Paradise Under the Sea Description

Shigeru Aoki is a Japanese painter known mostly for combining Japanese legends and religious subjects in the late 19th century, early 20th century. This painting, Paradise Under the Sea 1907, is a telling of a Japanese legend of Prince Fire-fade who fell in love with the God of the Sea's daughter. The painting is in a tall, narrow frame and there is a woman on either side of the piece being split by a vase and a tree causing the piece to feel balanced and give it a sense of unity.  The colors tend to be muted and dark with the light blue of the dress on the right being one of the brightest things in the painting which guides the viewers eye to it and then up into the bright yellow light above the prince's head on a vertical path upwards. Everything seems to have a dark blue tint as if everything is underwater. The tree is cut off at the top into a round shape so the leaves stop suddenly to show a warm orange color. These colors stand out because it has no blue tint over it like the rest of the piece including the warmer colors such as the deeper reds to on the woman's dress and the bottom of the tree. There is not a lot of empty space in the piece with it being so long and narrow, the space seems full. 

Shigeru used a diving suit and a helmet to make sketches of light and color under water which reflect in the way the light diffuses on the women's wet, translucent dresses as well as the shadowy skin of the prince. He keeps true to his Japanese roots by keeping with his legends and myths but he shows his fascination with western art with the feathery brush strokes being fully visible, especially on the red dress. The composition of the piece as well as the theme are a reflection of his interest in English painters but the brushstrokes and nature sketches are a French Impressionist thing to do. He showed his interest in the western forms of art while also staying true to his Japanese heritage with his legends and ideals.