Fujita Tsuguharu studied Western-style painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, moved to Paris after graduation and set up an atelier there. He interacted with Modigliani, Soutine, and many others of the École de Paris, non-French artists who gathered in Paris. Using the brushes and sumi ink of Japanese-style painting, he depicted, on the smooth white ground that was called his “wonderful milky white,” women, cats, and interiors. Establishing his distinctive style, he leaped to stardom in the Parisian art world.
The Dordogne region in southwestern France is an area with prehistoric cave paintings and other historic sites. After the outbreak of World War I, Fujita spent several months there, in the village of Les Eyzies, to avoid worsening wartime conditions in Paris.
In September, 1939, at the start of World War II, Fujita again visited the region. This work was probably inspired by a rural house he saw then. Making use of the milky white ground that is almost synonymous with Fujita, he depicted the interior almost monochromatically. The ceiling beams and bench, linear motifs, direct our eyes to the area round the fireplace in the center of the picture. A coffee mill, table clock, pot, and other objects Fujita liked decorate the mantle. At first glance, one senses a warm, intimate atmosphere, but the presence of the rifle hanging on the wall indicates the wartime context. Fujita showed this work in a special section of the twenty-seventh Nika Exhibition after he returned, for a time, to Japan.