Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita – Studies and early successes in Tokyo; move to Paris

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita was born in Tokyo on 27 November 1886. The son of a general in the Imperial Japanese army, Tsuguharu Foujita received an excellent education and found success as an artist early on. Following a three-year course at the university in Tokyo, his early works already garnered prizes and awards and he was also able to sell one of his pictures to Emperor Tennô Mutsuhito and was permitted to portrait the Empress Sunjeong during a visit to Korea. Despite the great success in his homeland, Tsuguharu Foujita soon emigrated; on travels to England and France, his interest for contemporary European art was awakened and he finally moved to Paris where he soon made friends with the art circles of Montparnasse. The Chilean artist Manuel Ortiz de Zárate was impressed by the talent of this young Japanese artist and introduced him to Pablo Picasso. 

Interactions with the École de Paris; numerous affairs and lovers

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita cultivated contact with such greats as Chaim Soutine, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Jean Cocteau and Henri Matisse, and he soon became close friends with Amedeo Modigliani. As he was too old to study further, he practised in the Louvre copying the Old Masters. In doing so, Tsuguharu Foujita quickly developed his own artistic vision which led in 1971 to his first solo exhibition in the Galerie Chéron near the Champs-Élysées. It was a complete triumph, and all 110 exhibited watercolours were sold. During the First World War, the German bombing of 1918 drove him to Cagnes-sur-Mer. Painting predominantly cats, naked women, and himself, he celebrated another great success at the Salon d’Automne with a nude of the model Kiki de Montparnasse. The artist led an open marriage with the prostitute Fernande Barry, but argued with her when she started an affair with his cousin Koyanagi, whilst his second marriage to a Belgian artiste broke down over her relationship with Foujita’s writer friend, Robert Desnos. 

The outstanding work of the Chapel Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita painted preferably in black and white with a thin brush, whilst, for many years, he carefully guarded the recipe for the particular white varnish which gave his pictures an unmistakeable character. He returned to his homeland of Japan as an internationally celebrated artist where his art suddenly became political: Foujita created many pictures glorifying Japanese warfare. After the end of the Second World War, his path led once again to Paris where he took French citizenship and finally converted to Catholicism. One of Foujita’s most important works is the Chapel Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix for which he created frescoes with scenes from the life of Jesus. It was the first work by the artist in this technique, and after his death, the artist was buried near his chapel. 

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita died in Zurich on 29 January 1968.