Lot Essay
Book of Cats is Foujita’s most beloved work and is "certainly one of the rarest and most desired books on cats in existence" (Sam Kalda, Of Cats and Men, 2017, p. 43). Born and educated in Tokyo, Foujita emigrated to Paris where he became a leading member of the French avant-garde; a friend of Picasso and Modigliani, he counted Kiki de Montparnasse among his models. The languid etchings of felines in this work, accompanied by the prose-poetry of Michael Joseph, exemplify the signature hybrid Japanese-European style which earned him great acclaim.