In the 1950s, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita returned to Paris for the first t.mes in twenty years. Europe had just seen the end of World War II, and the sexagenarian artist wished to blend together on canvas his yearning for peace and his desire for the pure innocence of childhood. The artist’s creative subject matter turned toward the innate purity and sacredness of children. The painting Le chapeau de sa maman (Lot 1041) presented for the evening sale is a representative work of Foujita’s post-war themes of family happiness between mother and daughter and of the redemption of the soul from trauma. The portrait’s two-person composition is echoed in the works Two Women Overlooking a Goldfish Pond (Lot 1014) and Coquetterie (Lot 1040) by the Vietnamese-French artists Le Pho and Mai Trung Thu respectively, in which poetic depictions of women and children are used to convey a bright vision of the period.

Le chapeu de sa maman uses Foujita’s classic “picture within a picture” technique in its composition. The mother and the girl stand one in front of another, standing inside and outside of the painting respectively. The mother’s hands clasped protectively over her slightly raised belly suggest a pregnancy, thereby creating a cycle of t.mes and space. The origins of this unique compositional technique can be found in both Eastern and Western art: in China’s Five Dynasties period, Zhou Wenju of the Southern Tang Academy of Painting depicts a screen painting within a painting in his work Image of Two Screens at the Weiqi Game (Palace Museum collects ion, Beijing), constructing a double layering of “screen within painting”. This “painting within painting” composition is also a classic technique seen in the interior scenes of the Dutch Golden Age master Johannes Vermeer and among many of his contemporaries. Foujita’s compositional technique in this painting increases the image’s sense of space and depth, and seamlessly ties together aspects of everyday life with elements of artistic creation.

The classical carved gold picture frame behind the girl uses gold leaf, a magnificent yet elegant accent which perfectly exhibits the artist’s meticulous attention to fine detail. Another aspect of the work that.mes rits closer inspection is the artist’s use of colour. Both mother and child wear bright yellow hats with blue details, along with dresses of peacock blue and wine red, permeating their solemnity with a warm and vibrant sense of joy. Le chapeau de sa maman is a superb example of Foujita’s figurative work, a sumptuous visual feast that presents the artist’s ruminations on t.mes and the reverence for the continuation of life.

一九五〇年代，藤田嗣治重返闊別二十載的巴黎，當時的歐洲剛結束第二次世界大戰不久，戰前被譽為世界藝術文化中心的巴黎亦經歷重創，為解救戰後數低迷的社會氣氛，詩人、作家、畫家們紛紛通過各自的藝術探索，反思自我存在的意義，以治愈心靈創傷。年逾花甲的藤田嗣治將其對世間美好和平的憧憬與其對孩童天真純潔的嚮往相互交融於畫布，創作主題由戰前的女體感官之美轉向帶有純粹與聖潔之意的孩童身影之中。是次夜拍呈現的《媽媽的禮帽》（拍品編號1041）即為藤田戰後重歸歐洲後以母女間天倫之樂為主題，救贖心靈創傷之代表作，其雙人肖像之構圖與越法畫家黎譜的《俯瞰金魚池的兩位女子》（拍品編號1014）和梅忠恕的《調戲》（拍品編號1040）遙相呼應，借對孩童和女性的詩意描繪，寄情對時代的美好願景。

《媽媽的禮帽》以藤田筆下經典的「畫中畫」形式構圖，母親與小女孩一後一前，分別立於畫裡與畫外，母親以雙手護住略微隆起之腹部，暗示彼時正在懷孕，也就是說，與小女孩同框的不止有母親，還有母親腹中的自己，由此營造出一個循環往復的時空，著實耐人尋味。這種獨特的構圖方式無論在東西方藝術之範疇皆可溯源：早在中國有五代時期，南唐畫院翰林待詔周文矩所繪之《重屏會棋圖》（北京故宮博物院典藏）即以畫中一展屏風構建「屏風入畫」之雙重格局；荷蘭黃金時代畫家維梅爾（Johannes Vermeer）和同時代眾多畫家的室內場景作品中，「畫中畫」構圖亦極為經典，真實反應當時中產階級的生活場景。藤田嗣治將此構圖運用在《媽媽的禮帽》中，巧妙加深畫面層次和空間感的同時，完美銜接日常生活與藝術創作。

構圖以外，藤田嗣治將晚年宗教主題作品中經常運用到的金箔元素融入本畫中，女孩身後的金色古典雕花畫框即由金箔繪製而成，華麗而不失雅緻，完美展現藝術家精細的細節處理；畫中的色彩處理亦大見文章，可見藤田嗣治三〇年代遠赴南美洲發展時受到以里維拉為代表的墨西哥色彩美學之影響：母女二人頭戴明黃色禮帽和粉藍色帽飾，身著孔雀藍配酒紅色之洋裝，莊重之中洋溢出溫馨活潑的幸福感。無論從空間構圖、色彩運用、或是人物敘事的角度出發，《媽媽的禮帽》都是藤田嗣治人物作品中的上乘代表，在飽和的視覺盛宴中，展現藝術家對時間的深刻思考，與對生命傳承的敬畏和讚頌。