The pastel medium imparts a distinctive softness and atmosphere to the composition. Muted greys and ochres suggest the haze of smoke in the room, while the teal of his jacket offers a controlled but striking accent. The slightly off-centre framing and concentration on the artist’s expression convey an unvarnished sense of presence — Bando as a modernist observer, situated within the creative life of interwar Paris.
Pastel works are relatively rare within Bando’s oeuvre, which is dominated by oils. His most sustained engagement with the medium occurred between the late 1920s and early 1930s, placing this portrait within a small but significant group of works in which he explored pastel’s immediacy and tonal refinement to heighten mood and character.
The year 1925 also marked a personal transition. Shortly afterwards, Bando left the bustle of Montparnasse for Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, where animals and domestic scenes became central to his practice. Self Portrait Smoking thus belongs to the final moment of his early Paris period, when his work still reflected the immediacy of the city’s artistic milieu.
This portrait provides a telling counterpoint to Self Portrait with Brush (1925), one of Bando’s most recognisable images. In that work, he appears seated cross-legged before a flat, dark background, palette and brushes carefully arranged, dressed in a dark shirt and patterned tie, and signed with both his name and family crest. That composition is marked by balance, precision, and the symbolic resonance associated with Japanese portraiture. By contrast, Self Portrait Smoking adopts a less formal structure and a more atmospheric approach, aligning it closely with the spontaneous modernism of 1920s Europe.
Together, the two works illuminate the dual strands of Bando’s practice: the disciplined compositional heritage of his Japanese training and the dynamic, self-reflective sensibility he cultivated in Paris.
This example holds further importance for its provenance. It was formerly in the collection of Jacques Boutersky, the official expert on the work of Toshio Bando. Entrusted by Bando’s widow with preparing the Catalogue Raisonné, Boutersky’s association with the artist’s work began with visits to the Hôtel Drouot auction rooms in 1970, followed by the opening of his own galleries in Nice (1985) and Paris (1986). Soon after acquiring a work by Bando, he met Madame Bando, beginning a close professional and personal relationship that endured 3until her death in 1994. A member of the French Union of Experts on Bando’s work since 1989, Boutersky’s ownership of this pastel situates it within an important line of provenance directly connected to the artist’s widow and the recognised authority on his work.
