Paintings are one of the most important objects for understanding Shitsukan, as they reflect the process by which artists perceived and expressed the material and texture of objects. Human skin has long been an object of great interest for artists, who seek to convey Shitsukan, qualities such as softness, glossiness, and transparency, on a two-dimensional canvas. Léonard Foujita, an artist active at the École de Paris in the 1920s, is world-renowned for his original technique of smooth, transparent skin, known as ‘milky-white’ skin. Destructive analysis has facilitated the identification of several white pigments used by Foujita; however, how he effectively utilized these pigments to achieve his ‘milky-white’ skin texture expression has remained a secret. Our preliminary investigation revealed that each of the white pigments reported to have been used by Foujita exhibits a unique fluorescent emission. Based on this finding, we measured and analyzed the fluorescent emission of Foujita’s paintings under ultraviolet illumination using a hyperspectral camera. Through our analysis, we found that white pigments, which exhibit similar reflective properties under illumination without ultraviolet light, were intentionally arranged according to their fluorescent emission colors. Building on this analysis, we discuss how artists may have exploited the optical properties of pigments to represent the Shitsukan–the optical and perceptual qualities–of human skin.