Jean Kalisch (1912-1995) Japanese/American, Oil on Canvasboard. Original painting signed lower right. Titled "By The Lake." Tag on back includes date, gallery, and pricing information. 

Overall: 35 1/2 X 29 3/4 in. 

Sight: 29 1/4 X 23 1/4 in. 

#2728 . 

Jean Kalisch (nee Toshiko) was born in a small village in Japan in 1912. By the age of seven she was taking instruction in Chinese calligraphy with brush and ink. By her teens she had trained in pencil drawing of landscapes, embroidery, and in oil paintings, and at 17 she moved to Tokyo to study chemistry, intent on becoming a pharmacist. The conservative push of the early Shōwa era was detrimental to women’s rights, primarily curtailing their roles to simple reproductive purposes to supply the nation’s growing militarism with new soldiers. In addition to rampant sexism, Jean’s exposure to art became limited to the few moments she could take from her studies to visit museums. World War II devastated Japanese individual rights further, as perpetual devotion to the military cause eschewed any artistic expression that was not nationalistic. She survived the bombing of Tokyo on March 10th, 1945, and later that year met an American GI named Jules Kalisch. They courted for the next nine years while he worked in the American Judge Advocate’s office, marrying in 1954 and moving to Sacramento, California. Finally free to explore the world of art fully, she developed a style that critics called “representationalist with… an ingenious combination of Cubism and Impressionism.” Her work was exhibited at the San Francisco Museum, the Crocker Museum, the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose, and is on permanent display at the Richmond Art Center and De Young Museum. She won awards at art festivals in the 1950s and 60s, and gave calligraphy lessons at her home, where she passed away peacefully in 1995.