Portrait of Vasilii Eroshenko

Eroshenko is shown from the chest up, filling the picture. His face is tilted slightly downward, and a quiet expression rests around his closed eyes. The golden curls and white shirt are rendered with soft movements of layered paint, melting into the brown background and setting off the redness of his cheeks and lips. The picture is about 45 centimeters high, with a signature and date at the lower right.

Tsune studied at the Hakubakai research institute and the Taiheiyo Gakai research institute, and was recognized early, receiving an honorable mention at the Bunten in 1909 and a third prize the following year. He kept working while battling illness in the studio he built in Shimoochiai, Tokyo, in 1916, deepening his own expression while studying the paintings of Rembrandt, Renoir and others. This work was also painted in that studio, as a friendly competition with his painter friend Tsuruta Goro.

It was shown at the second Teiten in 1920 and two years later was also well received at the Japan-France art exchange exhibition in Paris. It was donated in fiscal 1956 and entered the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1977.