Seated Nude (#JMFT01)		Portrait of a Young Man, 1920 (#JMFT06)

Youki Accoudée devant la Table, 1926 (#JMFT02)		Les divertissements d'Eros, 1927 (#JMFT05)

Femme et chat, 1920 (#JMFT07)		Chat endormi, 1933 (#JMFT04)

Woman in Traditional Dress (#JMFT09)		Portrait of a Young Lady (#JMFT08)

Fish, 1931, (#JMFT10)		Deux Femmes, (#JMFT11)

Landscape by Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (#JMFT03)		Train et Personnages Sous la Niege, by Maximilien Luce (1858-1941) (#MNLM06)

Foujita was a man ahead of his time. He was both Japanese and French. What we like about him is that he embraced all cultures and his many friends were from every background and religion. All this he did without abandoning his own culture, and this shows very beautifully in his masterful work. Early on, Foujita enjoyed enormous celebrity and financial success in Paris. At the age of 39, he was honored with the highest award of the French State, Le Légion D’Honneur, and also in the same year, the Belgian Order of King Leopold from the art-loving Belgians. Appealing to the ever fickle public and making a living as a contemporary artist is never an easy task. Foujita was married five times and quite in keeping with his open view of the world, his first and last wives were Japanese whereas the three in between were French. We hope you enjoy his pictures as we do.

1886: TSUGUHARU FOUJITA IS BORN IN TOKYO TO AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY. LATER HIS FATHER IS SURGEON GENERAL TO THE JAPANESE ARMY. YOUNG FOUJITA IS INFLUENCED BY OGAI MORI, A FAMOUS NOVELIST AND PHYSICIAN, TO STUDY FRENCH AND TO LEARN ABOUT WESTERN CULTURE.
1910: BY THIS TIME, HE HAS RECEIVED SEVERAL MEDALS AND PRIZES. THE EMPEROR PURCHASES ONE OF HIS PAINTINGS. HE IS ONLY 24 YEARS OLD.
1911: FOUJITA TRAVELS TO KOREA AND PAINTS A PORTRAIT OF THE KING.
1912-1913: FOUJITA TURNS TOWARDS EUROPE AND TRAVELS FIRST TO LONDON AND THEN TO PARIS. FOUJITA FALLS IN LOVE WITH FRENCH CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENTERS THE PARIS ART WORLD AS A YOUNG ARTIST WITH ENORMOUS TALENT.
1917: FOUJITA HAS HIS FIRST EXHIBITION IN PARIS. HE BECOMES ONE OF A GROUP OF AVANT-GARDE ARTISTS. HIS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES INCLUDE: BRAQUE, LEGER, MODIGLIANI, PICASSO, ROUSSEAU, VAN DONGEN AND OTHERS. HE HAS A GENEROUS SPIRIT AND ACTS AS SENSEI AND ADVISOR TO YOUNG, ASPIRING, JAPANESE ARTISTS, RECENTLY MOVED TO PARIS, SUCH AS: BANDO, EBIHARA, HASEGAWA, KOYANAGUI, SUZUKI,UKITA AND OTHERS.
1924: FOUJITA IS ELECTED TO THE JURY AND IS RECOGNIZED AS BEING ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SALON D’AUTOMNE. HE IS ALSO ELECTED AS A MEMBER OF THE TOKYO ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS. HE IS THE FIRST, JAPANESE, MODERNIST PAINTER AND INFLUENCES MANY OF THE GREAT ARTISTS OF THE TIME. FOUJITA TRAVELED WIDELY BOTH IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES.

1925: FOUJITA IS HONORED WITH THE FRENCH "LÉGION D'HONNEUR," AND THE BELGIAN "ORDER OF KING LEOPOLD."
1939-1941: FOUJITA RETURNS TO PARIS FROM THE UNITED STATES JUST PRIOR TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
1941-1950: FOUJITA RETURNS TO HIS NATIVE TOKYO WHERE HE CONTINUES TO PAINT AS WELL AS ACT AS PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF JAPANESE ARTISTS.
1968: FOUJITA DIES IN ZURICH AT THE AGE OF 81 AND IS SUBSEQUENTLY BURIED IN RHEIMS WHERE HE MADE A REPUTATION BY DECORATING A CHAPEL IN THE CATHEDRAL.