In the spring of 1917, the Japanese painter Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) was sitting in the popular café La Rotonde in Montparnasse when he saw a striking young woman. The two began talking and quickly fell madly in love. Just two weeks later, Foujita married the young woman at the Montmartre registry office - her name was Fernande Barrey.
Fernande Barrey was born in January 1893 in a French coastal town on the English Channel. At the age of 15 she moved away from the province with dreams of Paris. Without any connections, she initially made her way in the city as a prostitute, but over time she was discovered by the city's artists as a model. One of these painters was Amedeo Modigliani, who encouraged Fernande to become a painter herself. Well connected in the Parisian art scene, Fernande presented Modigliani to the art dealer Leopold Zborowski, who would be the greatest patron of the impoverished painter.
In order to escape the bombs of the First World War, the young couple, like so many other artists, moved to the French Riviera. Together with Chaim Soutine, and Modigliani and his partner Jeanne Hébuterne, the Foujitas moved into a house in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the three painters often worked together and mainly used the women present as models. Fernande became close friends with Jeanne Hébuterne, but two years later, back in Paris, she could not prevent her from committing suicide after Modigliani's death.
Fernande achieved artistic success in 1920 when five of her works were exhibited at the Paris Autumn Salon. In addition, she also promoted her husband's career. Their marriage, however, began to unravel. After the passionate first years together, the Foujita couple agreed upon an open marriage.
But when Fernande began a relationship with Tsuguharu's compatriot and colleague Sei Koyanagui (1896-1948), Tsuguharu became incredibly jealous. In revenge, he started an affair with the Belgian artist Lucie Badoul, who later became his second wife. One time, he was ensconced in a hotel room with her without informing his wife, who was already starting to visit the Paris morgues in search of him. This incident marked the death knell for the marriage of Fernande and Tsuguharu and they divorced in 1928.
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Fernande then lived with Sei Koyanagui, but this relationship also failed. However, she and Tsuguharu established a friendship and he supported her financially until her death in 1960. His support was also necessary because Fernande did see any real artistic success and hardly any of her work is found on the auction market today.
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The fact that little is known about her undoubtedly also contributed to her identification as another Fernande who made a name for herself in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, namely as an erotic model for postcards.
Postcards with scantily dressed or nude young women were a must-have collector's items for men in Europe in the 1900s (and certainly for American tourists who wanted to take a souvenir home from wild Paris).
The best known star among these erotic models was known simply as Miss Fernande. Entire series of her, which were recorded in the studio of the photographer brothers Jean and Georges Agelou, were created between 1902 and 1915/20.
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The timeline, of course, makes it impossible that Fernande Barrey could actually have been the model, since she was only nine in 1902 and not yet in Paris. And there is no physical similarity between the two women. Still, the rumor persists.
Barrey is also sometimes mistaken for Fernande Olivier, who lived in Paris at the same time and was nicknamed "Foto-Fernande." She was Picasso's partner from 1905 to 1912 and also earned her living as a nude model. But here, too, apart from the first name, there isn't really anything in common with Barrey.
Despite the number of intriguing Fernandes in Paris at the same time, Barrey has persisted as one of Paris' most legendary muses due to her associations with two of the era's most famous artists and her immortalization in their art.
