Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)

Madame Butterfly et Pinkerton

Details
Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)
Madame Butterfly et Pinkerton
signed 'Foujita' (lower right)
pencil on paper
15 1/8 x 12 3/4 in. (38.4 x 32.2 cm.)
Drawn in 1950
Provenance
The artist's estate, and thence by descent; sale, Succession Kimiyo Foujita, Dernière vente, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 9 December 2013, lot 308.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Special Notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Jessica Brook
Jessica Brook

Lot Essay

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Sylvie Buisson.


This work is a preparatory drawing for the costumes of Puccini's world renowned opera, Madame Butterfly when it was staged in 1950 at La Scala, Milan. As a famous Japanese artist freshly back from Japan and living in Paris, the Scala commissioned Foujita to not only create sketches for the costumes, but also draw the patterns for the fabrics (which he then dyed himself), and create the opera’s entire set design too. This particular representation of the opera proved to be very successful, being repeated six times at the Scala between the years of 1952 to 1971, and then touring abroad, most notably, at the National Opera in Vienna.

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