(1896-1930) Nationality: Japanese Activity: Painter Average rate: Kanji Maeda studied painting at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo from 1915 to 1921 and came to Paris to complete his studies until 1925.
He frequented the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and then worked alone in his studio before returning to Tokyo where he was awarded the special prize of the Sixth Imperial Exhibition (Teiten). He then opened a studio in the area of Hongo where he gave free painting lessons to students.
In 1926 he organised the 1930- Kyokai exhibition with Takanori Kinoshita and Katzuzo Satomi during which he showed 40 works produced during his stay in France.
Such event served as a springboard for the young artistic movements in pre-war Japan while Maeda was awarded another special prize for «Miss C.» and «Leaning Nude» in 1927.
Though stricken by illness, he continued to work intensively and received the Prize of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts with a work titled «The Sea».
Maeda, who died at 34, had been much influenced by European artistic trends and was one of the first Japanese painters who applied dots of colours on the canvas like Seurat and other French post-Impressionist artists did.
During his stay in Paris he had closely studied Manet, Courbet and Ingres who inspired him much regarding his portraits and nudes. In Japan he had been the promoter of pictorial realism while his last works were much imbued by Fauvism.
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