Lot 1006
  • 1006

LÉONARD TSUGUHARU FOUJITA | Portrait de Youki

Estimate
1,800,000 - 2,800,000 HKD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita
  • Portrait de Youki
  • signed in Japanese and English, dated 1928; signed in Japanese on the reverse; dated 1928, signed in English and Japanese on the stretcherGalerie Colette Weil label affixed to the stretcher on the reverse
  • oil on canvas
  • 33 by 24 cm; 13 by 9 ½ in. 

Provenance

Galerie Colette Weil, Paris
Important Private European Collection

Exhibited

Sakura, Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Léonard Foujita et ses modèles, 17 September 2016 - 15 January 2017
Iwaki, Iwaki City Art Museum, Léonard Foujita et ses modèles, 15 April - 28 May 2017
Niigata, The Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Léonard Foujita et ses modèles, 24 June - 3 September 2017
Akita, Akita Museum of Art, Léonard Foujita et ses modèles, 9 September - 12 November 2017

Literature

Sylvie Buisson, Foujita: Inédits, A L'encre Rouge, Paris, 2007, p. 161
Mizue Nakamura, ed., Léonard Foujita et ses modèles, Kabushiki Kaisha Kyureitāzu, Tokyo, 2016, p. 57

Condition

The work is in good and its original condition, except for fine hairline craquelures apparent across the overall surface. There is no sign of restoration under UV light examination.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

“Women and cats are the same: at night, their eyes shine. They seem lovable and sensible, but if you slight them in any way, they will forget all their gratitude to their master and lightly betray you. Look: if you merely add whiskers and a tail to a woman, then you don't need to make any other changes: doesn't she look like a cat?"
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita was the most dazzling Asian artist of the Paris School of painting of the early twentieth century, and his most famous subjects were cats and female nudes. Foujita had a special love of cats. Cats often appeared in his nudes as well as his self-portraits, and he also made many paintings with cats at play as their focus. In 1930, he collaborated with Michael Joseph to publish Book of Cats, a collection of twenty of Foujita's cat paintings. Today, Book of Cats is one of the five hundred most valuable publications of all time, and it is also the most beloved book of cat paintings ever. Portrait de Youki (Lot 1006) and Deux Petits Chats (Lot 1007), two paintings featured in this evening auction, depict Foujita's two most beloved subjects: nudes and cats.

An Artist and a Cat Lover

Cats play an extremely important role in Japanese culture. Shinto shrines around the country pay homage to cats, and in the lives and hearts of Japanese people, cats are a symbol of family. Cats are also often a motif in the Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut tradition. While Foujita lived abroad, cats offered companionship as well as a cultural connection to his homeland. One night in Paris, Foujita was returning home from a party when he picked up a stray cat; thereafter, he was always collecting strays, and at one point, he had more than a dozen cats in his home. That was when cats began to appear in his paintings, their movements and behaviours seemingly reflecting the artist's own feelings. Therefore it's no exaggeration to say that cats were also Foujita's creative muses.

Deux Petits Chats, painted in 1930, depicts a grey cat along with a white cat with black spots: two cats that also appeared in Foujita's most classic reclining nudes: Nu au Chat and Nu Couché. In terms of composition, Deux Petits Chats takes a different approach to Nu au Chat, painted the same year, but achieves a similar result. Both paintings feature the grey cat in the foreground in an almost identical posture: two eyes staring piercingly at the viewer. But the dreaming woman in the original painting is replaced by a white cat with black spots. The lazy, contented posture of this resting cat reflects its trust in its master's happiness. In comparison, the cat in the foreground gently yet proudly stares into the eyes of the master that loves it. At the same time, its ears are warily attuned to the sounds around it, creating a sense of tension in Deux Petits Chats. This painting expresses Foujita's love for cats and women but also their distrustfulness, depicting contented happiness while also hinting at a sense of insecurity. This aesthetic reflects Foujita's attitude towards women, whom he both adored and felt unsure of. The contrast between the two cats' expressions portrays Foujita's profound and contradictory feelings towards women. It also may subtly allude to Youki's absence: the cats who remained behind with the artist became his valued spiritual vessels.

Portrait of a Goddess

The nude is a theme from Western painting, but Tsuguharu Foujita's nudes combined the posture of Western goddesses with his Eastern aesthetic sensibility. Foujita's lines mimic the thin ink lines of Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts combined with Western oil painting. In Eastern aesthetics, the colour white represents exquisite beauty; Foujita uses a milky white-hue for the woman's skin. Foujita mastered his own distinctive palette of oil paints. He rendered the milky-white skin of the woman in the painting with a flawless texture that invokes the powered faces of geishas and expresses a mysterious and graceful Eastern ambience. The woman's skin in Portrait de Youki is as bright and white as snow; her hair is glossy and elegant. Youki is outlined in simple lines that express the gentleness and elegance of the East while also containing a non-Eastern, exotic tone. Foujita reinterpreted Western beauty from an Eastern perspective in a unique painting style that shocked all of Paris.

The Musée Maillol in Paris will host an exhibition of Tsuguharu Foujita's work this year from 7 March to 15 July: LES ANNÉES FOLLES 1913-1931. The artist's works from this period have performed very well on the auction market, such as Nu au Chat (1930), which sold for 39,400,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong Modern and Contemporary Asian Art Evening Auction in 2016, setting an auction record in Asia for Foujita. Both the market and academic circles have highly prized Foujita's work from this period. In particular, the development of the artist's nude series during the years from 1921 to 1931 has received the most attention. Youki was Foujita's primary muse, goddess, and model during this period. After meeting in 1923, they fell in love and married, only to separate in 1931. Youki provided Foujita with abundant inspiration, and the artist often invoked her by name as a theme in his art. Youki, Goddess of Snow, painted one year after they met, was selected for the Salon d’Automne , and eventually ended up in the collection of the Musee du Petit Palais in Geneva. For Portrait de Youki, Foujita combined the simplest of lines with his distinctive milky-white hue of paint, expressing for us the perfect Youki of the artist's heart. In 2017, this painting was the only “Youki” painting among more than one hundred works by Foujita to be included in the Japanese traveling exhibition Tsuguharu Foujita and His Models, demonstrating the preciousness of Portrait de Youki.