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Lot Essay
PORTRAITURE OF CALM IN GLORIOUS DAYS OF MONTPARNASSE
Next year in 2018, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita will open in Paris. The event will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese-French artist's death.
Nearly one hundred year ago, in the early 1920s, Foujita began an exploration of the nude motif with a unique focus on refined calligraphic line and flawless surface. While the nude figure is present throughout Western art history, it was a new frontier and artistic breakthrough for the young Japanese artist. Almost immediately these works were met with acclaim from the international art circle that had gathered in Paris at that time.
Foujita’s muses, commonly known as Kiki and Youki, would play a pivotal role in the artist’s life and oeuvre – ushering in a new chapter in his artistic journey and in the history of representation of the nude figure.
Painted in 1926, Les Deux Amies (Two Friends) (Lot 19) is a portrait depicting Kiki on the left and Youki on the right. Far from the chaos of the Parisian life, Kiki and Youki, half covering by sheets, are depicted in a quietly seated position where Youki appears to be inhabiting a protective position as Kiki nestles toward her. While Kiki is depicted with a direct gaze toward the painter, Youki’s hazel eyes are soft and unfocused. The portrayal is seemingly Foujita’s interpretation of the two important muses in his life—the bold Kiki and the graceful and considerate Youki. Foujita’s private relationship with Kiki and Youki constructs the unique energy in this figurative painting. It is not only nude bodies that are being portrayed, but also the authentic spirit connecting them to Foujita.
KIKI, THE QUEEN OF MONTPARNASSE
Alice Ernestine Prin (1901-1953), nicknamed the Queen of Montparnasse, and often known as Kiki de Montparnasse, was an artist's model, nightclub singer, actress, writer, and painter. Her charismatic existence helped define the liberated culture of Paris in the 1920s.
Adopting a single name, "Kiki", she became a fixture in the Montparnasse social scene and a popular artist's model, posing for dozens of artists, including Tsuguharu Foujita, Sanyu, Chaim Soutine, Pablo Gargallo, and most famously, Man Ray, when she was photographed for his work titled Le Violon d’Ingres , 1924, showing Kiki’s bare back with f-holes painted in black onto the print to suggest her body as a musical instrument.
YOUKI, THE SNOW
In 1921, Foujita met a young woman named Lucie Badoud; for the following decade, she lived as his muse, lover and wife, inspiring some of the most sensual and striking paintings that the artist ever produced. Foujita fell in love with Badoud deeply and the couple disappeared from the Montparnasse district in Paris for three days to spend time together. Foujita nicknamed the young and joyful Belgian orphan ‘Youki’ (“snow” in Japanese) for her flawless skin.
In no time, Foujita and Youki settled in a luxurious apartment in the rich 16th arrondissement in Paris and would become one of the most famous couples from what was called ‘Les Annees Folles’. Besides the legendary parties they used to host, Foujita and Youki were surrounded by many friends including Alexander Calder, Jules Pascin, and Constantin Brancusi. These were the years of fast life and success for Foujita who was at that point a jury member of renowned Salons and decorated with the French Legion of Honour. As Youki said later in her memoires, ‘in 1924, life was easy, business flourishing and Foujita started to be known. We were in love with each other, we were good, and kind and happy about everything’.
By October of 1931, Foujita's and Youki's marriage had deteriorated. Youki met French surrealist post, Robert Desnos and in his farewell note, Foujita wrote "I do not have any more strength to fight in Paris ... Let me have the simple life which I dream of...You now have a faithful friend, Robert ... who has taken my place and for him you are the dearest person in the world."
UNIVERSAL BEAUTY
For it was in these paintings of the 1920s that Foujita first demonstrated a sensual quality in his portraiture which spoke both of passion and tenderness; the present work is one of the finest examples of this. The porcelain skin shimmers on the canvas, the tones blending fluidly with those of the bed sheets.
The dexterity of the painted line, recalling the finest calligraphic technique Foujita had studied during his youth in Japan, enables the painter’s brush to be as precise and expressive as the menso , the thinnest brush used by traditional Japanese painters.
Despite Foujita’s exuberant personality, Les Deux Amies (Two Friends) radiates a sense of perfection and infinite calm that contrasts with the couple’s swirling social life. Youki’s figure melts into the white background naturally as her pale skin is depicted with the same nyuhakushoku (literally “whiteness of milk”) technique. Inspired by the use of mineral pigment in the traditional nihonga painting, Foujita would layer his canvas with a white background to form a creamy and soft surface, ideal to capture the beauty of his models’ skin and create a mesmerizing atmosphere, leading the viewer into an interior composition painted in a range of white and grey shades. This almost monochrome technique, a new treatment of the figure in the West, can be found in the representation of nude figures by his peers who stayed in Japan. Hashiguchi Goyo uses ink washes to modulate the female shape of painted in 1920. This delicacy of colours and line create a universal and almost abstract beauty that both Foujita and the Nihonga disciples sought, freed from the features of the model.
This unique aesthetic language creates a cohesive context for Foujita’s paintings of Kiki and Youki, with the nudes painted by his fellows of Ecole de Paris such as Jules Pascin, as well as to distinguish his timeless modernity. Though Kiki and Youki were Foujita’s models for a decade as well as muses of the Parisian cultural scene at that time, it is the representations of them painted by Foujita which has given them a place among the pantheon of historic paintings of female nudes.
Next year in 2018, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita will open in Paris. The event will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese-French artist's death.
Nearly one hundred year ago, in the early 1920s, Foujita began an exploration of the nude motif with a unique focus on refined calligraphic line and flawless surface. While the nude figure is present throughout Western art history, it was a new frontier and artistic breakthrough for the young Japanese artist. Almost immediately these works were met with acclaim from the international art circle that had gathered in Paris at that time.
Foujita’s muses, commonly known as Kiki and Youki, would play a pivotal role in the artist’s life and oeuvre – ushering in a new chapter in his artistic journey and in the history of representation of the nude figure.
Painted in 1926, Les Deux Amies (Two Friends) (Lot 19) is a portrait depicting Kiki on the left and Youki on the right. Far from the chaos of the Parisian life, Kiki and Youki, half covering by sheets, are depicted in a quietly seated position where Youki appears to be inhabiting a protective position as Kiki nestles toward her. While Kiki is depicted with a direct gaze toward the painter, Youki’s hazel eyes are soft and unfocused. The portrayal is seemingly Foujita’s interpretation of the two important muses in his life—the bold Kiki and the graceful and considerate Youki. Foujita’s private relationship with Kiki and Youki constructs the unique energy in this figurative painting. It is not only nude bodies that are being portrayed, but also the authentic spirit connecting them to Foujita.
KIKI, THE QUEEN OF MONTPARNASSE
Alice Ernestine Prin (1901-1953), nicknamed the Queen of Montparnasse, and often known as Kiki de Montparnasse, was an artist's model, nightclub singer, actress, writer, and painter. Her charismatic existence helped define the liberated culture of Paris in the 1920s.
Adopting a single name, "Kiki", she became a fixture in the Montparnasse social scene and a popular artist's model, posing for dozens of artists, including Tsuguharu Foujita, Sanyu, Chaim Soutine, Pablo Gargallo, and most famously, Man Ray, when she was photographed for his work titled Le Violon d’Ingres , 1924, showing Kiki’s bare back with f-holes painted in black onto the print to suggest her body as a musical instrument.
YOUKI, THE SNOW
In 1921, Foujita met a young woman named Lucie Badoud; for the following decade, she lived as his muse, lover and wife, inspiring some of the most sensual and striking paintings that the artist ever produced. Foujita fell in love with Badoud deeply and the couple disappeared from the Montparnasse district in Paris for three days to spend time together. Foujita nicknamed the young and joyful Belgian orphan ‘Youki’ (“snow” in Japanese) for her flawless skin.
In no time, Foujita and Youki settled in a luxurious apartment in the rich 16th arrondissement in Paris and would become one of the most famous couples from what was called ‘Les Annees Folles’. Besides the legendary parties they used to host, Foujita and Youki were surrounded by many friends including Alexander Calder, Jules Pascin, and Constantin Brancusi. These were the years of fast life and success for Foujita who was at that point a jury member of renowned Salons and decorated with the French Legion of Honour. As Youki said later in her memoires, ‘in 1924, life was easy, business flourishing and Foujita started to be known. We were in love with each other, we were good, and kind and happy about everything’.
By October of 1931, Foujita's and Youki's marriage had deteriorated. Youki met French surrealist post, Robert Desnos and in his farewell note, Foujita wrote "I do not have any more strength to fight in Paris ... Let me have the simple life which I dream of...You now have a faithful friend, Robert ... who has taken my place and for him you are the dearest person in the world."
UNIVERSAL BEAUTY
For it was in these paintings of the 1920s that Foujita first demonstrated a sensual quality in his portraiture which spoke both of passion and tenderness; the present work is one of the finest examples of this. The porcelain skin shimmers on the canvas, the tones blending fluidly with those of the bed sheets.
The dexterity of the painted line, recalling the finest calligraphic technique Foujita had studied during his youth in Japan, enables the painter’s brush to be as precise and expressive as the menso , the thinnest brush used by traditional Japanese painters.
Despite Foujita’s exuberant personality, Les Deux Amies (Two Friends) radiates a sense of perfection and infinite calm that contrasts with the couple’s swirling social life. Youki’s figure melts into the white background naturally as her pale skin is depicted with the same nyuhakushoku (literally “whiteness of milk”) technique. Inspired by the use of mineral pigment in the traditional nihonga painting, Foujita would layer his canvas with a white background to form a creamy and soft surface, ideal to capture the beauty of his models’ skin and create a mesmerizing atmosphere, leading the viewer into an interior composition painted in a range of white and grey shades. This almost monochrome technique, a new treatment of the figure in the West, can be found in the representation of nude figures by his peers who stayed in Japan. Hashiguchi Goyo uses ink washes to modulate the female shape of painted in 1920. This delicacy of colours and line create a universal and almost abstract beauty that both Foujita and the Nihonga disciples sought, freed from the features of the model.
This unique aesthetic language creates a cohesive context for Foujita’s paintings of Kiki and Youki, with the nudes painted by his fellows of Ecole de Paris such as Jules Pascin, as well as to distinguish his timeless modernity. Though Kiki and Youki were Foujita’s models for a decade as well as muses of the Parisian cultural scene at that time, it is the representations of them painted by Foujita which has given them a place among the pantheon of historic paintings of female nudes.