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Lot Essay
We would like to thank Charles-Wesley Hourdé for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.
The name ‘Inagaki’ is well known by African and Oceanic Art collectors as the artist behind some of the most sought-after stands, which fit sculptures seamlessly, and are celebrated as works of art on their own.
Born in 1876 in the village of Murakami (Niigata prefecture, Honshu Island, Japan), Kichizô Inagaki was the son of an artisan and carpenter at the Royal Palace, respected for his sculptures, lacquer art and ikebana. Inagaki went to study at the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1904. After two years in Hong Kong, he moved to Paris in the summer of 1906. At the beginning, barely speaking French, he sold small carved wood sculptures on the street to survive. He was quickly noticed by antique dealers, including Joseph Brummer, who commissioned pedestals for their antique and tribal sculptures from him. This is how he met Rodin, who asked him to realize the bases for his collection of antiquities in 1912, and the pair became very close until Rodin’s death in 1917. Soon, Inagaki would work closely with important art dealers such as Paul Guillaume, Louis Carré and Charles Ratton, creating bases for the majority of Albert C. Barnes sculptures. Inagaki’s wooden stands aimed to merge with the sculptures and to create one, cohesive object. Delicately carved with a gouge and assembled with mortice and tenon joinery, they were celebrated for their specific finish, which made the veining visible thanks to an inimitable technique of polish that could be white, silver, red, or green. As written by Charles Ratton in the catalogue of African art from the late Josef Mueller of Solothurn, Switzerland, Christie’s New York, 1978, “he arrived in France from Japan very soon after the first world war, bringing with him not only great charm and a refined taste, but a great many tools which he had made himself, most of them very small in size, but all very efficient… His reputation was very quickly established, such was his sense of volume and his love for wood… For making his stands he used a particular quality of oak which he dyed a very deep violet… His many imitators have never managed to identify this wood, nor to imitate it successfully… His studio became a well-known meeting place. I remember that we once happened to meet André Breton”.
His fellow countryman Seizo Sugawara introduced him to Eileen Gray, and Inagaki executed parts and furniture for her between 1919 and 1923, such as for the spectacular floor lamp in wood, lacquered wood and painted parchment sold at Christie’s New York, June 11, 1998 (lot 71).
The present lot is a rare example of the few known furniture pieces by Inagaki. A selection of them, including a low screen, was meant to be shown in the joint exhibition planned by Rodin and Inagaki, Pierre et Bois, in 1914, but never happened because of the war. With its exceptional wood surface, geometric lines and elegant silhouette, the present lot is a spectacular fusion between Inagaki’s unique wood technique, Japanese tradition, and the creative spirit of Paris at the turn of the century.
– Charles-Wesley Hourdé, expert in African and Oceanic Art, specialist of Kichizô Inagaki
The name ‘Inagaki’ is well known by African and Oceanic Art collectors as the artist behind some of the most sought-after stands, which fit sculptures seamlessly, and are celebrated as works of art on their own.
Born in 1876 in the village of Murakami (Niigata prefecture, Honshu Island, Japan), Kichizô Inagaki was the son of an artisan and carpenter at the Royal Palace, respected for his sculptures, lacquer art and ikebana. Inagaki went to study at the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1904. After two years in Hong Kong, he moved to Paris in the summer of 1906. At the beginning, barely speaking French, he sold small carved wood sculptures on the street to survive. He was quickly noticed by antique dealers, including Joseph Brummer, who commissioned pedestals for their antique and tribal sculptures from him. This is how he met Rodin, who asked him to realize the bases for his collection of antiquities in 1912, and the pair became very close until Rodin’s death in 1917. Soon, Inagaki would work closely with important art dealers such as Paul Guillaume, Louis Carré and Charles Ratton, creating bases for the majority of Albert C. Barnes sculptures. Inagaki’s wooden stands aimed to merge with the sculptures and to create one, cohesive object. Delicately carved with a gouge and assembled with mortice and tenon joinery, they were celebrated for their specific finish, which made the veining visible thanks to an inimitable technique of polish that could be white, silver, red, or green. As written by Charles Ratton in the catalogue of African art from the late Josef Mueller of Solothurn, Switzerland, Christie’s New York, 1978, “he arrived in France from Japan very soon after the first world war, bringing with him not only great charm and a refined taste, but a great many tools which he had made himself, most of them very small in size, but all very efficient… His reputation was very quickly established, such was his sense of volume and his love for wood… For making his stands he used a particular quality of oak which he dyed a very deep violet… His many imitators have never managed to identify this wood, nor to imitate it successfully… His studio became a well-known meeting place. I remember that we once happened to meet André Breton”.
His fellow countryman Seizo Sugawara introduced him to Eileen Gray, and Inagaki executed parts and furniture for her between 1919 and 1923, such as for the spectacular floor lamp in wood, lacquered wood and painted parchment sold at Christie’s New York, June 11, 1998 (lot 71).
The present lot is a rare example of the few known furniture pieces by Inagaki. A selection of them, including a low screen, was meant to be shown in the joint exhibition planned by Rodin and Inagaki, Pierre et Bois, in 1914, but never happened because of the war. With its exceptional wood surface, geometric lines and elegant silhouette, the present lot is a spectacular fusion between Inagaki’s unique wood technique, Japanese tradition, and the creative spirit of Paris at the turn of the century.
– Charles-Wesley Hourdé, expert in African and Oceanic Art, specialist of Kichizô Inagaki