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Lot Essay
In 1918, Lonard-Tsuguharu Foujita was at a turning point in his career. He had just married Fernande Barrey, a young French provincial girl, whom he had met a year previously at the caf Le Dme in Montparnasse. With her help he became one of the artists of the Galerie Chron alongside Modigliani and Soutine. After 5 years living in Paris on a shoe-string, Foujita finally began to achieve the recognition for which he was striving. Henri Seeholzer, a well-known international Swiss lawyer, became his protector and benefactor after seeing his watercolours. Through the Galerie Chron, at the age of 33, Foujita had his first solo exhibition in Paris in the rue de la Botie.
During the summer of 1918, Lopold Zborowski, the polish art dealer and former poet, rented a house in Cagnes in the South of France for Foujita and his wife, Modigliani, Soutine and Jeanne Hbuterne in order to try to sell their paintings to rich clients staying in the area. It was during this time that Foujita reintroduced oil into his work and began to explore new subject matter. The children that he depicted during this period, of which those in Enfants et poupes are characteristic, display a certain synthesis with the workings of Modigliani. The chromatic palette and the form used by Foujita and Modigliani are very close, demonstrating a similar simplified shape, elongated silhouette, and harmony of pale blue.
Francis de Miomandre in La Gazette Asiatique describes Foujita's children as "Un rien de mivrerie allonge les doigts de ces tres menus, tirs dj eux-mmes, isols en haut de leur visage leurs yeux troits, rapetissent leurs bouches jusqu' l'invraissemblable, plit jusqu' la morbidesse leur teint mat et comme porcelain. Le vraisemblable, le rel semble vraiment le moindre souci de cet artiste: pourtant il n'est jamais faux" (Quoted in La vie et l'oeuvre de Lonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, Paris, 1987, p. 70).
In 1919, Le Salon d'Automne in Le Grand Palais opened its gates once more after having been closed for five years during the war. The jury accepted six paintings from Foujita, which were exhibited next to works by Matisse, Bonnard and Maurice Denis and which were presented to acclaim from the critics. The following year Foujita was welcomed as a member of the Salon and submitted six paintings including Enfants et Poupe. F. Vanderpyl, in Le Petit Journal of October 1920, wrote, "Foujita, cet heureux japonais, qui a su ravir aux europens le ct pittoresque et moral dont il amplifie sa vision orientale...".
In 1921 Foujita had the honour of becoming a member of the jury alongside his friends Fernand Lger and Metzinger and under the presidency of Pierre Bonnard, definitively establishing himself as part of the parisian Avant-Garde.
During the summer of 1918, Lopold Zborowski, the polish art dealer and former poet, rented a house in Cagnes in the South of France for Foujita and his wife, Modigliani, Soutine and Jeanne Hbuterne in order to try to sell their paintings to rich clients staying in the area. It was during this time that Foujita reintroduced oil into his work and began to explore new subject matter. The children that he depicted during this period, of which those in Enfants et poupes are characteristic, display a certain synthesis with the workings of Modigliani. The chromatic palette and the form used by Foujita and Modigliani are very close, demonstrating a similar simplified shape, elongated silhouette, and harmony of pale blue.
Francis de Miomandre in La Gazette Asiatique describes Foujita's children as "Un rien de mivrerie allonge les doigts de ces tres menus, tirs dj eux-mmes, isols en haut de leur visage leurs yeux troits, rapetissent leurs bouches jusqu' l'invraissemblable, plit jusqu' la morbidesse leur teint mat et comme porcelain. Le vraisemblable, le rel semble vraiment le moindre souci de cet artiste: pourtant il n'est jamais faux" (Quoted in La vie et l'oeuvre de Lonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, Paris, 1987, p. 70).
In 1919, Le Salon d'Automne in Le Grand Palais opened its gates once more after having been closed for five years during the war. The jury accepted six paintings from Foujita, which were exhibited next to works by Matisse, Bonnard and Maurice Denis and which were presented to acclaim from the critics. The following year Foujita was welcomed as a member of the Salon and submitted six paintings including Enfants et Poupe. F. Vanderpyl, in Le Petit Journal of October 1920, wrote, "Foujita, cet heureux japonais, qui a su ravir aux europens le ct pittoresque et moral dont il amplifie sa vision orientale...".
In 1921 Foujita had the honour of becoming a member of the jury alongside his friends Fernand Lger and Metzinger and under the presidency of Pierre Bonnard, definitively establishing himself as part of the parisian Avant-Garde.