2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Comprehensive Research on Foujita's Painting Technique in the 1920s

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520096
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Aesthetics/Art history
Research Institution	Kyoto University of Art and Design
Principal Investigator	HAYASHI Yoko Kyoto University of Art and Design, 芸術学部, 准教授研究 (30340524)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KIJIMA Takayasu 東京藝術大学, 美術学部, 教授 (10345340)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	美術史 / 保存科学 / 藤田嗣治 / 絵画技法 / 1920年代
Research Abstract	Comprehensive Research on Foujita's Painting Technique in the 1920s The painter Foujita (Leonard-Tsuguharu Foujita) earned an international reputation in Paris at the beginning of 1920s, mainly because he created a very original painting technique known as "le grand fond blanc." He used this technique to draw nudes and stilllifes with a very thin black line on a milky-white ground. He never revealed the secret of how he was able to draw the line with water-based "sumi" on an oil-based ground. In the forty years since Foujita's death, this technique has remained a mystery. As a result of our research--which involved the analysis of information gained from restoration of his paintings, reproduction of his technique, and research on Foujita's writings--we have found that talc (magnesium silicate hydroxide, widely used in cosmetics and paints) is the key material.