Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita - 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale Hong Kong Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | Phillips

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 21 June 2022

  •  “There are only very few nudes in Japanese paintings. Even painters like Harunobo or Utamaro let only appear a portion of the knee or the leg, and these were the restricted area where they could represent the skin sensation. This is what encouraged me to paint nudes again after eight years of break with the clear objective of depicting the most beautiful material that can be: human’s skin.”
    — Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita

     

    Depicting a long-haired beauty posing on tussled bed sheets, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita’s sensuous Nu allongé (Reclining Nude) delivers charm and romance through its delicate application of watercolour and ink. A superb example of this Japanese-French artist’s female nude compositions, the work portrays the reclining body of one of his most famous lovers, Madeleine Lequeux, whom Foujita fell in love with in Paris in 1930.
     

     

     

    Photo of Foujita and Lucie Badoud, model and muse

     

    An important figure of the School of Paris, Foujita spent most of his life in the French capital, far from his native Tokyo. After arriving in Paris in 1913, Foujita quickly gained fame in the local art scene for his style that hybridises Asian techniques and European genres. In the 1930s, with his new darling, Madeleine, Foujita left Paris to travel around Latin America and revisit Japan. Nu allongé depicts the muse who accompanied Foujita on this global trip, and encapsulates what he values most in his work: beauty and elegance.

     

    In Nu allongé, a hint of erotica hovers in the ambiance of the empty background. Madeleine’s enchanting gaze and pouting lips, complimented by the folds of the bed sheet caused by her languid pose, all suggest lustful longing. The white handkerchief held gently at her fingertips is redolent of the known visual symbol in shunga - reflecting Foujita’s intention of referencing past traditions. The over all effect is a stunning work that no doubt captures its viewers’ boundless imaginations.

     

    Further, with its elaborate arrangement of beddings, reclining body posture and exquisite expressions of beauty, Reclining Nude also elicits an interesting comparison to Venus of Urbino (1538), a High Renaissance masterpiece by Titian that depicts the naked body of the Roman goddess of love, as well as Olympia (1863), a radical parody of the former by Modernist icon Édouard Manet. Portraying a reclining, naked body against white bed linens, the strikingly similar composition of the two works is deeply rooted in and intertwined with Western iconography. For Foujita, he clearly saw the historical significance of this composition and subject matter, reflected in the appropriated compositional form of Reclining Nude. Yet the work also shows a contrasting style associated with Foujita’s Japanese cultural heritage, alluding to his possible attempt to delve into Western art traditions and challenge its classical canon.
     

     


    Left: Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538

    Collection of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

    Right: Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863

    Collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris

     

    An eccentric icon of the early 20th century School of Paris, the Tokyo-born Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita bridges traditions and modernity in his cross-cultural practice, which spans works depicting female nudes and cats with masterful techniques rooted in Japanese art tradition. His recent posthumous retrospectives were 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

      Collection of Jules Léger, Canada
      Dominion Gallery, Montreal
      Collection of Michel Moreault, Montreal
      Heffel Fine Art Auction House, Online, 26 April 2012, lot 106
      Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

    • Literature

      Sylvie and Dominique Buisson, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita: Volume 1, Paris, 1987, no. 32.26, p. 427 (illustrated)

196

Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita

Nu allongé (Reclining Nude)

signed and dated 'Tsuguharu [in Kanji] Foujita 1932' centre right
watercolour and ink on paper
49.7 x 73 cm. (19 5/8 x 28 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1932, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Sylvie Buisson.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$450,000 - 650,000 
€54,500-78,700
$57,700-83,300

Sold for HK$882,000

Contact Specialist

Danielle So
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2027
danielleso@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 21 June 2022