Galerie des Modernes

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Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita

School of Paris, Montparnasse

(Tokyo, 1886 – Zurich, 1968)

Son of a Samurai, Tsugouharu Foujita lost his mother at the age of five and was educated by his sister. He studied at the Imperial School of Beaux-Arts in Tokyo in 1915. Quickly rewarded in Japanese exhibitions, one of his works is bought by the Emperor and he is called to paint a portrait of the Korean sovereign. He seems to be destined to have a brilliant national career, nevertheless he is interested in Occidental aesthetics.

He came to Paris in 1913 and studied French avant-garde. The next year, he went to London but settled in Paris in 1915. He became quickly a figure of Montparnasse and his models were sometimes famous: Kiki de Montparnasse, Gertrude Stein, Olga Picasso. He frequented Pablo Picasso, but Foujita preferred his collection of Douanier Rousseau to his cubist painting. He and his neighbour Soutine also built a friendly relationship.

The first aquarelles show influence of Marie Laurencin and of his friend Modigliani. Drawing with a rare suppleness, he works with japan handmade technics, using tamps as well as brush. His manner is very characteristic, including voluntary use white- made ​​with a mixture of oil painting based on animal glue and gesso - a fine line and shapes of a flattened perspective. Besides his portraits and still-lifes, it is mainly female nudes that made ​​him famous. His first exhibition takes place in Paris in 1917 at the gallery Cheron. Then, he participated at multiple Salon d’Automne, especially in 1921 when the critic acclaimed his auto-portrait, one nude and another still-life painting.

In 1926, the State bought the painting Friendship. Between 1930’s and 1950’s he travelled a lot and knew an important success in Europe and United-States (he was teacher at School of Beaux-Arts in Brooklyn). In 1955 he took the French nationality and gave three painting to National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Buddhist, he became catholic at the age of 73 and was baptize in Reims under the name Leonard as a tribute to De Vinci. This turning point in his life leads him to realise religious paintings.

In 1930’s – 1950’s, he exhibited many time in Japan. The globality of his artwork is separated by distinct periods influenced by Occident. Above all, Foujita realises delicate decorative paintings mixing Japanese and Occidental traditions.

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Work(s)