Private Collection, Japan
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Receuil de peintures de Leonard Foujita (1949-1968), Tokyo, 1978, no. 40, illustrated
Sylvie Buisson, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita: Sa vie, Son oeuvre, vol. 2, Paris, 2001, no. 51.144, illustrated p. 405  

Good Condition, original canvas. A thin but stable web of craquelure. Slightly yellow and uneven varnish. Under UV light: a 1 inch diameter spot of inpainting about 2 inches below the top right corner with a few tiny dots along top edge to cover frame abrasion. Otherwise, fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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The present work is an unusual but novel take on the depiction of Venus, a subject that has transfixed artists for hundreds of years. By changing our common ideal of the goddess, Foujita is directly challenging our perception of beauty.  As an artist synonymous with the elegant execution of the female form, Foujita was well placed to attempt such a painting and there can be no doubt that the present work is a direct and modern homage to the fifteenth century maestro Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (see fig. 1).

In the present work, Venus's hands are arranged in the same pose as in Botticelli's original masterpiece, but in reverse.  The artist may have used as his reference an engraving, which would have reversed the image in its entirety. Instead of her hair being 🌳gathered modestly in one hand, Foujita gives us instead a drapery composed of fish, seaweed and debris: the flotsam and jetsam of the sea. Our goddess stands before a vision of an ocean's now dryܫ bed, in a landscape devoid of life. Her intricately rendered jewels, too, are taken from her underwater home, and her beautiful face looks bereft. Unlike the Botticelli inspiration, she gazes out at the viewer from a wasteland, utterly alone.

Vénus is executed in the artist's quintessential style: with a limited color palette and the precise, exact outline of a thin brushstroke.  This method of painting was almost unique to Foujita in Paris, where most artists used thick tache marks made with palette knives and large brushes. The influence of Japanese prints seems clear; Hokusai and Hiroshige used the same strong blacꦇk outline to delineate their compos🐓itions.

Fig. 1, Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, Uffizzi Gallery, Florence