How does this artwork elucidate its Beautiful women?
Despite being known for works of beautiful women bijinga (Ukiyo-e beauty portraits) Shōen reportedly said "Never once did I paint a work with the expectation that it would be a fine work as long as the woman depicted was beautiful. My earnest hope is that all my works are like fragrant jewels, always with a sense of fresh purity, never with even an iota of the vulgar". She is respected for her fight for women's rights in Japan and her achievements as a great artist not just a female artist.During Shōen's time, Japanese art was experiencing a change in style and influence. Western production of oil paintings became popular for many artists. Shōen, however, stuck to her use of mineral pigments, or iwaenogu, and Japanese-style themes. Her paintings show ordinary women, female characters in noh theater, but the majority of her work shows women out in the elements in their finery. In Women Walking Against a Snowstorm (1911), a dramatic action scene is depicted of a beautiful woman not bending to the elements or the power of the storm. Shōen's work shows the quiet empowerment of women through her subtle portrayal of emotion. Uemura's 1918 work on the theme of jealousy, Honō (焔, Flame), which depicts an ikiryō (living ghost) incarnate in jealousy without compromising dignity, is considered to have raised the standard of nihonga. This work solidified her reputation by overturning the criticism some critics had made of her earlier work, calling her a "faceless doll". This work was directly inspired by Lady Rokujō, who appears in The Tale of Genji and the noh play Aoi no Ue, and was also inspired by Bijin zu (美人図, Beauty), an 18th century painting by Soga Shōhaku now in the collection of the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art. Shōen contributed to the change for how the public viewed women's art through her own works.
Nara Prefectural Museum of Art Lady Rokujō Aoi no Ue Nara Honō ikiryō Japanese The Tale of Genji Soga Shōhaku Ukiyo-e nihonga noh