Art: Painter's Painter

Almost any art-wise person knows something about the Japanese Parisian, Tsugoharu Foujita, painter, cat-lover, ultra-bohemian. Artists know him for a composer of technically slick decorations of cats and pale langorous ladies in a style that is a clever compromise between Post-Impressionist Paris and 18th Century Japan. Parisians know him as an invariable adjunct at Art Balls, masks, revels and routs, a constant habitue of Montparnasse cafes. Tourists know him for the way his hair hangs down over his horn-rimmed glasses; for his habit of wearing checkerboard trousers, leopard-skin vests, earrings. For...