Woman with an Oil Lamp (Ranpu) 立石春美筆　「ランプ」

One of the major figure painters of the twentieth century, Harumi specialized in the genre of bijinga, or “paintings of female beauties,” which are almost all presented, as here, as idealized young women, fashionably dressed, flawless in complexion, with perfectly coiffed hair, and projecting an air of imperturbable calm. Here, the woman in a vibrant green dress has just lit an oil lamp with a pink-rimmed shade, a symbol of a imported Western technology, reminding viewers how much Japan was changing as it became more cosmopolitan. Recalling the depiction of beauties in Ukiyo-e paintings of previous centuries, the subject of the painting does not engage with the viewer directly, but rather gazes off into an indeterminate distance.

A native of Saga Prefecture, Harumi went to Tokyo in 1927 to study art, at first Yōga (Western-style oil painting) with Kajiwara Kango (1887–1958). The following year, at the age of twenty, he began to work in the studio of the young Nihonga painter Itō Shinsui (1898–1972), who would become renowned for his meticulous and glamorous depictions of beautiful women in both prints and paintings. By 1950, along with Shinsui, Harumi became a founding member of Jitsugetsusha painting society. In 1954, he began calling himself Haruyoshi (using the same characters as Harumi), and in 1955 he exhibited under the name Haruyoshi in a one-man show at Takashimaya Department Store Gallery, Tokyo. From 1963, he served as a juror for the Nitten exhibitions. Harumi exhibited continuously in all the major government-sponsored exhibitions such as Teiten, Shin Bunten, and Nitten, throughout his career and received numerous awards.

Harumi was one of the very favorite artists of the businessman and painting collector Hosokawa Rikizō (1889–1945). There were some thirty paintings by the artist in his renowned Meguro Gajōen collection, of which this was one. In 1993, the Saga prefectural government established a Tateishi Harumi Memorial Museum to honor the career of this locally born artist. The following year, in 1994, Harumi died in Atami (Shizuoka Prefecture). His eldest son, Tateishi Hideharu, also became a Nihonga artist, working close to Atami.