Lot n° 65
Estimation :
250 - 300
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 220EUR
FOUJITA, Tsugouharu (1886-1968) and BARREY, Fernande (1893-1 - Lot 65
FOUJITA, Tsugouharu (1886-1968) and BARREY, Fernande (1893-1960) - Incident that we will call "The Foujita and the Wattman in Brussels" During a visit to Brussels - Foujita frequented foreign salons and Belgium was the first country to officially purchase a work from the Japanese artist for the Musée des Beaux-Arts in 1922. So the incident occurred during a visit to Brussels by Foujita, accompanied by his first wife Fernande Barrey. The latter left her native Picardy for Paris around 1908, where she began to earn a living as a prostitute. She served as a model for several painters, including Modigliani and Soutine, who persuaded her to study painting and art history at the École des Beaux-Arts. In March 1917, she met the Japanese artist Tsugouharu Foujita at the café La Rotonde in Montparnasse, who fell madly in love with her and married her thirteen days later. In 1918, the couple moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer to escape the German bombs, where she spent a year painting, meeting many friends. During this period, she became friends with Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani's companion. During 1925, the couple had a very open relationship, both having relations with people of both sexes. However, the painter didn't forgive Fernande for a love affair with her cousin, the painter Koyanagi. He locked himself up with the Belgian artist Lucie Badoul (known as Youki) for three days, during which time Fernande desperately searched for her husband even in the Parisian morgues. In 1928, the couple divorced and she lived with Koyanagi in Montmartre. When she separated from him in 1935, her relationship with Foujita improved; he supported her financially until her death. In the company of George Creten, "our friend", they are violently attacked by the driver of the tram they have just taken. On their return to the hotel where they had stayed, they wrote a report intended for "Monsieur le Commissaire de Police de Bruxelles" (3 ½ pages in-4 on the letterhead of the Hôtel Métropole in Brussels, envelope preserved). The report itself is written in the hand of Foujita's wife, Fernande Barney, and ends with "Fernande Foujita artist painter 5 Rue Delambre Paris", followed by a very neat handwriting which is probably Foujita's: "Tsugouharu Foujita / artist painter 5 Rue Delambre Paris / son of the Physician Inspector General / of the Imperial Staff of Japan". Obviously they did not file this "report" at the police station. Attached is a postcard from Rotterdam "Aelbrechtskolk Delshaven" with the words "Hello to the whole family - the Foujita's" next to the Creten's address, all written in Fernande Barney's handwriting: unless I am mistaken, the postmark is dated 24 January 1921. This postcard, which is preserved with the "letter", could have been sent after the incident.
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