Engraving After Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita

Color lithograph after Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, drawn in line by Gaston Prost and enhanced with watercolor stencil by Daniel Jacomet Paris, Javal et Bourdeaux, signed Foujita in the plate and signed L.Foujita in the margin with a remark. From the suite of sixteen lithographs for the illustration of Jules Boissière's book Propos d'un intoxicé. Limited edition of 97 copies. Dimensions at sight 25x18.5 cm. Under beveled mat, under glass, in a limed silver baguette frame, 47.5x41.5 cm The painter Léonard Foujita was born on November 27, 1886 in Japan (Tokyo) in the wood and paper house of a samurai family high-ranking, his father was a general and physician in the Imperial Japanese Army. He grew up in Japan during the Meiji era, a time of opening of the country and in particular of opening to the West. He began his studies at the Tokyo School of Arts and graduated in 1910. Tsuguharu Foujita arrived in Paris in 1913 and became the most Parisian of Japanese painters. He quickly became the darling of trendy circles close to artists' studios and made renowned friends: Picasso, Soutine, Chagall, Braque, Diego Rivera, etc... It was during this period that he forged his way of painting, this syncretism imbued with Western avant-gardes while also expressing its Asian roots. In a short time, especially after his exhibition in 1918, he achieved great fame as a painter of beautiful women and cats, with a very original technique. In the 1920s, he was one of the great artists of the School of Paris, made up of figures at the avant-garde of Modern Art such as Matisse, Modigliani and Léger. In 1924, Foujita triumphed with his painting entitled Youki, goddess of snow which represents his new companion, Lucie Badoud whom he nicknamed "Youki", snow in Japanese. Private orders are pouring in. Foujita became one of the essential figures of Paris between the wars. He was one of the few artists in Montparnasse who earned a lot of money at that time. In 1925, Tsuguharu Foujita was already decorated with the Belgian Order of King Leopold I and was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in France. His paintings met with extraordinary success. In the spring of 1939, returning to Paris after nine years spent in Latin America, China and Japan, they settled in Montmartre. Faced with the German threat, he returned to his country again on the eve of the Second World War. Returning to his country in 1940, he became the official painter of the regime during the Second World War, he was named official painter of the Army of the Great Asian War. From 1939 to 1945 he worked on works and exhibitions of "Sensō-ga" war paintings. He puts his art at the service of his country, painting war scenes where he exalts the victories of the Japanese army. But the horrors of war in his native country were so unbearable to him that he returned permanently to France and converted to Catholicism after a mystical illumination he felt in the Saint Rémi basilica in Reims. In 1959, through baptism, Tsuguharu Fujita became Léonard Foujita. He chose Leonardo as his baptismal name because of his love for Leonardo da Vinci. Leonard Foujita is considered the greatest Japanese artist of the 20th century. He has been resting since 1968 in Reims in the chapel that he had built and which he entirely decorated, a total work of art of which he designed the architecture, the stained glass windows, the ironwork, the sculptures and the 100 m2 of frescoes. inside. (Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix chapel or “Foujita chapel”). Notre-Dame de la Paix is visited each year by hundreds of Japanese tourists. He leaves behind a vast collection of paintings and engravings which reflect his dual cultural affiliation, both Japanese and European.