On this day // It was in March: Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita resides in Pyla #Bassin d’Arcachon #La Teste de Buch
Published on March 26, 2024 by Fanny Peyrazat
“The painter Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886–1968), who was one of the most fashionable artists of the School of Paris in the 1920s, went to Japan during the Second World War and became involved with the military regime as an official painter.
In 1946, Foujita wished to return to Europe; he reconnected with his friend, geopolitical reporter Georges Grosjean, in Tokyo. The journalist, a Gaullist and Resistance member, pleaded his case with the authorities and managed to obtain a visa for France for Foujita after three years. Immediately after his arrival in Le Havre in March 1950, Foujita traveled to Le Pyla to the house known as La Bécassière, where he was welcomed by Georges Grosjean’s family.
He resumed his career and led a diligent, serene, and secluded life. Foujita regularly visited the Bassin, appreciating the peace and spending simple, happy moments there. He fished, walked, tinkered, told stories, made a puppet theater, and, of course, he painted. He adorned the walls with frescoes and painted the journalist’s portrait.
This rustic house was later sold, and some works were destroyed following renovations. One astonishing creation, a Madonna and Child, was saved. Maternity in a Boat or Bazoo is a fresco in watercolor and graphite on hollow bricks; it was detached from the wall and sold at auction. It is dated 1952, measures 154 cm in height, and weighs 200 kg.
Foujita was always inspired by religious subjects, stylizing primitives, medieval image-makers, or Latin American art in his own way. He remained an atheist before converting to Catholicism following a mystical illumination in 1959, choosing Léonard as his baptismal name in homage to Leonardo da Vinci.
Before the war, his preferred themes were women, cats, and self-portraits. His painting remains original. Even though he was a great friend of the Cubists, he developed a figurative body of work with precise lines, blending influences from printmaking to Greek sculpture.”
Related Bibliography: “Georges Félix Grosjean recounts his friendship with Foujita – Typescript introduced and annotated by Sylvie Buisson” published by paradox – [collection] hors les cadres, Paris 2018