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Lot Essay
Foujita was born and educated in Japan before moving to Paris in 1913. He kept a studio on the rue Delambre in Montmartre and befriended the avant-garde circle of Montparnasse, including Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Chaïm Soutine. Foujita’s first solo exhibition took place at the Galerie Cheron in 1917 and was an overnight sensation. All of the 110 watercolors he had chosen to present were sold.
The present work belongs to a series of gouaches that the artist executed over gold leaf starting in 1918. He had learned the ancient technique during his studies at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, however the direct impetus to revitalize the technique is likely to have been his recent visit to the Vatican. Foujita had been granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV through his patron, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Henri Seeholzer. The Pope commissioned a portrait from the artist and also invited him to study the treasures of the Vatican including works by Giotto, and Fra Angelico's decorations for the Chapel of Nicholas V. Pope Benedict XV died before Foujita could paint his portrait but the influence of this trip is evident not only in the gold leaf but also in the rich, jewel-like colors and stylized forms of the present work.
Cats are an important recurring motif in Foujita's oeuvre, and in 1930 he published The Book of Cats, which included twenty languid etchings of felines accompanied by the prose-poetry of Michael Joseph. He admired cats for their beauty, character and gracious movement, and often incorporated them into his compositions with women. In an interview for the Milwaukee Journal in 1935 Foujita declared, “I never look at men, only at women—they have, each one, such marvelous possibilities of beauty. But unfortunately, most of them have not developed these possibilities because they have not learned the lessons cats can teach…Cats are never in a hurry, never angular. They move softly, gently, insinuatingly. Clever women live with cats…They study the animal’s movements, habits and emotional reactions…”
The present work belongs to a series of gouaches that the artist executed over gold leaf starting in 1918. He had learned the ancient technique during his studies at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, however the direct impetus to revitalize the technique is likely to have been his recent visit to the Vatican. Foujita had been granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV through his patron, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Henri Seeholzer. The Pope commissioned a portrait from the artist and also invited him to study the treasures of the Vatican including works by Giotto, and Fra Angelico's decorations for the Chapel of Nicholas V. Pope Benedict XV died before Foujita could paint his portrait but the influence of this trip is evident not only in the gold leaf but also in the rich, jewel-like colors and stylized forms of the present work.
Cats are an important recurring motif in Foujita's oeuvre, and in 1930 he published The Book of Cats, which included twenty languid etchings of felines accompanied by the prose-poetry of Michael Joseph. He admired cats for their beauty, character and gracious movement, and often incorporated them into his compositions with women. In an interview for the Milwaukee Journal in 1935 Foujita declared, “I never look at men, only at women—they have, each one, such marvelous possibilities of beauty. But unfortunately, most of them have not developed these possibilities because they have not learned the lessons cats can teach…Cats are never in a hurry, never angular. They move softly, gently, insinuatingly. Clever women live with cats…They study the animal’s movements, habits and emotional reactions…”