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拍品专文
Arrived in Paris in 1913, the then twenty-seven years old Foujita would soon be absorbed into the swirling atmosphere of the Parisian “Années Folles” and become one of the most eccentric and fascinating figure of the School of Paris. By the early 1920s, the artist renamed himself Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita and developed a technique and style that would open a sensational breakthrough in both Western and Eastern art history. The synthesis and balance found his most accurate expression in the depiction of the Nude, a traditional canon of the Western iconography. Foujita noticed quite early that “there are only very few nudes in Japanese paintings. Even painters like Harunobo or Utamaro (fig.2) let only appear a portion of the knee or the leg, and these were the restricted area where they could represent the skin sensation. This is what encouraged me to paint nudes again after 8 years of break with the clear objective of depicting the most beautiful material that can be: human’s skin.”
(Foujita quoted page 96 in Sylvie & Dominique Buisson, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita Volume I, Paris, France, 2001.)
Reclining Nude (Lot 29), painted in 1932 shows one of the strongest demonstration of Foujita’s unique treatment of this historical yet inexhaustible canon. Already a renowned figure in both France and Japan, the beginning of the 1930s opens a new era in Foujita’s work when he decided to explore the Latin American continent, leaving Montparnasse in May 1931 for Brasil where an exhibition of the School of Paris’ artists was held. This period would bring him to settle Japan in 1933 and shows one of the finest compositions in the artist’s palette. Travelling with the young model Madeleine Lequeux (fig.1), Foujita left behind money and romance issues, after his second wife fell into the arms of the surrealist poet Robert Desnos.
The first portraits of Madeleine appears in 1930 and shows an unprecedented sensuality, inspired by the radiant beauty of the young and charming dancer. The red hair, blue eyes and candid expression in Reclining Nude are easy markers of the young model who had already charmed other Parisian painters such as André Derain who introduced her to Foujita. Hostess during the day and dancer at the Casino de Paris at night, Madeleine is the third muse of Foujita after his two wifes Fernande Barrey who he married in 1917 and Lucie Badoul, nicknamed ‘Youki’. Travelling from Brasil to Argentina, Foujita would testify of his unique way of depicting an iconic canon of Western art history illustrated by his own vocabulary, inspired by Asian calligraphic technique.
Educated at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Foujita followed the courses of Seiki Kuroda who was the first painter to show nude paintings in the 1890s in Japan. Kuroda who went to Paris at the beginning of the 20th Centuy would bring back to Japan the Western techniques and modern approach (called yoga), applying it to the teaching of nihonga, the traditional Japanese painting techniques. Foujita found a way to synthetize both approaches, using the mineral pigments inspired by nihonga to the medium of oil. Layering the canvas with several binders and natural pigments, this technique he called nyuhakushoku (literally “whiteness of milk”) enables the brilliant painted surface to be permeable to ink. The model’s shape and details of the sheets would then be drawn with sumi (Japenese taditional ink) with the menso, the thinnest brush of the Japanese painter. The purity of the line testifies of the finest calligraphic heritage of Foujita and his well-trained calligrapher wrist. The creamy and soft surface creates shades of white and grey, almost monochrome, from which appears a mesmerizing vision of the chaste reclining body of Madeleine on the disordered bed sheets. The gracefulness the figure, that recalls the delicacy of Ingres’s Odalisques (Fig. 3) or Hashiguchi Goyo’s models, bares witness of a model who radiates from a sense of universal and almost abstract beauty.
Only a few colours stands out from this creamy surface; the copper colour hair of Madeleine, faded blue eyes and delicate touches of light pinks on the model’s skin. Following the Japanese traditions were the coloured shades are mostly rendered by texture and mineral pigments, Foujita testifies here of his ability to depict a resolutely modern female figure, “painting with the light” like his fellow Parisian friends from the fauvism movement such as André Derain (Fig.4).
Reclining Nude demonstrates how Foujita found a way to reunite both the line and the light in his palette, becoming this universal painter he wanted to be. He would honour and give his modernity to the traditional guidance of the Asian painting as complied in the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting written by the painter Wang Kai in 1701, stating:
“In the art of painting,
The use of the brush is of the utmost importance
Then comes the control of the ink,
And finally the one of the colour.”
(Foujita quoted page 96 in Sylvie & Dominique Buisson, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita Volume I, Paris, France, 2001.)
Reclining Nude (Lot 29), painted in 1932 shows one of the strongest demonstration of Foujita’s unique treatment of this historical yet inexhaustible canon. Already a renowned figure in both France and Japan, the beginning of the 1930s opens a new era in Foujita’s work when he decided to explore the Latin American continent, leaving Montparnasse in May 1931 for Brasil where an exhibition of the School of Paris’ artists was held. This period would bring him to settle Japan in 1933 and shows one of the finest compositions in the artist’s palette. Travelling with the young model Madeleine Lequeux (fig.1), Foujita left behind money and romance issues, after his second wife fell into the arms of the surrealist poet Robert Desnos.
The first portraits of Madeleine appears in 1930 and shows an unprecedented sensuality, inspired by the radiant beauty of the young and charming dancer. The red hair, blue eyes and candid expression in Reclining Nude are easy markers of the young model who had already charmed other Parisian painters such as André Derain who introduced her to Foujita. Hostess during the day and dancer at the Casino de Paris at night, Madeleine is the third muse of Foujita after his two wifes Fernande Barrey who he married in 1917 and Lucie Badoul, nicknamed ‘Youki’. Travelling from Brasil to Argentina, Foujita would testify of his unique way of depicting an iconic canon of Western art history illustrated by his own vocabulary, inspired by Asian calligraphic technique.
Educated at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Foujita followed the courses of Seiki Kuroda who was the first painter to show nude paintings in the 1890s in Japan. Kuroda who went to Paris at the beginning of the 20th Centuy would bring back to Japan the Western techniques and modern approach (called yoga), applying it to the teaching of nihonga, the traditional Japanese painting techniques. Foujita found a way to synthetize both approaches, using the mineral pigments inspired by nihonga to the medium of oil. Layering the canvas with several binders and natural pigments, this technique he called nyuhakushoku (literally “whiteness of milk”) enables the brilliant painted surface to be permeable to ink. The model’s shape and details of the sheets would then be drawn with sumi (Japenese taditional ink) with the menso, the thinnest brush of the Japanese painter. The purity of the line testifies of the finest calligraphic heritage of Foujita and his well-trained calligrapher wrist. The creamy and soft surface creates shades of white and grey, almost monochrome, from which appears a mesmerizing vision of the chaste reclining body of Madeleine on the disordered bed sheets. The gracefulness the figure, that recalls the delicacy of Ingres’s Odalisques (Fig. 3) or Hashiguchi Goyo’s models, bares witness of a model who radiates from a sense of universal and almost abstract beauty.
Only a few colours stands out from this creamy surface; the copper colour hair of Madeleine, faded blue eyes and delicate touches of light pinks on the model’s skin. Following the Japanese traditions were the coloured shades are mostly rendered by texture and mineral pigments, Foujita testifies here of his ability to depict a resolutely modern female figure, “painting with the light” like his fellow Parisian friends from the fauvism movement such as André Derain (Fig.4).
Reclining Nude demonstrates how Foujita found a way to reunite both the line and the light in his palette, becoming this universal painter he wanted to be. He would honour and give his modernity to the traditional guidance of the Asian painting as complied in the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting written by the painter Wang Kai in 1701, stating:
“In the art of painting,
The use of the brush is of the utmost importance
Then comes the control of the ink,
And finally the one of the colour.”