"Ladies who would be alluring to men should surround themselves with cats... I never look at men only at women – they have, each one such marvelous possibilities of beauty. But unfortunately, most of them have not developed these possibilities because they have not learned the lessons cats can teach..." (dailyartmagazine.com). In this article, we'll examine the art of this statement's author, the devotee of cats and women, Japanese dandy Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968).
Fig. 1. Self-Portrait, 1936 (arthive.com)
Fig. 2. Woman and cat, 1937 (wikiart.org)
Fig. 3. Sleeping cat (metmuseum.org)
Fig. 4. Foujita’s cat (arthive.com)
Fig. 5. Portrait of Emily Crane Chadbourne, 1922 (openers.jp)
The Inheritor Of The World
The artist originated from the noble Fujita family ("Foujita" is a later frenchised version), whose name, according to Wikipedia, means "glicine field." Artist's first name Tsuguharu is translated as "the inheritor of the world." As Sylvie Boisson, the researcher of Foujita's art, mentions, his talent manifested itself already when Foujita enrolled in junior school. When he was fourteen, one of his drawings was selected for demonstration at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition. Studying in Tokyo, he discovered Western art and began dreaming of traveling to the city where his work was once shown. Foujita's father, general Tsuguakira Fujita, who served as a doctor in the Japanese Imperial Army, didn't protest against the artist's decision to become a painter, though, advised him to study at home.
Fig. 6. Foujita, possibly 1930s (arthive.com)
Fig. 7. Foujita in drag (ameblo.jp)
