Toshio BANDO

This fine watercolour can be dated to the very beginning of Toshio Bando’s time in Paris, around 1922, and depicts the view from his room in the Hôtel de Nice, in the 6th arrondisement on the Left Bank. This inexpensive and somewhat bohemian hotel or boarding house, located at no. 4 rue des Beaux-Arts in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, had long been popular with artists and writers. The open window, the details of the wallpaper in the room, and the chair facing towards the viewer all speak to a feeling of intimacy and offer a glimpse into the artist’s internal world.

A small number of comparable works on paper, all in private collections, share the intimacy and immediacy of the present sheet and provide evidence of Bando’s interest in the subject of the artist’s studio and domestic interiors. These include, in particular, the watercolour La chaise longue dans l’atelier, drawn on a page from one of the artist’s sketchbooks, as well as Dans l’atelier, a watercolour and ink drawing of c.1926, and a pastel study of the artist’s studio in Pierrefitte sur-Seine, drawn in 1930. Bando also produced a large watercolour of Foujita at work in his studio, executed in 1923.