Details
Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1986)
Deux amies
signed and dated 'Foujita 1929' (lower right)
oil, pen and ink on canvas
69.5/8 x 37.3/8 in. (177 x 95 cm.)
Painted in 1929
Provenance
M. Schwob-d'Héricourt, Paris (acquired from the artist).
Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris (1943-1950).
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris (1950-1997).
By restitution from the above to the present owners.
Literature
S. and D. Buisson, La vie et l'oeuvre de Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, Paris, 1987, p. 410, no. 29.47 (illustrated and in color, p. 135).
Exhibited
Tokyo, Le Musée Central, and Kyoto, Le Musée de la Ville, Hommage à Léonard Foujita, September-December 1968, no. 39 (illustrated).
Tokyo, Odakyu Grand Gallery; Osaka, Daimaru Gallery; Hiroshima Art Museum; Fukuoka Art Museum, and Paris, Musée de Montmartre, Léonard Foujita, October 1986-June 1987, no. 51 (illustrated in color).
London, Hayward Gallery, and Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, La France: Images of Woman and Ideas of Nation, 1789-1989, January-June 1989 no. 69.
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Présentation des oeuvres récupérées après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale confiées à la garde du Musée National d'Art Moderne, April 1997, no. 13 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

On 6 February 1942, members of the National Socialists, who had occupied Paris in 1940, raided the private home of Mr. Schwob-d'Héricourt at 47 boulevard Beauséjour and confiscated Deux amies and another painting. On 6 April 1942, the present work is recorded as going into storage at the Musée du Jeu de Paume. The painting was eventually transferred to the Musée National d'Art Moderne on 26 October 1950 (inv. no. R 20 P) under whose auspices it remained until 1997.

Deux amies was one of thirty-nine works exhibited at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in April 1997, all of which had been confiscated during World War II and later recovered. It was at this exhibition that the descendants of Mr. Schwob-d'Héricourt recognized the painting and it was later returned to its rightful owners.

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