The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

White Sake

White Sake

c. 1934
(Japanese, 1908–1994)
Japan, Shōwa period (1926–89)
Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on paper
Painting: 174.9 x 101.6 cm (68 7/8 x 40 in.); Mounted: 248 x 121 cm (97 5/8 x 47 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2022.44
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The sitter for this portrait is likely one of two sisters who posed for a number of Tateishi Harumi’s paintings.

Description

A girl sits before a tray of colorful rice crackers and holds a cup of white sake, a sweet, low-alcohol fermented rice beverage. Both treats are served on Girls’ Day, celebrated on March 3. The ambience of the traditional occasion is disrupted by her dress. In the early 1900s, European-style dresses displaced the kimono to some extent as everyday attire. The artist also blended the European painting technique of a light source casting shadows, which had only recently been widely introduced, with traditional Japanese painting materials—ink and mineral pigments.
  • Hosokawa Rikizo [1889–1945], Japan
    ?–2003
    Meguro Gajoen Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
    2003–?
    (Kagedo Japanese Art, Seattle, WA)
    March 22, 2022
    (Christie’s, New York, NY, March 22, 2022 sale, lot 40, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2022–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Hosokawa Rikizō (1889–1945) was the founder of Meguro Gajoen, a fine dining and event space in Tokyo that opened in 1931 during the rebuilding of Tokyo in the aftermath of the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923.
  • Tateishi Harumi ten: Nihon saigo no bijingaka [立石春美展 : 日本の最後の美人画家 = Tateishi Harumi - The last artist for paintings of Japanese beauties]. Tōkyō: Bijutsu no Tosho Miyoshi Kikaku, 1999. cat. no. 7
    "Permanent Collection Installations: Modern Japan.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 63, no. 2 (2023): 20-21. Reproduced: P. 21.
  • Modern Japan (Japanese art rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 14, 2022-June 18, 2023).
    Tateishi Harumi ten - nihonsaigo no bijingaka [Tateishi Harumi - The last artist for paintings of Japanese beauties]. Saga Prefectural Art Museum and Sogo Museum, Chiba, Japan (March 24- April 21, 1999)
    Nihongakai [Japan Painting Association] exhibition. Tokyo, Japan (1937).
  • {{cite web|title=White Sake|url=false|author=Tateishi Harumi|year=c. 1934|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.44