Sotheby's Hong Kong Unveils The Foujita Lexicon

Hong Kong's cultural calendar reaches a milestone as Sotheby's hosts a landmark auction series at its space, Sotheby's Maison at LANDMARK CHATER. Leading the season is a rare milestone for the regional art market: Asia's first-ever dedicated single-artist auction devoted to Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita.

Spotlight: The Foujita Lexicon: Works from the Lewis Collection

• Auction Date & Time: 28 September, 6:00 PM HKT
• Total Estimate: HK$17.8 million – $26.5 million / US$2.3 million – $3.45 million

Assembled over three decades by the Lewis family, The Foujita Lexicon features 15 masterpieces spanning six decades of Foujita's career. It represents the most comprehensive private collection of the artist's work ever offered at auction in Asia.

The timing of the sale coincides with the 140th anniversary of Foujita's birth. As a prominent figure of the École de Paris in 1920s Montparnasse, Foujita built a distinct aesthetic by merging traditional East Asian techniques with European modernism. Regional market demand for his work remains strong: Asian collectors accounted for 85% of all bidders on Foujita's works at Sotheby's over the last three years, with Japan and Hong Kong leading at 65%.

Key Works

1. Mon portrait (1924)
   • Medium: Watercolour and pen and ink on silk
   • Dimensions: 44.5 x 31.5 cm
   • Estimate: HK$800,000 – $1,200,000 / US$104,000 – $156,000

Executed on silk, a traditional Asian medium, Mon portrait reflects Foujita's personal fusion of cultural influences. Painted in Paris at the height of his Montparnasse years alongside contemporaries like Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani, this work served as the prototype for Foujita's public identity.

Seated at his desk, Foujita surrounds himself with traditional East Asian calligraphy tools next to European everyday objects. The composition highlights his signature personal traits: the bowl haircut, round wire spectacles, and pipe. Using fine menso brush contouring and negative space (ma), Mon portrait stands as one of his most important explorations of identity. Major self-portraits on silk from this period remain rare at auction.

2. Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine) (1949)

• Medium: Oil and ink on canvas
• Dimensions: 76.7 x 64 cm
• Estimate: HK$4,000,000 – $6,000,000 / US$520,000 – $780,000

Le rêve carries the sale's highest estimate. Painted in New York in 1949 following the arrival of his wife Kimiyo, it marks a key moment in Foujita's international career before his ultimate return to Paris.

The painting is one of only four known fox compositions from his 1949–1950 American sojourn. Inspired by Jean de La Fontaine's French fable tradition, it depicts a sleeping fox family resting inside a den. Above the resting animals, Foujita includes a painted canvas-within-a-canvas based on Jean-François Millet's Gust of Wind, where a fox struggles against a storm.

This contrast between exterior turmoil and interior shelter gives the composition thematic depth. With two of the four works held in Japanese institutional collections and another holding the artist's world auction record, Le rêve is widely considered the finest example remaining in private hands.

3. Nu assoupi sur la table (1927)

• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 98.6 x 80.3 cm
• Estimate: HK$2,000,000 – $3,000,000 / US$260,000 – $390,000

Executed in 1927, this canvas demonstrates Foujita's signature translucent white ground (grand fond blanc). By applying black ink line-work with a fine Japanese menso brush over a smooth, porcelain-like base, Foujita redefined figurative painting in 1920s Europe.

4. Chatte et chaton (1932)

• Medium: Oil, pen and ink on canvas
• Dimensions: 46 x 55 cm
• Estimate: HK$2,000,000 – $3,000,000 / US$260,000 – $390,000

Cats were central to Foujita's daily life and artistic practice. Created in 1932, Chatte et chaton brings felines to the forefront as primary subjects, depicting a mother cat curled protectively around her kitten.

5. Madeleine endormie (1933)

• Medium: Pen and ink, ink wash and watercolor on paper
• Dimensions: 33 x 41 cm
• Estimate: HK$300,000 – $500,000 / US$39,000 – $65,000

This intimate paper study holds unique significance as the very first Foujita work acquired by the Lewis family in 1992. That purchase initiated their 30-year journey of collecting his work.

Season Overview: Evening Sale & Public Exhibitions

While The Foujita Lexicon anchors the lineup, Sotheby's autumn program in Hong Kong includes additional high-profile auctions and exhibitions:

• Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction (28 Sept, 6:30 PM HKT):

• Mark Rothko, Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown) (1964): Est. HK$78M – $128M.
• Yoshitomo Nara, The Crated Room in Iceland / Drawing Room: Est. HK$45M – $65M.
• Yayoi Kusama, PUMPKIN (TWPOT) (2010): Est. HK$48M – $68M.
• Zao Wou-Ki, 07.05.59 - 01.02.71: Est. HK$25M – $45M.
• Henri Matisse, Femme nue (c. 1915): Est. HK$17M – $25M.
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paysage avec figures (1890–93): Est. HK$15.5M – $25M.
• Alexander Calder, Untitled (1953 mobile): Est. HK$13.2M – $25M.

Exhibition: Le Temps Retrouvé: The Schlumberger Collection (22–27 Sept):

Making its regional debut prior to auction in Paris, the collection features Claude Monet's monumental Iris (1924–25; 160 x 180 cm; Estimate: €22M – €30M). It carries the highest estimate ever assigned to a painting at auction in France and is the largest canvas from Monet's final decade remaining in private hands.

Displayed alongside Monet's canvas are four new nature-inspired high jewelry pieces by Chinese jeweler Feng J.

Visitor Information

• Location: Sotheby's Maison, LANDMARK CHATER, 8 Connaught Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

• Opening Hours:
• Monday – Saturday: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
• Sunday & Public Holidays: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM