Louise Janin American-French, 1893-1997

Portrait of the American-French artist Louise Janin

Louise Janin was an American-born French painter whose work was influenced by symbolism, spirituality, and abstraction. Born in Durham to a family with a notable collection of Asian art, she spent her early years in San Francisco and studied at the California School of Fine Arts. After travels in Asia, she developed a visual language inspired by Buddhist, Hindu, and Taoist mythologies. In 1923 she settled permanently in Paris, exhibiting atthe Salon des Orientalistes, the Salon des Tuileries, and major international exhibitions. Her early figurative works evolved toward abstraction under the influence of František Kupka and the musicalist movement led by Henry Valensi. After World War II, Janin developed her signature cosmogrammes: marbled works on paper evoking cosmic and spiritual visions.