Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita

This recently discovered work by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita depicts the bust of a young woman in a peignoir, or outer garment. Rendered in light washes of blue and green, the contours of the sitter are captured in fine, almost needle-like brushstrokes. The sitter’s gentle gaze is direct; her loose shoulder-length locks penned in quick flourishes.

Among the members of École de Paris of the twentieth century, Foujita, with his remarkable achievements and widespread recognition received during lifetime, dwarfed every other artist who journeyed from the East during that era. In the Roaring Twenties, Paris was an open and liberal society, allowing artists, poets and writers to gather in cafes, exchange ideas and seek inspiration, immersing themselves in a moveable feast of creativity. At that time, Foujita's unique aesthetics of combining Japanese and Western elements captivated the Parisian art scene, making him the most dazzling Asian figure of the École de Paris.

Foujita boldly delved into the realm of female figure painting with his depictions of women displaying tender and smooth milky white skin. Between the golden decade of 1921 and 1931, he created a series of grand-scale paintings of reclining nudes, catapulting him to considerable fame. Today, many of his works are held in the permanent collections of renowned national museums around the world, including the Hiroshima Museum of Art, Fukuoka Art Museum, Masakichi Hirano Museum of Fine Art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, and the Petit Palais, Geneva, leaving a footprint across Asia and Europe.