In 1953, in his studio on Rue Campagne-Première, Foujita revisited the Nude from a live model, a theme he had not addressed since his return to Paris. These are preparatory studies for large oil-on-canvas compositions, which he drew in charcoal on thick sheets of paper, and not in pencil, as in the 1930s, on fine vellum paper or tracing paper. The technique has changed, volumes are more expressed, but Foujita’s spirit of continuity is clearly present. Notably in this painting, which derives from the Nude of Strasbourg titled “Le Rêve” (The Dream), painted in 1956, and reproduced on p. 311 of Volume 1 of the Catalogue Général Raisonné, Collection of the Nichido Kasama Museum of Art, Japan, echoing the trompe l’œil effect of the toile de Jouy from the large “Nude with Toile de Jouy,” after Kiki de Montparnasse, painted in 1922, Collection of the MAM in Paris.
