Tsuguharu Foujita was born in Tokyo in 1886, a descendant of the Foujiwara samurai family. He studied at the Imperial School of Fine Arts, now known as Tokyo University, his talents winning numerous prizes and even attracting the interest of the Emperor.
Paris Days
Although Foujita surely would have been guaranteed a successful career in his native country, he was greatly intrigued by European painting styles. This fascination compelled him to move to Paris in 1913, where he joined the resident artists and Bohemians of the Montparnasse neighborhood, with its low rents and high aesthetic aspirations. His newfound companions included Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau and Chaim Soutine.
Foujita was also friends with painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, whose lover Jeanne Hebuterne posed for Foujita in his studio. Man Ray’s famous muse Kiki also posed nude for Foujita in the 1920s, with the resulting portrait being the talk of the Paris Autumn Salon Show as well as earning Foujita a rather nice sum of money. Fou-Fou, as he was often called, in general tended to earn more from his work than his fellow Montparnassians, making him able to afford what most starving artists couldn’t even dream of: the ultimate luxuries of hot water and a bathtub.
Personal and Artistic Style
Never shy about self-promotion, Foujita knew the importance of marketing one’s persona along with one’s art. He courted a colorful reputation through his distinct cropped hairstyle, hoop earrings and glasses, and he was always good for a spectacle, such as showing up at a costume party clad only in a loincloth accompanied by his second wife Fernande, who was naked in a cage. But beyond the public image, Foujita was a disciplined and serious artist with a distinct style. Particularly fond of white and pale shades like lavender and gray, Foujita created a fusion between the subtle nuances of Japanese art and the more intense European elements that surrounded him. He also became skilled at using the then primarily western medium of oil paints. Foujita was repeatedly inspired by women and cats and liked to have plenty of each hanging around, and even his work beyond those two subjects tends to have a kind of detached, feline grace.
Later Years and Legacy
Upset by tax troubles and his third wife leaving him for the poet Robert Desnos, Foujita decided to abandon Paris and head for Latin America. His tour through Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Argentina was quite successful, and following that sojourn and a general period of global wandering, he returned to Japan. During World War II, now completely in service to Emperor Hirohito, Foujita again became the creative chameleon and produced art to inspire the fighting spirit of his native country. It is debatable whether Foujita had truly become anti-West or whether he was—as always—doing what was necessary to have his work reach an audience, but it is further interesting to note that following the war Foujita once more left Japan for France and even became a French citizen in 1955.
In his final years, Foujita converted to Catholicism and decorated a cathedral in the city of Reims, a project sponsored by Mumm’s Champagne. He claimed that it was time to atone for his wild days and leave behind a spiritual legacy. Foujita had taken the Christian name Léonard, in homage to Leonardo da Vinci, and he was buried in Reims following his death in 1968 at the age of eighty-one.
Sources
Glory in a Line: A Life of Foujita--The Artist Caught Between East and West, Phyllis Birnbaum (Faber and Faber, 2006)
School of Paris -- Christopher Benfey, New York Times Sunday Book Review, January 14, 2007
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