Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita

Collection Albert Sarraut, France (gift from the artist);

By inheritance to Mlle J., granddaughter of the above;

Thence by descent to the present owner.

In this watercolour on paper made in 1962, the Franco-Japanese painter Tsuguharu Foujita pays tribute to the Sienese Trecento and the Italian Renaissance, important sources of inspiration for the artist. The Virgin and Child, with their elongated and slender appearance, finely outlined in Indian ink, evoke the art of Botticelli and Parmigianino. They are draped in fabrics with delicate and faded colours. Their somewhat constrained air recalls Carlo Crivelli’s female figures, especially his Mary Magdalens. The hieratic posture of the two figures also calls to mind the ancient Greek art that inspired Foujita, especially the figures of kouroi and korai, with their distinctive ‘archaic smile’.

Signed bottom centre and top left of the composition and presented to Président Albert Sarraut, this sheet joins the artist’s abundant corpus of works dedicated to mystical and religious subjects, once again perfectly illustrating the marriage between Japanese prints and the art of the early Italian masters, as well as Foujita’s interest in the Catholic religion. The artist converted to Catholicism in 1959 and towards the end of his life devoted himself to decorating the Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Paix in Reims, whose vast iconographic programme, dedicated especially to the figure of the Virgin Mary, constitutes a final artistic and expiatory undertaking.