Tsugouharu FOUJITA Rare Signed Autograph Letter to Ida KAR

  

Handwritten letter signed to Ida Kar. Handwritten letter signed, Paris, May 31, 1954, to Ida Kar.

He congratulates her on her wonderful photos that he admires. He also explains his attachment to his collection of dolls, purchased in Mrs. André L'hote's shop, "a well-known artist." He continues in an emotional manner: "I have no boy or girl so the dolls are my children.

" In our transcription, Foujita's spelling and punctuation have not been corrected. The artist signed a second time on the back of the original envelope, which is preserved. By mistake, he dated the letter 1945 although the Post Office stamp confirms the true date of 1954.

Furthermore, Foujita did not live at this address before 1950. Living in the artistic district of Montparnasse, Foujita, who left Japan to pursue his career in Paris, formed friendships with Modigliani, Léger, Picasso, Matisse, and the dancer Isadora Duncan. Among his bohemian friends, he was the first to install a hot water bathtub and models often came to bathe and pose for him. He also created several portraits of Man Ray's partner, Kiki de Montparnasse, including the Reclining Nude with toile de Jouy (now at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris), which was one of the highlights of the 1922 Autumn Salon.

In 1931, he traveled to South America before returning to Japan in 1933. During World War II, he produced propaganda in favor of the war for his country. He returned to Paris after the war and became a French citizen in 1955.

Dolls and puppets are favorite subjects of Foujita, whose art blends Japanese and Western painting styles. Born in Russia and raised in Egypt, Ida Kar moved in avant-garde circles while studying in Paris in the 1920s. Over the next two decades, she ran a photography studio in Cairo and was involved in the Egyptian surrealist movement. After marrying Victor Musgrave, a Royal Air Force officer, British poet, and art dealer, she settled in London to make a name for herself in portraiture.

In 1954, she took a photograph of Foujita with several dolls, which novelist Bill Hopkins said: "The delicacy of line and color of Foujita is the only clue to his curious passion for puppets, which he claims to love 'beyond all human beings.' He is surrounded by them; many of them are period curiosities.

My dolls I like so much like my own boy or girl, I find the dolls at the shop of Mrs. Andre l'hote, a well-known artist who has a very nice collection. I haven't a boy or girl so the dolls are my children. My picture is only a study of nudes, not so important.

I study every day with models. Ida Kar 1 Litchfield Street WC2 opposite St. Martin's Theatre London "England." Foujita 23 rue Campagne 1er Paris XIV. English and Russian translations available on request.

SHILTONSON is a member of the National Union of Antique and Modern Bookstores / International League of Antique Bookstores. Tsugouharu Foujita or Tsuguharu Fujita, also known simply by his last name, Foujita, or by the name he adopted at the end of his life, Léonard Foujita, is a French painter, draftsman, and engraver of Japanese origin, also an illustrator, ceramist, photographer, filmmaker, and stylist. Ida Kar is a Russian-born photographer primarily active in London after 1945.

More information on Tsugouharu Foujita. More information on Ida Kar.

This is an authentic letter. Our letters come with a descriptive sheet including a transcription. The invoices and sheets we provide serve as a guarantee certificate. Free delivery in France Private carrier available on request. SHILTONSON Rare Books & Manuscripts.