Hailing from the collects ion of the Kawamura family in Japan, Portrait de jeune femme by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita is a masterpiece that depicts t.mes less beauty and elegance, subjects that dominated the artist’s 1930s oeuvre. The Kawamura family runs the DIC Corporation, a printing ink manufacturer, and its history can trace back to the founding of Kawamura Ink Manufactory in 1908. The second president of the corporation, Katsumi Kawamura (1905-1999) took over the reins of the company after World War II, and he is known to enjoy alone t.mes with art. Driven by the desire to share this joy with others, he conceived the idea of creating a museum, and toward that aim he began collects ing artworks in earnest from the beginning of the 1970s. Assisted by the advice from sculptor Yoshikuni Iida and others, Katsumi Kawamura focused on collects ing contemporary artists who had still not been widely introduced to the Japanese audience, and he purchased works of American contemporary artists, who were also beginning to gain recognition in Europe at the t.mes , thus building a collects ion of 20th-century art. In 1990, The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art opened its door to the Japanese audiences, and the present work was one of the works from this great collects ion.
Image credit: www.visitchiba.jp
Among the members of École de Paris of the 20th century, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, with his remarkable achievements and widespread recognition received during lifet.mes , dwarfed every other artist who journeyed from the East during that era. In the Roaring Twenties, Paris was an open and liberal society, allowing artists, poets and writers to gather in cafes, exchange ideas and seek inspiration, immersing themselves in a moveable feast of creativity. At that t.mes , Foujita's unique aesthetics of "combining Japanese and Western elements" captivated the Parisian art scene, making him the most dazzling Asian figure of the École de Paris. As a Japanese artist, he became a bona fide legend, a name to be reckoned with.
In 1923, Foujita crossed paths with Lucie Badoud, the woman he would nickname Youki (“small snow”) for her snow-like, flawless complexion. The eight to nine years of their acquaintance and romantic relationship coincided remarkably with Foujita's peak years of painting nudes. In order to capture the beauty of Youki, Foujita developed novel painting pigments and meticulously refined the canvas to achieve the translucent ivory hue that was uniquely his style. This became known as the style of the "milky white skin", which Foujita became famous for in the Parisian art scene. Aside from the unique pigment, Foujita also employed the exceptionally fine-tipped brushes of Japanese calligraphy—along with black oil paint and Oriental ink—to paint the model's delicate contours. His fluid brushwork produces lines that are pure and smooth; though executed in oil, the work captures the subtle beauty of watercolors. Furthermore, Fujita minimized the interplay of light and shadow, applying only faint, soft shading to suggest texture. This stylistic approach echoes the tradition of Japanese Ukiyo-e art, which emphasizes linear definition and the use of shadowless flat color—a stark departure from the conventions of traditional Western art.
Foujita’s distinct fusion of Japanese and Western artistic techniques crafted a fresh aesthetic language, allowing him to stand out among the other École de Paris's legendary artists with his unique background. His ability to find common ground between the cultures doesn’t limit to the technique in which he paints, he also found it in the subject he paints. Women grooming themselves are a well celebrated subject in both Western modern art and Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. Through this intimate scene, artists highlight the femininity of the models, and create an intimate bond between the viewers and the subject. In Portrait de jeune femme, though the sitter is naked, her torso is obscured by her hair and her arms, and by turning her gaze away from the viewer, Foujita captures a moment of relaxation and intimacy. And it is this kind of intimacy and closeness between Foujita and his model that prompted this work to be included in The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art's Léonard Foujita and His Models exhibition in 2016, an exhibition that focuses on the known people and models in Foujita's oeuvre and their relationships.
藤田嗣治的《年輕女子肖像》來自日本川村家族收藏；川村家族經營著DIC集團，是一間印刷油墨的生產及銷售公司，其歷史可追溯至1908年川村油墨製造所的成立。DIC集團的第二任社長川村勝巳（1905 - 1999年），在二戰後開始掌管集團；而在在經營企業之餘，他額外享受與藝術品獨處的時間。為了將此喜悅分享給更多的人，川村勝巳萌生了建立博物館的想法，並在1970年代初開始認真收藏藝術品。
在雕塑家飯田善國等人的建議下，川村開始購入當時尚未廣為人知的當代藝術家作品，以及在歐洲開始嶄露頭角的美國當代繪畫，從而開始建立他豐富的二十世紀藝術收藏。1990年，DIC川村紀念美術館正式開幕，為日本的觀者展現二十世紀的重要美術品，而本作正是源自此重要收藏。
圖片來源：www.visitchiba.jp
二十世紀「巴黎畫派」之中，唯獨藤田嗣治的驕人成就，冠絕同期所有從東方遠道而來的藝術家。在咆哮的二〇年代，巴黎的社會風氣開放，藝術家、詩人、作家流連咖啡館互相交流、尋找靈感，沉醉於一場流動的饗宴中。此時，藤田憑藉「和洋合璧」的獨特美學風靡全城，一躍而成巴黎畫派中最耀眼的東方寵兒，以日本藝術家的罕有身分，締造了傳奇名聲。1923年，藤田便邂逅原名為露西・芭杜的繆斯女神——小雪。「小雪」（Youki）是藤田因其肌膚白皙勝雪而為她而取的日語暱稱。兩人相識相戀的八、九年間，與藤田埋首創作女體畫的巔峰歲月大致重疊，而小雪正是他揚名巴黎的「乳白色肌膚」之靈感泉源。藤田情迷小雪的白雪肌膚，甚至為更好描繪她的肌膚，藤田動手研發新的繪畫顏料，並細心打磨基底、弭平布紋，以達致畫中所呈現的半透明象牙基調，為筆下伊人塑造出陶瓷般平滑亮澤的乳白色肌膚；此「乳白色肌膚」風格讓藤田揚名巴黎。除顏料外，藤田使用了日本書道的特幼毛筆、黑色油彩和東方墨，勾勒出模特兒細膩的輪廓，運筆流暢，線條純粹而平滑，雖是油畫，卻體現出水彩畫的微妙之美。藤田更是淡化了人物和畫面的光影明暗，只是淡施柔和的陰影以表現肌理。此風格呼應了日本傳統的浮世繪藝術，強調線條和使用無陰影的平塗，與西方傳統藝術大為不同。
藤田嗣治將日本和西方藝術技法巧妙融合，創造出一種全新的美學語言，憑藉其獨特的文化背景，使他在眾多巴黎畫派的傳奇藝術家中脫穎而出。他不僅在繪畫技法上，也在繪畫主題中，找到了這兩種文化的共通點。無論在西方現代藝術，還是日本浮世繪作品中，梳洗中的女子都是藝術家十分鐘愛的作品主題。藝術家透過此私密的一幕，彰顯女性的特征，並拉進觀者與畫中人物的距離。《年輕女子肖像》正是如此，雖畫中女子裸露上身，但她的垂於胸前的秀髮，整理頭髮的雙臂，以及側臉的姿態，無不展現出輕鬆，私密的氛圍。而藝術家在本作中營造的特別氛圍，更使得本作得以在2016年展出於DIC川村紀念美術館的《藤田嗣治與他的模特兒（Léonard Foujita and His Models）》中。此展覽以藤田嗣治作品中所出現過的人物以及模特為主題，展現他們對藤田嗣治藝術創作發展的影響，及他們與藝術家的關係。