LÉONARD TSUGUHARU FOUJITA (1886-1968) SEATED WOMAN,... Lot 26

LÉONARD TSUGUHARU FOUJITA (1886-1968) SEATED WOMAN, 1914 Pencil on paper pasted on cardboard Dated and located '20 décembre 1914 à Paris' lower left Charcoal on paper laid on cardboard; dated and located lower left 34 X 26,5 CM - 13 3/8 X 10 3/8 IN. Sylvie and Casimir Buisson have confirmed the authenticity of this work. A certificate of authenticity will be given to the purchaser. Paris 1913. Just arrived in Paris, Tsuguharu Foujita visits Pablo Picasso's studio, introduced by his new friend, the painter Ortiz de Zarate. There, he discovered works from the Blue Period, Douanier Rousseau and Cubist paintings. This encounter shook all the young artist's certainties. "Picasso and his friends cleanse the plastic arts of their dusty appearance. Dreams and imagination are in power," he marveled. Foujita embraced the renewal of Western art. Eccentric and exotic, he became a central figure in the Montparnasse district, the epicenter of this artistic effervescence. Friendships were forged with Picasso, Rivera, Soutine and Modigliani - his studio neighbors - and Marie Vassilief. "I fell in with the best," he concluded. These encounters gave rise to cross-influences and portraits (Diego Rivera au café, Montparnasse, 1914, pencil on paper; Portrait de Chana Orloff, graphite on paper, 1915). In Portrait de Marie Vassilieff, the deconstructed figure of a woman at work is certainly close to the silhouette of Marie Vassilief (1884-1957). Artist, founder of the Académie Vassilief in 1912, manager of La Cantine des Artistes during the war, the frenetic "Cicada of the Steppes" distinguished herself in the creation of her "portrait dolls" in kid leather and papier-mâché. Produced in her studio at 21 avenue du Maine, their fragility meant that only around fifteen were kept. Reassigned in this way, this drawing could be a direct testimony to the artist's work. Quoted in Sylvie Buisson, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, volume 2, ACR Édition, Courbevoie, 2011, p. 63 Quoted in Sylvie Buisson, La vie et l'œuvre de Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, ACR Édition, Courbevoie, 1987, p. 40