Collection

The Musée Ando à Karuizawa collection comprises some 200 Tsuguharu Foujita works collected over many years by Yasushi and Megumi Ando. Mr. Ando is Founder and Chairman of this museum, who has contributed to the revitalisation of many Japanese companies. They displayed and appreciated Foujita's paintings in their own residences in Tokyo. The collection covers a breadth of Foujita's work, including valuable early landscape paintings as well as nudes and handcrafted pieces, while lovingly focused on paintings of little girls, cats, and the Virgin and Child-the motifs the artist repeatedly returned to throughout his life. This is Japan's first museum with a permanent exhibition devoted exclusively to Foujita.

Highlights of the Collection

Exhibition Room 2Moving to France-Exploring Styles; Achieving a Milky White Ground

Foujita moved to France in 1913, where he explored various styles and completed his “milky-white ground", which swept across Europe. The exhibition focuses on Foujita's paintings from the early years, including landscapes depicting Paris after his arrival in France, nudes with "milky undercoat", which became his signature style, and portraits of children and religious subjects, which led up to the creative focus of his later years.

Exhibition Room 3Travelling Artist—Latin America, Japan and New York

In 1931, Foujita left Paris for Central and South America accompanied by his new lover, Madeleine. Completely charmed by the region's people with their strong, expressive faces and colorful local customs, which bear no resemblance to Europeans nor Asians, he transformed his palette and brushwork. This gallery displays travel-themed works of that period and traces his footsteps as he returns to Japan and becomes caught up in the fevered atmosphere of an approaching war.

Exhibition Room 4Return to Paris-The Road to Faith

Returning to France in 1950, Foujita began painting nostalgic Parisian landscapes and portraits of little girls. Determined never to go back to Japan, he chose to live as a Frenchman. His subjects soon changed from innocent girls to pure female saints and icon-like images of the Virgin and Child. This gallery features the world of solemn and serene religious paintings, the climax of the Ando Collection.

Exhibition Room 5A World of Little Girls and Cats

The start of the Ando Collection was a lithograph that came into Mr. and Mrs. Ando's hands. Falling in love with the cute cat it portrayed, they began to assemble their collection. This gallery, with paintings of “little girls” and “cats,” is designed to "recreate the Ando Family Residences," the very concept behind the museum. Realised here is the couple's long-cherished wish to have people relaxed on comfortable sofas and take their time appreciating Foujita's works.

A Museum like Home

We would like visitors to feel at home and take the time to look at Foujita's paintings which have adorned the walls of the Ando Family Residences for many years. Like their house in Tokyo, the building is clad in red bricks and the exhibition rooms are arranged around the courtyard. The result is a private museum where visitors can enjoy blissful moments with Foujita.

The works as displayed at the Ando residence.