After first traveling to Beijing in 1939, Umehara Ryuzaburo made annual visits to the city until Umehara said the following about this work, “I was interested in the high autumn sky. It somehow gave me the feeling that I was listening to music. This was especially the case with morning pictures.”* As this comment suggests, an expansive and serene autumn sky lies at the center of this painting. In depicting the sky, Umehara made the most of the transparent quality of oil paint, and manipulated his brush as if it were slipping across the paper. The green of the trees, partially created with mineral pigments, and the red of the buildings blends together to make the townscape look multilayered. The contrast and resonance between the sky and town make for an impressive sight.

*Selected Japanese Contemporary Painters: Umehara Ryuzaburo II, 1953, Bijutsu Shuppan.