Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita: Who was the illustrious Japanese-French painter?

The artist is being honoured by a Goodle doodle

Tuesday's Google Doodle is paying tribute to the Japanese-French painter Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita. (Google Doodle)

The latest Google Doodle will pay tribute to Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, a distinguished Japanese-French painter.

Foujita, born on 27 November, 1886, would have turned 132 on this date.

The artist was born in Tokyo and graduated from the city's University of the Arts in 1910.

He emigrated to Paris three years later, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, and befriended members of the famed School of Paris such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Foujita meshed the techniques and styles of the Japanese and French art worlds, making for a distinctive style. He held an acclaimed first solo exhibition in 1917 at the Galerie Cheron in Paris, selling all of the 110 watercolours he had chosen to present.

Among Foujita's best-known works is a portrait of model Kiki de Montparnasse lying down, nude, on a plush beige surface.

The painting became a sensation when Foujita showed it at the 1922 Salon d'Automne, an exhibition of artwork that provided an alternative to the official, more conservative Salon.

Foujita was also passionate about drawing cats and dedicated an entire art book to the felines. His Book of Cats, published in 1930, has become a sought-after items at auctions.

Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita with one of his works, a poster advertising a dance in Paris, circa 1928. ((Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images))

One of its 500 signed, limited edition copies fetched $77,500 (£60,516) at an auction in 2014, according to Fine Books Magazine.

Foujita returned to Japan during World War II before travelling back to France.

He obtained French citizenship in 1950 and received the prestigious Legion of Honour in 1957.

The artist converted to Catholicism in 1959 and picked the name Léonard. Foujita died on 29 January, 1968 in Zürich, Switzerland, at the age of 81. He is buried in Reims, France outside the Foujita Chapel, which he designed.