Highlights of Kagoshima City Museum of Art | Meet Masterpieces by Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley

Claude Monet, the master of Impressionism, is loved around the world for his famous Water Lilies series. Inspired by the “water garden” he created at his home in Giverny, Monet painted more than 250 works of water lilies throughout his life. It was truly his life’s theme.

The Water Lilies owned by the Kagoshima City Museum of Art is one of the earliest works in the series. The floating lily pads and blossoms are painted with a quiet and delicate touch.

While some Water Lilies paintings feature a bridge in the background, this piece brings the viewer closer to the surface of the pond, focusing directly on the flowers themselves. Against the deep tones of the water, a softly blooming white flower stands out with striking beauty.

This painting creates the feeling of standing in a tranquil garden at dawn, inviting you into a calm and serene atmosphere.

The model for this painting was Gabrielle Colonna-Romano, a French actress who was said to have had a close relationship with Renoir’s eldest son, Pierre. Around 1912–1913, Renoir painted several portraits of her, and this is one of those works.

Against a green background, Colonna Romano appears in a rose-colored dress, her gentle and calm expression beautifully captured. Renoir’s soft brushstrokes bring out his signature sense of light and warmth.

In his later years, Renoir suffered from severe rheumatism, making it difficult even to hold a brush. Yet none of that struggle can be felt in this painting. Instead, the light and refined use of color conveys a celebration of feminine beauty and the brilliance of life itself.

Camille Pissarro was one of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement and the oldest member of the group. Known for his gentle personality, he was deeply respected by many younger artists.

For about ten years, Pissarro lived in Pontoise, a small town outside Paris. There, he painted peaceful hills, farmland, and village scenes with great care. The Hill of L’Hermitage, Pontoise is one of these works. Rolling fields and charming houses are bathed in soft light, creating a warm and comforting atmosphere.

During this period, artists like Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin often visited Pissarro to paint alongside him. Pissarro and Cézanne, in particular, influenced each other’s styles. You can see this in the conical shapes of the trees and the geometric structure of the houses—features that feel almost Cézanne-like.

Another highlight of this painting is Pissarro’s delicate brushwork. Layers of small color strokes create shimmering light across the landscape, making the scene feel alive. This detailed study of light was an important step that later led him toward experimenting with Neo-Impressionist pointillism, pioneered by Georges Seurat. In that sense, this work could be seen as a “prelude” to his next artistic phase.

Among the Impressionists, Alfred Sisley devoted his entire career to landscape painting. While his fellow artists sometimes changed their style, Sisley remained faithful to capturing outdoor scenery in natural light. Almost all of his surviving works are landscapes—a true testament to his dedication.

This painting, Landscape on the Banks of the Loing at Saint-Mammès, was created when Sisley was based in the small town of Moret-sur-Loing. The quiet riverside view of the Loing is painted in soft light, with touches of orange and red harmonizing beautifully with the blues of the sky and the greens of the trees. The balance of colors feels so natural that it makes you want to take a deep breath of fresh air.

The charm of Sisley’s landscapes lies in their simplicity and poetry. He never exaggerated the brilliance of light; instead, he carefully observed the subtle changes in nature and expressed them with a gentle eye. Looking at his work, you almost feel as if you are standing within the serene scene yourself.

Sisley loved the town of Moret so much that he moved there permanently in 1882 and continued to paint its landscapes for the rest of his life. Although he never achieved the same fame as some of his peers, his art carries a sense of “quiet happiness” that still resonates today.

In Shakespeare’s masterpiece Hamlet, the character Ophelia loses her sanity after Hamlet kills her father. Overwhelmed with grief, she falls into a river and dies. Her tragic yet beautiful fate has inspired countless artists.

When people think of “Ophelia,” the most famous image is perhaps the realistic and detailed version by John Everett Millais. But in France, the Symbolist painter Odilon Redon created his own deeply personal interpretation of the theme.

Redon’s Ophelia does not show the dramatic “moment of death.” Instead, it feels dreamlike and ethereal. In soft pastel tones, the figure of Ophelia floats with her eyes closed, surrendering herself to the water. Her expression conveys not madness, but rather a sense of gentle peace.

The motif of the “woman with closed eyes” was one that Redon often returned to. His painting Closed Eyes, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, carries a similar mood. In both works, Redon invites us to look beyond reality and into the quiet world of the inner self—a perspective that breathes through his vision of Ophelia.

Tokonami Seisei (1842–1897) was a samurai from the Satsuma Domain who later served as a government official in the judiciary and the Imperial Household Agency—while also pursuing a career as a painter. His life was as unique as his art.

Tokonami grew up familiar with traditional Japanese painting, but during the late Edo period he visited Nagasaki and boarded a British warship. There, he saw oil paintings for the first time and was struck by their realism. Inspired, he began teaching himself Western oil painting techniques.

One of his most important works is this Portrait of Saigō Takamori, depicting the legendary leader of the Meiji Restoration. Remarkably, Tokonami based the portrait not only on his own memory but also on the testimonies of people who had actually known Saigō. By contrast, the more famous portrait by Edoardo Chiossone was created without ever having seen Saigō himself—relying instead on the features of his relatives. For that reason, Tokonami’s version may be closer to Saigō’s true likeness.

What makes this work fascinating is not just its historical value. Tokonami’s self-taught style is realistic yet somehow simple and approachable, with a unique use of color and form. In some ways, it recalls the charm of Henri Rousseau, the French “naïve” painter—though Tokonami developed this style independently, at a time when Western modern painting was still little known in Japan.

While most artists of the period followed the academic realism of painters like Takahashi Yuichi, Tokonami created a portrait that feels bold, free, and ahead of its time. This Portrait of Saigō Takamori can truly be seen as one of the hidden treasures of early modern Japanese art.