The Master Carpenter's Family."

[Tadao Ogura]

"Maeda Kanji" by Taki Teizo (1977, Nichido Publishing Department)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

洋画家。明治29年10月1日鳥取県に生まれる。倉吉中学校を卒業後、上京して葵橋(あおいばし)洋画研究所に入り、黒田清輝(せいき)の指導を受ける。1921年（大正10）東京美術学校西洋画科を卒業、帝展に出品し、翌年フランスへ留学した。クールベのレアリスムに傾倒し、また福本和夫(かずお)から唯物史観の感化を受けて、社会意識の強い独自の写実主義を目ざした。1925年帰国して第6回帝展に『J・C嬢の像』を出品し、特選となる。翌年同志とともに「一九三〇年協会」を創立、また本郷・湯島の自由画室に写実研究所を開設した。質感、量感、実在感を絵画の写実的要件としたが、彼自身の作風はしだいにフォーブ的な主観表現へと向かった。帝展で特選、無鑑査ののち、1929年（昭和4）に審査員として出品した『海』は帝国美術院賞を受ける。翌昭和5年4月16日没。ほかに代表作として『二人の労働者』『裸体』『棟梁(とうりょう)の家族』がある。

［小倉忠夫］

『瀧悌三著『前田寛治』（1977・日動出版部）』

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