Frederick Carl Frieseke completed the present work circa 1913 while spending the winter in the Mediterranean island of Corsica with his family. Historically known as Napoleon Bonaparte’s place of exile, Corsica became a popular tourist destination for French visitors. Although born in America, Frieseke spent the majority of his life residing as an expatriate in France. As an influential member of the Giverny colony of artists, Frieseke captured the attention of American art critics at around this t.mes . “He has youth audacity, talent, science, and the shrill of scarlet trumpets of high noon sounds in the majority of his canvases… the refulgent tones of Japanese umbrellas fight for supremacy with the surrounding flowers,” Henry McBride wrote in his New York Sun review dated 1911.

Photographs from the period show Frieseke approaching his subjects in the Impressionist spirit of painting en plein air (fig. 1). In Japanese Parasol, the female sitter is surrounded by the greenery of a garden, as was typical of Frieske’s early twentieth century compositions.

Fig. 1. Photograph of Frederick Carl Frieseke painting a woman outdoors, circa 1913. Frederick Carl Frieseke papers, circa 1870s-1943, 1982, 1996, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The present work highlights Frieseke’s infatuation with the motif of a beautiful female sitter holding a parasol (fig. 2). Drenched in sunlight with vibrant, painterly brushstrokes, the striking young woman’s eyes meet the viewer’s gaze. The juxtaposition between the female figure’s richly patterned garments and brightly colored parasol creates a warm and inviting composition in Japanese Parasol.

Fig. 2. Frederick Carl Frieseke, The Garden Parasol, c. 1910. North Carolina Museum of Art.