Léonard Foujita
1886-1968
Born in Tokyo of a Samurai family, he studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Tokyo, 1906-10, and after visiting China and London settled in Paris in 1913. Except for a world tour in 1929 and residence in Tokyo during the Second World War he lived in Paris for the rest of his life. In 1959 he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and changed his personal name to Léonard in memory of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a member of the circle of émigré Expressionists in the École de Paris - Soutine, Chagall, Modigliani - and he developed from c. 1925 a personal style of delicately mannered Expressionism which combined Western and Japanese traits. He began by doing Parisian landscapes and then became known for his nudes, and for his compositions in which still life and figures were combined. An example of his work is his Portrait de l'artiste par lui-meme in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris (1928). He was commissioned to do decorations for the Cité Universitaire at Paris. He excelled also in lithography and print making and in 1963 wrote and illustrated a strange book, La Mésangere.
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