Hide and Seek

"Hide and Seek"

I am writing to express my opinion about the painting, "Hide and Seek." The painting is about one scene in a fashionable society, drawn by a Belgian, Alfred Stevens. A young fashionably dressed woman is hiding behind a door and slightly smiling, but her glove has dropped on the floor and could be seen from the next room. That is like a scene from the "Remembrance of Things Past," by Proust. It is characteristic that the main part of painting in which the woman is standing, is slightly dark and the space in the next room is lighter. In Japan, there is a famous book to explain the Japanese sense of beauty, "In Praise of Shadows," by Junichiro Tanizaki. The author wrote that the interplay between dark and light is a critical element of the Japanese beauty. I think that I can find the similar preference in the painting, "Hyde and Seek." Among Tanizaki's novels, I like best "The Makioka Sisters." The novel is as beautiful as "Snow Country," written by Yasunari Kawabata, a Novel Prize winner. The authors commonly illustrate a losing flowery world with its dark and light in these works. The interplay between dark and light attracts us.