LÉONARD-TSUGUHARU FOUJITA 1886-1968

Born in Japan in 1886, Foujita was raised during the Meiji era, a time of opening for the country and notably to Western cultures.
He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Tokyo till 1910. In 1913 he moved to Paris where he quickly became one the most famous artists of the Années Folles (1920-1929), both by his style and by his sense of celebration and friendships with the most important artists at the time such as Picasso, Derain, Apollinaire, Modigliani, Soutine, Van Dongen, Chagall, Pascin, Zadkine and in general every artists of the first hours of the Ecole de Paris.
Influenced by Michel-Ange, Poussin and Rodin, Foujita enjoyed success with a personal style, his milky background that catch the light and the subtle contours in Chinese ink of his subjects. Imbued with the European modernity, he would keep an Oriental accuracy and simplicity, mixing 'the rigor of the Japanese line with the freedom of Matisse' as he said himself.
After his baptism, he would be named Léonard referring to Léonard de Vinci.
Painter and engraver, Foujita was also a draughtsman, an illustrator, a sculptor, a ceramist, a photographer, a filmmaker, a fashion designer and a designer.