Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale Hong Kong Friday, October 6, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Featuring a long-haired maiden gazing off into the distance, Portrait of Madeleine is an elegant example of Japanese-French artist Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita’s portraits of females throughout his prolific career. An important figure of the École de Paris (School of Paris) alongside artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, Foujita was educated at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts before moving to France in 1913. There, he was freed from the constraints of Japanese artistic formality, allowing the artist to explore Western art through historical influences and his established peers. At the same time, his idiosyncratic style still incorporated Eastern aesthetics, resulting in hybridised works which satisfied both his personal interests and the tastes of French audiences.
     

    Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita and Madeleine Lequeux in Tokyo, 1934


    Combining two of the most common themes found in his oeuvre, Foujita chose to portray one of his most famous model in the current work. Nicknamed ‘the panther’, Madeleine Lequeux was a dancer at the Casino de Paris, and the pair first met each other in 1930. From 1931 onwards, Foujita and Madeleine left France in a worldwide trip to Latin America, China and Japan, where his lover became one of the artist’s most frequent subjects during this fruitful period of his life. 
    Executed a year after Madeleine’s unfortunate death in 1936, Portrait of Madeleine takes a less sensuous approach than Foujita’s earlier nude paintings. Using a thin brush to draft her appearance, the intimate ink portrait is rendered with smooth strokes and delicate contouring that bring out grand details synonymous with Madeleine - piercing eyes, golden hair and strong features. Drawn on the artist’s signature ivory background, her skin appears milky-white like porcelain. Using just simple lines and composition, Foujita fully encapsulates the charismatic yet pure beauty of his muse.
     

    Kitagawa Utamaro, Woman Relaxing after Her Bath, circa 1790s
    Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art


    Apart from his use of Japanese calligraphic techniques, Foujita only utilizes only one side of the paper, which draws from traditional Japanese painting and its concept of ma. A conscious artistic interpretation of composition, it is often found in ukiyo-e prints such as Woman Relaxing after Her Bath by Kitagawa Utamaro. With negative space held in the same regard as the finished image, he positions Madeleine as a person of uttermost importance in his painting and his personal life. Showcasing perfect balance between East and West, Portrait of Madeleine is a testament to Foujita’s great sense of gentle tranquility, and his status as one of the most influential painters of 20th Century art.


    An eccentric icon of the early 20th Century School of Paris, the Tokyo-born Foujita bridges traditions and modernity in his cross-cultural practice. Posthumous retrospectives of the artist’s work have been held at Pola Museum of Art in Hakone (17 Apr – 5 Sept 2021), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (31 July 31 – 8 October 2018), and Musée Maillol in Paris (7 Mar – 15 July 2018). His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. 

    • Provenance

      Private Collection, Japan
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

181

Jeune femme blonde

signed 'Tsuguharu [in Kanji]' lower left
Chinese ink, ink wash and watercolour on paper
28.7 x 37.9 cm. (11 1/4 x 14 7/8 in.)
Executed circa 1937, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Sylvie Buisson.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$150,000 - 250,000 
€18,200-30,300
$19,200-32,100

Sold for HK$190,500

Contact Specialist

Anastasia Salnikoff
Head of Day Sale, Associate Specialist
+852 2318 2014
anastasiasalnikoff@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 7 October 2023