Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita

LÉONARD TSUGUHARU FOUJITA (Tokyo, 1886 - Zurich, 1968).
"Foujita and Emilio de la Peña", 1933.
Ink on paper adhered to cardboard.
Presents inscription in the lower area.
Signed (by both artists), dated and located in San Francisco.
Measurements: 26 x 20 cm; 35 x 28.5 cm (frame).
This drawing is an exceptional testimony of Léonard Foujita's American period and of his personal and intellectual environment during his stay in San Francisco. The piece combines self-portrait, cross-portrait and autobiographical commentary, revealing not only the artist's technical skill, but also his keen sense of humor and refined self-referential awareness.
The composition presents the portrait of Emilio de la Peña executed "in the style of Foujita", while a small self-portrait of the artist himself appears at the upper right. Both drawings dialogue with each other through an ingenious play of identities: each author signs the portrait of the other by imitating his handwriting, in a playful gesture that questions authorship, style and the very notion of artistic identity. The handwritten inscription below, of an explanatory nature, reinforces this reading, turning the work into a self-conscious document, halfway between a graphic work, a personal testimony and a conceptual object.
From the formal point of view, the drawing fully embodies Foujita's graphic language: refined and elegant line, economy of means, absence of volume in favor of contour and extreme subtlety in the psychological definition of the portrayed. Emilio de la Peña's face, with its introspective gaze and restrained gesture, is constructed with a sure, almost calligraphic stroke that refers directly to the tradition of Japanese drawing and Chinese ink, one of the artist's most recognizable signs of identity.
The work is part of a crucial moment in Foujita's career, during his tour of the American continent (1931-1933), which began after his hasty departure from France. This period, less represented in the market than his Parisian period, is particularly attractive for its experimental, intimate and narrative character.