LÉONARD TSUGUHARU FOUJITA (TOKYO, 1886 – ZURICH, 1968) View of the Jetty and Harbour at Saint-Quay-Portrieux 1917 Oil on canvas 38.1 × 46 cm Signed and dated lower left: T. Foujita 1917 Certificate Certificate of authenticity issued by Sylvie Buisson. This work will be included in the fifth edition of the catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Sylvie Buisson. Provenance Acquired by the current owner’s mother around 1975; subsequently passed down through the family Painted in 1917, View of the Jetty and the Harbour at Saint-Quay-Portrieux dates from Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s early years in Paris, a decisive period during which the artist established a distinctive pictorial identity that would soon bring him international renown. Having arrived in Paris in 1913, Foujita quickly became part of the artistic circle of Montparnasse, then a veritable laboratory of modernity. There, he rubbed shoulders with the leading figures of the avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Diego Rivera. The composition depicts the harbour and lighthouse of the Breton seaside resort of Saint-Quay-Portrieux, whose monumental jetty structures the space of the painting. A few boats scattered across the calm water enliven the pictorial surface and create a subtle visual rhythm, whilst the sea and sky seem to merge into a gentle and silent atmosphere. The whole exudes a sense of suspended calm, almost meditative, which invites the viewer to take in the scene in slow contemplation. This work already bears witness to Foujita’s particular sensitivity to the effects of texture and light. The artist employs thin layers of diluted oil paint that are reminiscent of the traditional washes of Japanese painting, a direct legacy of his training in Tokyo. Through this technique, he achieves a subtle and vibrant pictorial surface where silvery and sandy tones seem to diffuse a soft, enveloping light. This fusion of Eastern tradition and Western modernity constitutes one of Foujita’s Foujita and largely explains the originality of his work within the School of Paris. The year 1917 also marks a particularly significant moment in the artist’s career. This period coincided with his marriage to the painter and muse Fernande Barrey, as well as his first solo exhibition, organised by the Parisian gallery owner Georges Chéron. The immediate success of this exhibition helped to establish Foujita as one of the most promising artists on the Parisian scene. Having remained in the same family for nearly half a century, this recently rediscovered painting is of considerable historical and artistic interest. Its clear provenance, combined with certification by Sylvie Buisson — a leading authority on the artist — and its forthcoming inclusion in the catalogue raisonné, further reinforces its significance within Foujita’s body of work. Through the delicacy of its execution, the poetry of its atmosphere and its place within a formative period of the artist’s career, *View of the Jetty and the Harbour at Saint-Quay- Portrieux* constitutes a particularly valuable testament to the emergence of at a time when the artist was gradually establishing himself as one of the leading figures of Parisian modernity.