The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Tsuguharu Foujita, Five Nudes, 1923
Presented at the Salon d'Automne in 1923, this large-scale work was Foujita's first attempt at depicting a group of nude women. The work also hints at the influence of Pablo Picasso, with whom Foujita had been friends since 1914, as the composition is very similar to that of his 1907 painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York). The five nude women, lined up in a nearly straight line, are said to represent the five senses: touch, hearing, taste, and smell, with the central figure of "sight" standing at the center. The canopy of the bed in the background and the meticulous depiction of the "Jouy-style" fabric laid at the feet of the nude women further accentuate their milky white skin.
In 1921, two years before Five Nudes was painted, Foujita first exhibited nudes, which were acclaimed for their "wonderful milky white base." Aiming to express the softness and smoothness of human skin through the canvas itself, Foujita succeeded in creating a realistic, white, glossy skin texture. From then on, Foujita primarily used this technique to paint nudes on beds, until 1923, when he completed Five Nudes, a standing, group portrait. Another nude painted in a similar style is Before the Ball (1925, oil on canvas, Ohara Museum of Art).
Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art
Tsuguharu Foujita, Nude with Arms Raised, 1924
Nude with Raised Arms, a 1924 work in our museum's collection, is painted in the same composition as the second-from-the-left woman in Five Nudes. The pose of the woman with her right arm behind her head is also often seen in nudes on beds, and is thought to be a composition that Foujita favored at the time. The same white cloth as in Five Nudes also appears in the background, as if it were a cut-out portion of the Five Nudes. The nude woman in the painting is looking towards the viewer and has a smile on her face. Her smooth white skin and thin black outlines express the woman's graceful gesture of touching her left ear with her hand behind her back, as well as her delicate fingertips. The border around the motif is a distinctive style of expression seen in both Foujita's oil paintings and prints.
About the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, located in Kitanomaru Park in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, is Japan's first national art museum. It houses a growing collection of over 13,000 modern and contemporary art works (paintings, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs, etc.) from the late 19th century to the present day.
The museum has a collection of 26 works by Foujita Tsuguharu, and in particular, among the 153 war documentary paintings from the Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars that have been loaned indefinitely from the United States, many of his works are included, such as "The Suicide Attack on Attu Island" (1943) and "Battle on the Banks of the Harha River" (1941).
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 3-1 Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8322
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