Special Feature Vol.2
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Tsuguharu Foujita, Five Nudes, 1923
Five Nudes by Tsuguharu Foujita, 1923. Collection: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. ©Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2024 B0798
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," Fujita first exhibited nudes, which were highly praised as having a "wonderful milky white base." Fujita aimed to express the softness and smoothness of human skin through the canvas itself, and succeeded in creating a realistic white, glossy skin texture.
From then on, Fujita mainly used this technique to paint nude women on beds, and in 1923 he completed the standing figure and group representation of Five Nudes. 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 Arms Raised, which was created in 1924 and is in our museum's collection, is painted in the same composition as the second woman from the left in Five Nudes. The pose of the right arm behind the head is often seen in nude women on beds, and is thought to be a composition that Foujita liked to paint at the time.
The same white cloth as the Five Nudes is also painted in the background, as if it had been cut out from the original. The nude woman in the painting is looking towards the viewer with 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 borders seen around the motif are a unique expression technique seen in both Fujita's oil paintings and prints.
Tsuguharu Foujita, Nude with Raised Arms, 1924, Oil on canvas, Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art, ©Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2024 B0744
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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