One recognizes in her Greek nose, sculptural profile and long blond hair of Profil de jeune femme blonde au chignon Foujita’s famous muse of the period, Jacqueline Goddard. Model to Derain, Matisse, Giacometti, Foujita, Jacqueline Goddard – then named Barssoti - epitomizes the quintessence of the muse: a charismatic beauty, a free spirit and a disobedience which made her eternally uncatchable. She became a novel character to writer Georges Simenon, an important photographic model to Surrealist artist Man Ray, and a close friend of Kiki de Montparnasse.
Foujita probably met Jacqueline at the Coupole or the Dôme cafés, the epicenter of the Montparnasse bohemian artistic life of the time. He became friend with the then very young Jacqueline who recalls in her unpublished memoirs that he "loved to hear his name murmured by the passers-by" as they were walking together in the streets of Paris. She goes on and gives us an eloquent and humorous testimony of Foujita’s persona in the Paris 1920s and a glimpse into their relationship.
“I became his favorite model. […] Going out with [Foujita and Youki] was quite an experience. He was like a jewelry shop window. Big earrings, an enormous watch to hide a tattoo, rings galore; his love of gold was manifest. He believed in being noticed at all costs. It was difficult for me at times to arrive at the Dôme with them. It was a ceremony. The uniformed chauffeur would open the door to let Foujita emerge first, then the overdressed Youki, and ultimately, but not importantly, me. A table was kept and the chairs dusted before we were seated. Waves of the hand to salute our friends that I sensed found the whole show a bit much and comical. Their car was enormous too and was the most noticeable of Paris. It was yellow, really yellow with a little bit of black…
Foufou was very protective and fatherly to me. He taught me jujitsu to protect me from all sorts of attacks including rape. He would try to take me by surprise in false alarms. It must have been hilarious to see me calmly posing for a drawing [and then] suddenly jumping on guard [in response] to an attack that was a mock one at that.”
Jacqueline Goddard cited in Glory in a Line: A Life of Foujita – the Artist Caught Between East and West by Phyllis Birnbaum, Editions Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, p. 129-130.
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Second diner of the revue Paris-Montparnasse chaired by Foujita
(from left to right) Jeanne and André Salmon, Mrs Thernot, Foujita, Jacqueline Goddard-Barsotti, François Frank and Youki. Kiki de Montparnasse from the back in the foreground. Photo Chabas, © Archives Art. Sylvie Buisson, Paris 2019
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Man Ray
Jacqueline Goddard et une boule en miroir, 1934
Collection Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Copyright tag – to be provided by Laurence BC