Footnotes

Foujita catalogue available to view here

Provenance
Private collection, France (acquired directly from the artist through the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1922).
Private collection, France (by descent from the above).

Exhibited
Paris, Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, Exposition d'art japonais au Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 20 April – 30 June 1922, no. 127 (titled 'Au cirque').
Paris, Musée Maillol, Foujita, Peindre dans les années folles, 7 March - 15 July 2018, no. 96.

Literature
Comité de l'exposition d'art japonais (ed.), Aperçu de l'exposition d'art japonais au Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1922, p. 16.
M.-G. Vaucaire, 'II. La peinture japonaise', in Le Crapouillot, 15 November 1923, Numéro spécial, Le Salon d'automne, p. 15.
M.-G. Vaucaire, Foujita, Paris, 1925, p. 7 (illustrated pl. 21).
P. Morand, Les maîtres nouveaux, Vol. VI, Foujita, Paris, 1928, no. VII (illustrated).
S. Buisson, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Vol. II, Paris, 2001, no. 22.12 (illustrated p. 183).
A. Peck, 'Foujita, Imperial Japan Meets Bohemian Paris', in The New York Review, 27 May 2018 (illustrated).


Far more than an imaginative portrayal of animals, Chiens savants, ou le carnaval des chiens is a deeply poetic expression of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita's hybrid visual language, where humour and elegance converge with remarkable sophistication. Shaped by his formative experiences in both Japan and France, Foujita developed a singular style that seamlessly unites Eastern precision with Western painterly richness. This painting exemplifies that synthesis, transforming a surreal procession of dogs into a layered meditation on cultural duality, a defining feature of Foujita's artistic legacy.

Growing up in Japan, Foujita discovered his passion for painting in primary school and soon resolved to make it his career. Raised in a family receptive to Western culture, he was introduced to French lessons from an early age. He completed his studies in Western art at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, concluding his academic journey with a defining trip to Paris in 1913. It did not take long for the artist to realise that his stay abroad would be far longer than expected. Foujita quickly attracted the attention of the Montparnasse art scene, including figures like Amedeo Modigliani and Chaïm Soutine, who were intrigued by his distinctive demeanour and artistic vision. He not only forged lasting friendships but also gained significant recognition as an artist. Pablo Picasso, an avid admirer of his early work (particularly his watercolours), famously purchased as many pieces as he could carry at Foujita's first solo exhibition in 1917 at Galerie Chéron.

Having completed his education in Tokyo, Foujita became a copyist at the Louvre, an experience that helped him develop his own distinctive artistic style and paved the way for his great success in the West. His unique response to his surroundings was to fuse Japanese and European styles – an innovative approach unprecedented among Japanese artists of his time. Most notably, Foujita distinguished himself by merging traditional Japanese inkwork, marked by precise lines and flat colour fields, with the richness of Western oil painting, resulting in a novel texture and depth that captivated European audiences. His soft tones and delicate details, especially in his depictions of cats and nude women, earned him fame for his 'milky white' painting style, characterised by its ethereal, light-translucent quality.

This blend extended beyond his art and into his lifestyle. Although fully absorbed in the lively social scene of his fellow artists, Foujita differed from his bohemian friends, whose chaotic social lives in Paris were reflected in the disorder and carelessness of their ateliers. Instead, he abstained from drinking and maintained a spotless, meticulously organized workspace – qualities deeply rooted in Japanese culture.

Foujita drew profound inspiration from the popular fables of the Middle Ages and Jean de La Fontaine's elegant retellings, which offered him a meaningful connection to French cultural tradition through the animals he so loved to depict. Across much of his oeuvre, animals are rendered with an uncanny sense of composure, dignity, and melancholy, emotional states typically reserved for human subjects. They mirror human moods and behaviours, often appearing in anthropomorphic scenarios: attending gatherings, wearing elaborate costumes, and engaging in social rituals. In La fête d'anniversaire, sold at Bonhams in 2018 for a record price, the animals are shown dining together, conversing, and enjoying a shared celebration as if entirely human. As in the present work, Foujita's signature fusion of French classicism and Enlightenment ideals with his refined Japanese technique, delicate brushwork, masterful trompe l'oeil, and characteristic emotional restraint, culminates in a scene that is both whimsical and deeply contemplative.

The composition of Chiens savants, ou le carnaval des chiens is carefully structured, with the canvas divided into three horizontal zones, each contributing to a layered narrative. At the very top lies a flat black backdrop, devoid of any spatial markers. This absence of environmental context suspends the scene in a kind of symbolic space, distancing it from reality and emphasising its allegorical tone. The middle part, which appears to function as a kind of elevated platform, bed or altar, presents three dogs seated in a composed and authoritative manner. Their placement, both physically elevated and visually central, implies a position of power or judgment over the scene unfolding below. The platform is draped with an ornate textile rendering of an antiquity-inspired scene involving both animals and humans, possibly referencing Foujita's own fascination with ancient imagery during his time at the Louvre. The classical motif subtly connects the animals in the present scene to a deeper historical and cultural lineage.

The largest and lowest section of the canvas features a curious procession of dogs moving across the foreground. Among them, two central figures stand out. They are the only ones adorned in human clothing, including dresses, blouses, and head accessories, and uniquely, they are walking upright on two legs. This deliberate anthropomorphism not only highlights their mimicry of human behaviour but also introduces a note of absurdity and satire. It has been suggested that they are pseudo-portraits of Foujita himself and his second wife, Fernande Barrey. Foujita is distinguishable by the scarf around his head, which he often wore to sooth his recurrent bouts of toothache. The critic Michel-Gabriel Vaucaire described the painting's inhabitants as 'little circus dogs' who were 'well-behaved', an observation that underscores the trained, performative quality of their poses and may explain why Foujita and Fernande are depicted standing upright (M.-G. Vaucaire, Les maîtres nouveaux, Vol. VI, Foujita, Paris, 1925, p. 7). The work was originally exhibited under the title Au cirque, emphasising the uniquely theatrical tone of its imagery. Fernande, an artist and model whom the artist married in 1917, was an important presence in his Montparnasse years, and her inclusion here reflects Foujita's artistic tendency to transpose his companions into animal form. This merging of muse and beast can be traced through Foujita's oeuvre, such as in his portraits and nudes of his later wife Youki (Lucie Badoul) entwined with cats, revealing a deeper exploration of intimacy, performance and identity through a symbolic bestiary.

The painting's title, Chiens savants, ou le carnaval des chiens, hints at dogs trained to mimic human behaviour, yet it remains ambiguous who, if anyone, is behind this transformation. Has this mimicry been imposed by humans, or is it part of an internal system of hierarchy and imitation within the animal world itself? The three dogs seated above, serene and seemingly self-assured, might be more than passive observers – they could be orchestrators or evaluators of this transformation. In this work, the artist plays with the idea of animal autonomy. By attributing intelligence, agency, and even social structure to his animal subjects, Foujita challenges conventional boundaries between the human and the non-human. The result is a scene that is both whimsical and unsettling, inviting the audience to reconsider not just how the animals mimic us, but how much of our own behaviour may be mere performance in a world governed by invisible hierarchies.

One of the largest works by Foujita ever to come to market, this painting draws the viewer's attention through both its scale and its striking visual language. The pitch-black background is used to dramatic effect, allowing the pale figures and objects to stand out starkly against the darkness. This sharp contrast not only draws the viewer's focus but also enhances the perception of purity and luminosity, particularly in the rendering of skin, fur, and fabric. The effect recalls the visual drama of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, where pale figures are often set against dark, flat grounds. Foujita's hallmark fine line work is executed with traditional Japanese brushes, visible in the delicate outlines of the animals, figures, and textiles. This precision, rooted in Japanese ink painting, is seamlessly fused with the Western oil medium, exemplifying the artist's unique cross-cultural technique.

The composition itself is subtly surreal – the platform appears suspended between the black upper half of the canvas and an off-white base speckled with black, contributing to a sense of fantasy and unease. The dogs are arranged in a loosely circular formation, including those elevated on the bed, evoking the imagery of a ritual or pageant. A similarly ritualistic composition appears in Foujita's 1947 painting Mon rêve, now held in the collection of the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. The central nude figure, lying in serene repose, is surrounded by anthropomorphic animals in theatrical garb, their gestures and arrangement evoking a ceremonial or ritualistic gathering. The animals' intense gazes and dramatic stances suggest a secretive rite or vigil, imbuing the scene with an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere. This ambiguity, equally apparent in the present work, heightens its sinister atmosphere and invites the viewer deeper into its mysterious narrative world.

Although it was painted nearly two decades later, Bataille de chats, currently in the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, bears a striking conceptual and compositional affinity with the present work. In Bataille de chats, thirteen felines are caught in the throes of a violent clash, their bodies scattered across the canvas in expressive, contorted poses. Some appear to shriek, mouths agape, evoking an almost human cry of anguish. As in Chiens savants, the scene unfolds in an ambiguous, undefined space, devoid of background or spatial markers, further heightening its surreal quality. However, where Chiens savants offers a restrained and almost theatrical tableau, Bataille de chats is far more visceral in tone and composition. Painted in 1940, a period marking a significant shift in Foujita's oeuvre, it reflects the growing turbulence of the time. Appointed as an official war artist by the Japanese military, Foujita produced both direct depictions of combat and more symbolic works, such as Bataille de chats, which echo the violence and chaos of war through imagery drawn from his earlier oeuvre. The snarling, fighting cats become symbolic avatars of conflict, fear, and the primal instincts unleashed by warfare. Rendered in a deeper, more sombre palette than the present work, the painting emphasizes the psychological weight and existential uncertainty of the Second Sino-Japanese War era. Together, these two works illustrate Foujita's enduring fascination with animals not merely as subjects of charm or whimsy, but as potent metaphors for the human condition – capable of reflecting both civility and savagery, order and disorder, performance and raw instinct.

The present work comes to the market with impeccable provenance, having remained in the same private collection for over a century. It was acquired by the present owner's family at the exhibition of Japanese art held within the 1922 Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and has not been offered on the open market since its creation in Paris that same year. Reviewing the exhibition for press, the critic Michel-Gabriel Vaucaire exalted Foujita's singular impact on the Parisian Modernists, writing that his 'delightful Chiens savants showed his magnificent skill', adding that 'his 'Primitivism' is both precious and powerful' (M.-G. Vaucaire, 'II. La peinture japonaise', in Le Crapouillot, 15 November 1923, No. spécial, Le Salon d'automne, p. 15).

Remarkably, the present work has been seen in public only once since 1922, as part of the groundbreaking Foujita retrospective at the Musée Maillol, Paris, in 2018. Already distinguished by its artistic merit and cultural resonance, this work's significance is further deepened by this exceptional unbroken provenance and rarity of public exhibition. Chiens savants, ou le carnaval des chiens stands not only as a masterful example of Foujita's cross-cultural technique and surreal imagination, but as a rare and compelling meditation on identity, performance, and the blurred boundaries between the human and the animal. In its scale, symbolic richness, and technical refinement, the painting embodies the enduring originality of an artist who defied categorisation, bridging East and West to create one of the most distinctive voices in modern art.


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