Cosmetics 1951

Tsuguharu Foujita made "Cosmetics" with ink, and you can really feel the artist at work here. The strokes are so confident, they almost dance across the page, each line like a tiny, deliberate step in a choreographed routine. I imagine Foujita, poised with his pen, trying to capture the essence of a busy salon. Look at the woman lounging in the foreground—that single, sweeping line that defines her leg is so expressive! And the checkerboard floor? Those aren't just squares, they're a bold statement, a foundation for the drama unfolding above. I wonder, was Foujita thinking about Degas when he made this? There's a similar voyeuristic quality, a sense of observing a private world. But where Degas uses color to seduce us, Foujita relies on the stark contrast of black and white to create a more immediate, almost confrontational experience. It's a reminder that we're all part of this ongoing conversation, this endless quest to capture the world around us on canvas—or in ink.