Ball pen on paper

6.2 × 13 cm. 2 1/2 × 5 1/8 in. (A);5.2 × 15 cm. 2 × 5 7/8 in. (B)

A: signed in French on bottom center
B: Dedicated in French, signed and dated on upper center
PROVENANCE
Received as a gift by original collector from the artist
Private Collection, U.S
Private Collection, Asia

Nostalgic Dreamland, Reminiscing Paris
Leonard Foujita: The Quirky Genius

The year 1913 witnessed Leonard Foujita's trip to France to develop his study. Starting from 1914, Foujita got inspired by the street views in Paris and created a series of artwork. Hence the first breakthrough after his arrival in this country got launched, giving Foujita the special honour of being the only Asian face among his colleagues back then. In 1919, as many as six works of art of Foujita got chosen to attend Salon d'Automne, Paris, allowing his creation to be exhibited shoulder-to-shoulder with them of Henri Matisse. Three years from then on, Foujita was nominated as the committee of Salon d'Automne, which was then considered a supreme honour. His work is collected by Louvre Museum (Paris), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo), etc. The artwork that is exhibited here, La Charrette à Montmartre  (Lot 100) is one of the important representatives among the series of Foujita's early works when traveling in France.

A Full Display of Talent in the Early Career

La Charrette à Montmartre , named after the place where Foujita and his comtemperory artists loved to go to and have galas, is shown to the audience with one corner of Montmartre as the visual centre of gravity. The layout of the painting is formed with a special low-angle view, demonstrating the peculiar geographical feature of the highland. The foreground, with a trolley staying in the middle of the road, head resting on the ground and handles pointing to the air, breaks the stillness of the illustrated space and arises curiosity of the audience. In the middle ground, the natural sense of movement is added by the appearance of two passengers with the deliberate arrangement of the directions they walk towards and the landscape of the fork in the road. The windows and the buildings, with their perfectly square shape, create a distinct contrast with the irregular shaped boundaries of the land. The streamlines on the ground correspond with endless clouds on the sky with layers of shade. All the elements imply how this artwork embraces the school of surrealism that was then extremely popular in Paris. This work of art corresponds with both the description that is mentioned in the autobiography of Foujita and the elements that are applied, delivering his quotation of “a key to the path leading to the future”.

This early work of Foujita also gives hints to his style in his later career maturity, in how he manages to master the mixture of colours and creates the semi-transparent ivory white, and how he delicately deals with the gentle differentiation of lights. On the lower left of the canvas, the ground floor of the house is painted with a relatively brighter white, making this place the origin of lights, implying that the hidden path around the corner that is full of mystery is waiting for exploration. The rest of the building, on the other hand, are illustrated with a grey tone, depicting the special style of architecture in Montmartre covered under the year-long drizzle. Among the endless displays of windows, there is a one and single coloured with red. Probably, it gives away how the young artist expresses love and fantasy towards this gorgeous city.

In Love with Montmartre

“Let's just say there isn't a me before success!”
– Letter to Father, by Leonard Foujita, 1916

In the 1910s, Montmartre is the destination of supreme artists from all over the world. Masters such as Pablo Picasso and Modigliani all once resided there, immersing freely in the atmosphere of art. 1917, the same year Foujita completed the creation of “Highland of Montmartre”, the artist held his first personal exhibition in Gallery Chéron. On the very first day of this exhibition, Pablo Picasso got attracted to come and stay as long as three hours. At that time, although Foujita had not yet started his creation of the theme of nude female figures, he had already demonstrated a high skill in painting adopted from the Western school and the sense of aesthetics from traditional Eastern world, which, altogether, gained him a high reputation in world of art. La Charrette à Montmartre  is a love letter the artist writes to his dearest city. The fork of the road that leads to different directions indicates endless possibilities leading to a bright future.

His Mania on Cats and Interaction with Elites

In this auction, what are brought for your view are a series of drawings including Cat, Self Portrait (Lot 99). In Cat, the creature has her head raised with limbs comfortably extending on the floor. Her curly tail loosely hangs over there, just like the classic posture of relaxed charming ladies in the paintings of Foujita. In the Self Portrait that was done in 1958, the artist depicted himself as an elder with glasses on. The nasolabial folds are deeply carved in face, indicating his age of wisdom. This drawing was once given as a gift to his friend Charles Zalber, the owner of Galerie des Beaux Arts Charles Zalber. It is the evidence of Foujita's social network with upper-class art people in France in his late age, which gives this artwork an extra value.

Price estimate:
HKD: 30,000 – 50,000
USD: 3,900 – 6,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 88,500