About Tsuguharu Foujita

About Léonard Foujita

The Japanese painter most beloved in Paris

Tsuguharu Foujita
(Leonard Foujita 1886-1968)

Born in Tokyo in the middle of the Meiji era, Fujita graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts) and traveled to France alone at the age of 26 with the ambition of becoming a painter.
After much trial and error, he established his own unique style of painting, and his nude works with "milky white backgrounds," which later became synonymous with Fujita, took the European art world by storm in the 1920s, and he quickly became a favorite of the École de Paris.

During World War II, he produced war documentary paintings in Japan. After experiencing setbacks when he was held responsible for the war, he returned to France and continued to paint energetically while living a quiet life as the Frenchman Léonard Foujita in his later years.

He died in 1968 at the age of 81 and was buried in the Chapel of Our Lady of Peace (Fujita Chapel) in Reims, which he had built himself.
This chapel was conceived and designed by Fujita himself, and is famous for the murals (frescoes) that he painted.