Oil, ink and mixed media on canvas

27.8×24.6 cm. 11 ×9 5/8 in

Signed in Chinese, dated with one drawing seal on bottom left
PROVENANCE
Original collection of Gustave van de Woestyne family, Brussels
15 Mar 2007, Sotheby’s London Spring Auction, Lot 91
Private Collection, Paris
Private Collection, Asia
The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Sylvie Buisson, and will be included in the forthcoming fourth volume of Léonard Foujita Catalogue Général prepared by Sylvie Buisson.

Body
Art Language,
Body Poetry
“On canvas after canvas he gave to a part of a body or to parts of bodies a special power of narration. The painting then speaks with several voices – like a story being told by different people from different points of view. Yet these ’points of view’ can only exist in a corporeal space which is incompatible with territorial or architectural space. Corporeal space is continually changing its measures and focal centers, according to circumstances.”
──John Berger, “Rembrandt and the Body”
In his book The Shape of a Pocket, illustrative UK modern art critic John Berger detailed how some of Rembrandt’s best works typically did not provide viewers with any points of view； instead, it was the viewers who heard the conversations between various parts of the body. Such conversations actually originated from the perceptions and experiences people’s bodies, and that is why someone standing in front of a Rembrandt painting will not simply look at the work of art but rather allow the piece to fill his or her mind with thoughts about his or her own bodily experiences.
Over the course of the artistic development taking place in Asia throughout the 20th century and up to today, exploration of the body through art has undergone countless transformations and changes, accumulating a considerable degree of research as a result. In order to interpret these extremely valuable perceptions and experiences which can hardly be put into words, Guardian （Hong Kong） has conceptualized Body langhage, an album compiling the work of 13 transcendent Asian artists from various eras, including Tsuguharu Foujita, Chen Cheng-Po, Hoo Mojong , Luo Zhongli, Walasse Ting, Chiu Ya-Tsai, Fu-Sheng Ku, Huang Ming-Che, Yoshitomo Nara, Liu Yi, Ronald Ventura, Chen Fei, and Lai Chiu-chen. The album exhibits how these artists approach their craft through various mediums such as ink and paint to compose poetic verses of painting in their own unique styles.
language
A Moveable Asian Feast
Tsuguharu Foujita
From the Meiji Era in the late 19th century, the Japanese painting world has been divided into “Japanese painting” and “Western painting.” Tsuguharu Foujita played an active in role in the European modern painting movement, but his works also embraced traditional Japanese aesthetics in an effort to seamlessly combine the fine line drawing and flatness of the latter with the realist world of Western oil painting. In so doing, he created a new and unique creative style.
Darling of Paris： Golden Age
In 1905, Tsuguharu Foujita who was born to a renowned family in Tokyo, entered the Western painting Department at Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he was taught by Kuroda Seiki, one of the first Japanese artists to study in France and a member of the Pleniarism School. This was where he began to dream of visiting Paris, the art capital of the world, a journey he finally made in 1913 at the age of 27. Once in France, Foujita’s laidback outlook helped him make friends and he soon became a member of the “Paris School” of painting. Through his constant studying of Western classics and his attempt to blend this learning with the inspiration provided by traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e painting, Foujita developed his own distinctive creative technique of painting fine ink lines on ivory-white underpaint. In his seventh year in the city, Foujita finally became the “darling of Paris, ” a change in fortunes that led to a decade of unprecedented creativity （1921-1929）.
The current spring auction includes two works by Tsuguharu Foujita - Nature Morte à La Figurine （1922） and Femme Allongée （1927）. These classic works burnished the artist’s fame and fortune during his time in Paris and come from a period when his artistic appeal was at its peak. The paintings also showcase his ivory-white underpaint signature, consummate attention to realist detail and exquisite lines imbued with the romantic charm of Japanese Ukiyo-e painting, presenting fragmentary memories from Paris of the 1920s in dreamlike scenes.
Fragments of Japanese and Western Styles Combined
In Nature Morte à La Figurine, Foujita depicts part of a desk in his Paris home. This is covered with a tablecloth decorated with an Eastern decorative pattern made up of thin transparent print green leaves on the flakey white underpaint. The central focus is a porcelain figurine he purchased from a flea market dressed in nineteenth century attire, which makes it particularly vivid and lifelike almost as if out for a stroll. The pipe on its side and the matchbox are items the artist habitually used. Through his realist approach, Foujita depicts the wooden stem of the pipe and the wording on the matchbox in great detail, akin to a classical still life painting from the Middle Ages. The figurine, pipe and matchbox form a triangular composition, creating a serene sense of balance which set against the warm ivory-white background crafts a spatial aesthetic in which time feels eternal.
Inspired by Ukiyo-e painting, Foujita used an extra-thin fine point “modeling brush” popular in traditional Japanese painting. Dipped in ink this allowed him to paint outlines as fine as strands of hair on milky-white underpaint, which ensured the accuracy of objects depicted. He also repeatedly wiped cotton wool dipped in charcoal powder across the painting in imitation of the Ukiyo-e coloring technique, creating a transitional dark grey hue between the ivory-white underpaint and black lines that ingeniously imbues the work with the light and shade of Western realism. The result is “a combination of Japanese and Western styles” with unique artistic appeal.
A Meeting of Minds - Testament to Beauty
On the back of Nature Morte à La Figurine, is an inscription by Foujita, indicating that he gave this painting to Belgium artist Gustave van de Woetyne. At the time, Van de Woetyne was an important pioneer in the world of modern painting and in 1923 was chosen to participate in the Salon de Paris. Foujita was a big fan of the sense of modernity that permeated the style and structure of his paintings and van de Woetyne was deeply impressed with the way Foujita combined Eastern and Western elements. The two men became friends, exchanging artistic ideas and giving each other paintings as mementoes. Nature Morte à La Figurine is one of the works Foujita carefully selected and presented to his friend and it has a self evident uniqueness.
Beautiful Dreams Brought to Life
In the work Femme Allongée, Foujita uses smooth and polished pencil lines replete with rhythm to depict a female nude that embodies the gentle elegance of an Eastern beauty combined with exotic emotional and sex appeal. In the painting, faint representations of Eastern culture can be discerned, underscoring the artist’s love of Japanese culture. However, he also aspired to escape labels and develop a completely new artistic language. The woman’s chin is slightly elevated, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she lies there composed and self assured. The presentation appears close enough to touch but also noble and as unassailable as the stars above. In other words, the work showcases the beauty of an independent modern woman, a notable departure from the feminine demureness of traditional Asian women.
Based on her fullsome figure, facial outline and thick curly hair the dreamlike woman in the painting is most likely Madeleine Lequeux with whom Foujita was having a courtship at the time. She was also one of the artist’s most beloved muses and this painting is one of the first in which she served as the main model. It is also informed by Foujita’s feelings of love and his intense focus on the subject, charming viewers with the intertwining of love and dreams.

Price estimate:
HKD: 700, 000 - 1, 000, 000
USD: 89, 700 - 128, 200

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,085,600