Louise Janin was an American painter and poet who settled in Paris in 1923. Born in Durham into a wealthy family of French origin, she grew up surrounded by Asian works collected by her father. This first exposure to art nourished her imaginary populated by deities, animals, and symbolic forms that remained present in her work.
She trained at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and, from an early stage, committed herself to painting. A long journey to Asia in 1915 reinforced her interest in Asian philosophies and mythologies, which influenced her first exhibited works in the late 1910s. After a period in New York, she moved to Paris, where her career quickly developed. Between 1924 and 1931, she exhibited at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and the Galerie Georges Petit, as well as in major salons and international exhibitions, establishing a reputation within the decorative arts.
A decisive shift followed her encounter with František Kupka in the mid-1920s. Her work gradually moved away from descriptive figuration toward more synthetic forms, structured by symbolic and cosmic references. In 1932, she joined the Musicalist movement at the invitation of Henry Valensi, participating regularly in its exhibitions over several decades. The war years, marked by internment in Corsica and personal loss, introduced a period of withdrawal during which drawing became a central activity.
From 1953 onward, Janin developed the works she called Cosmogrammes. Produced on paper through the interaction of fluid pigments, they extend her earlier concerns with structure and transformation, while introducing a greater role for contingency. This body of work remained central through the 1950s and 1960s.
Alongside her painting, Janin maintained a sustained activity as a writer. She published articles and poetry in journals in France, the United States, and India, reflecting a broad intellectual engagement with art and spirituality.
She continued to work well into old age, maintaining a daily practice in her Paris studio. Louise Janin died in Meudon in 1997 at the age of 104.