Lama Shrine at Chengteh

Chengteh is a city in Hebei province in the northeastern part of China that is famous for having been used as a summer resort by successive emperors. In this painting, a Tibetan Buddhist temple on top of a hill lit by sunlight and shining brightly under a clear blue sky is depicted in a carefree manner with broad brushstrokes. Yasui Sotaro (1888–1955), who was invited to Hsinking (present-day Changchun) to serve as a judge at an art exhibition in 1937, stopped in Chengteh on his way back to Japan and sketched the local scenery. The bold, deformed shapes and bright colors give a vivid sensibility to the picture plane in this work from Yasui’s mature period.