Foujita : Reclining Cat, plate from A Book of Cats, 1929 (on Japan vellum)

By FOUJITA Léonard Tsuguharu (1886-1968)

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886–1968)

Reclining Cat, plate from A Book of Cats, 1929

Collotype after the artist’s original drawing, on Japan vellum, from the supplementary suite of 20 loose plates issued in an envelope with copies of “A Book of Cats, being Twenty Drawings by Foujita”, Covici Friede, 1930, edition limited to 500 copies — the suite printed in no more than 500 impressions per plate, many of which have not survived with the book.

Signed “Foujita” and dated 1929 in the plate, with Japanese characters, as issued; not hand-signed. Without the “Made in France” stamp, which appears only on the Arches book plates — as usual for the Japan vellum suite.

Dimensions:
Sheet: 23.5 × 28.5 cm — 9 ¼ × 11 ¼ in.
Size of the image: 19.7 × 26 cm — 7 ¾ × 10 ¼ in.

Condition: Very fine condition; margins slightly trimmed; unframed.

References: Buisson, II.30.127

A plate from Foujita’s celebrated A Book of Cats, ranked by rare-book dealers as the most desirable cat book ever published — a complete copy has fetched over $77,000 at auction. Each of the twenty plates portrays a named cat, paired with a prose poem by the British publisher and writer Michael Joseph. The supplementary suite on Japan vellum is the most sought-after printing of these images. Foujita, the “master of cats” and the most important Japanese artist working in Paris between the wars, here brings his celebrated fusion of Japanese sumi line and Western modelling to its most beloved subject: a long-haired tabby at rest, forepaws extended, the fur rendered in feathery strokes, the gaze alert and utterly feline.

Original impression from the 1930 publication.

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Price : 1200,00 € ( 1372.00 USD )