Woman with Flowers

Haruo Matsushita, who studied basic painting under Wataru Hitomi, moved to Tokyo in 1921 and studied in Hongo Painting Institute which was established by Sabrosuke Okada. In 1923, he established "Sensation", which was intended to be a young painter's study and exhibition place. "Sensation" in this case, is a French word which means "Sense".
Originally, his specialty was watercolor painting, and his fresh, poetic style of painting was first selected in the 5th Tei-ten Exhibition in 1924. At that time, it was very rare for a watercolor painting to be selected in Tei-ten Exhibitions, and he was regarded as a bright hope for the future However, he began to paint mainly oil paintings around 1928. This "Woman with a Bouquet" was selected for Special prize in the 12th Tei-ten Exhibition and is one of his masterpieces. A woman in a natural background was a popular theme in Tei-ten Exhibitions in the early Showa Period. His oil painting style used strong brush strokes to express the massiveness of people and backgrounds, while being dark due to a minimal use of color. Although the impressions obtained from his oil paintings are extremely different than those from his colorful and bright watercolor paintings, this was done intentionally to show the difference between both painting techniques. Oil painters usually begin their painting by precisely sketching the objects in details, and then shifting to color. Just as he was beginning to work on the use of colors, Matsushita died of leukemia at the age of 30. Like a flower that dies just as it is about to bloom, Matsushita's was a tragic death.
(Source: Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998, p. 109.)