Tsuguharu Foujita: Landscape with Cats - Animals Nearby

Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art Exhibition Room 5
(Left) "Wedding" (1950, oil on canvas)
(Center) Nude under a Canopy (1954, oil on canvas)
(Right) Young Woman Holding a Cat (1956, oil on canvas)

Event Overview

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Exhibition Overview

This exhibition focuses on the various animals that Tsuguharu Foujita painted, including cats, which frequently appear in his works, and explores their charm. Enjoy viewing our collection while noticing the various expressions and gestures of cats and animals, including Nude Under a Canopy (1954, oil on canvas), which is being shown for the first time at our museum and features an adorable cat sleeping behind a nude woman.

Cats drawn by Fujita Exhibition Room 5

For Foujita, cats were both friends and subjects of painting. He began living with cats shortly after moving to France, when he picked up a cat that had clung to his leg in Paris and brought it home. From then on, Foujita began painting cats as a familiar subject. In the 1920s, Foujita included cats in his nude statues and also depicted cats in the self-portraits he repeatedly produced. The cats that clung to Foujita were like companions. In this way, cats, along with his bob haircut and Lloyd glasses, became iconic figures that symbolize Foujita.

In 1929, Fujita's cats began to break away from their previous role as supporting characters. A collection of prints entitled "Ten States of Cats" was published by Apollo in Paris, featuring cats in adorable poses, created using a mixed technique that combined colors reminiscent of a "milky background" with drypoint and etching. In 1930, Kovici-Freed in New York published "The Book of Cats," a collection of prints featuring 21 of Fujita's distinctively fluffy cats, accompanied by poems by British poet Michael Joseph. Joseph gave each cat a name, giving the cats Fujita depicted even more individuality.

Published in the United States in 1950, Night and Cats is a beautiful and fantastical picture book featuring sketches of dozing felines by Fujita, set to a poem about cats by novelist and poet Elizabeth Coatsworth. Around this time, Fujita began to depict cats in his drawings, and in Night and Cats, cats with round, round eyes grace the pages. Cat Classroom (1949, oil on canvas) features an anthropomorphized cat teacher and his students, depicting a lively classroom with free-spirited children. While each character is unique and expressive, there is a consistent pattern to the way they are portrayed. Just as the girls Fujita depicted from the 1950s onward were "imaginary children," the cats themselves may have been idealized images created by Fujita through his years of observing cats.

Various animals that live alongside people in exhibition rooms 2 and 3

The exhibition will focus on works depicting cats, whom Fujita called his "friends" and loved, as well as other animals. Fujita painted animals that were close to people. Through these works, we hope you will enjoy Fujita's warm gaze on animals and his unique worldview.

Exhibition Highlights

Cats, cats, cats!! A huge selection of cat-themed artworks!

This exhibition will feature a large selection of works that feature cats as models and works that depict cats. It is an exhibition that cat lovers will love, and even those who are not cat lovers will be able to fully appreciate the charm of cats. In addition to the museum's highly popular work, "Cat's Classroom" (1949, oil on canvas), you can also see all 10 works from the "Ten Forms of Cat" series. (Exhibition Room 5)
Image of the work: "Wedding" (1950, oil on canvas)

Find the Cat! First-time public exhibition of "Nude under the Canopy" and more

Nude on Canopy, which will be shown for the first time in this exhibition, depicts, as the title suggests, a nude woman sitting in front of a canopy bed, but if you look closely, you will see a cat sleeping behind her. Fujita's works have the ability to make you feel warm and fuzzy the moment you spot such an adorable figure. Try to find the cat and other animals quietly depicted in the works in this exhibition. (Exhibition Room 5)
Image of the work: "Nude under a Canopy" (1954, oil on canvas)

Fujita loved not only cats but also dogs!

"I also love dogs very much. That is why I feel so sad when I think about the death of a dog. I am usually so busy with work that I cannot take proper care of a dog, so I don't feel like keeping one, as I would like to avoid killing it." These are Fujita's words, published in the February 1935 issue of the magazine Inu no Kenkyu (Inu no Kenkyusha). In the 1920s, Fujita's second wife, Ferdinand Barre, had a dog, and reflecting the social climate in France where there were many dog ​​lovers, he also produced dog-themed works. This exhibition will feature works such as Pekingese (1925, watercolor, ink on paper), which will be shown for the first time, along with Fujita's words. (Exhibition Rooms 2 and 3)
Work image: Pekingese (1925, watercolor, ink on paper)

Don't miss the various animals drawn by Fujita!

Fujita did not just paint dogs and cats. He was also interested in pets such as birds and pigeons, as well as animals that support human life, such as chickens, horses, cows, and in Mexico, foxes. After the war, Fujita also depicted a nude woman lying on a bed, along with geese flying in the sky, raccoon dogs, and foxes, creating a fantastical world. (Exhibition Rooms 2 and 3)
Image of the work: "Dream" (1957, lithograph (heriogravure and aquatint combined) on paper)

Concurrent Events

Special exhibition: "Illustrated book 'Shijuusuzume': Tsuguharu Foujita and Jean Cocteau"

Dates: Thursday, March 6th, 2025 - Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 Venue: Special Exhibition Room

"Chickadees" (Pierre de Tartus, 1963) is a limited edition book featuring 21 lithographs by Fujita, set to a text by French intellectual Jean Cocteau. This is the second collaboration between the two, who shared a deep friendship, following "Sea Dragon" (Georges Guillot, 1955), which chronicles Cocteau's 1936 trip to Japan. The title of this work, which depicts children based on traditional French occupations and customs, is "Chickadees." The chickadee is said to symbolize freedom, liberation, and hope, and Cocteau may have chosen this title to reflect the social climate of the time, which was developing into the student movement. In his preface, Cocteau also states, "Like Lewis Carroll, Fujita seems to be searching for a mirror image in the world of children that will change the way adults think." What meaning is behind these adorable children depicted against the backdrop of everyday French scenes?

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