Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita – Reclining Nude

Description

Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Reclining Nude (From Femmes) is an Etching with Aquatint made in 1930.  It is signed and numbered in pencil from the edition of 100. Image Size: 16 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches.

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita was a Japanese–French painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan, who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings. Three years after graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1910, Foujita travelled to Paris, France, where he became acquainted with a number of the leading artists of the time, including Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. He began exhibiting in Paris in 1917, and the inclusion of his work Nu couché à la toile de Jouy (Reclining Nude with Toile de Jouy) in the 1922 Salon d’Automne was a major success, translating to an incredibly prosperous period in Foujita’s career. This particular work is indicative of Foujita’s ability to deftly blend Eastern and Western styles; where the composition is largely based on the Euroean odalisque tradition, the line and execution harken to traditional Japanese art making.  He has been called “the most important Japanese artist working in the West during the 20th century”.