PROVENANCE
Norma Macdonald, Victoria
Estate of Norma Macdonald
Acquired from the above by a Distinguished Private Collection, Vancouver

The erudition and virtuosity of the Japanese-born painter Léonard Foujita are beyond doubt. This double female portrait, set against a Mediterranean architectural backdrop, demonstrates this. At the Fine Arts Academy in Tokyo, he learned the techniques and composition of traditional Japanese painting as well as Western oil painting in the academic rules. This dual expertise proved invaluable when he moved in 1913 to Paris, where he developed a style very different from others, influenced by Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Kees van Dongen, André Derain and many others.

Paris embraced the uniqueness and mystical energy of his figures, which were both reminiscent of Japanese prints and akin to the masterpieces in the Louvre, where he continued his studies alone. He was fascinated by the Madonnas and mythological scenes of the Italian Renaissance, particularly those of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci. He relentlessly drew from this repertoire the very essence of Beauty. Thus, he employed a mixed technique, entirely distinctive, at a crossroads between two cultures: that of his ancestors, great draughtsmen respectful of line and the simplification of space and subject, and the poetic and mystical restraint of the great Renaissance masters.

In 1960, Foujita created a scene that is both secular and religious, placing it under an arcade that is a simplified evocation of a church, overlooking a sunlit village square or alley in Italy, most likely Tuscany. The position of the mother as well as the colour and the neckline of her dress recall Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, while her ivory-clear face is reminiscent of those by Botticelli, the master of portraits of beautiful women from Florence. With her hands elegantly joined in prayer and her eyes slightly lowered in a gesture of reverence, she embodies a serene grace. Her child, a young girl equally elegantly dressed, expresses her love by bringing her hand close to her mother’s.

The finesse and elegance of the drawing and the flattering contrasts of sunlit colours are striking. Foujita’s ancestral cultural influence is evident in his use of very fine calligraphic brushes and skilled strokes. The painter, working freely without revision or preliminary sketch, delineates the fine features of the faces, the harmoniously pleated fabrics, the solidity of the rose-tinted walls, the tiles and the cobblestones that, like a subtle background melody, connect mother and daughter graphically on the smooth, porcelain-like white surface of the background.

We thank Sylvie Buisson, art historian and author of the Catalogue Général Raisonné de l’Oeuvre de Léonard Foujita, for contributing the above essay, translated from the French.

Sylvie Buisson, Union Française des Experts, has confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is listed and numbered in the Archives Artistiques ACRB and will be included in the forthcoming volume of the general catalogue raisonné. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Sylvie Buisson.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars