FEATURES ARCHIVE
17 March 2009  |  Asian Art   |  Article

Katsushika Hokusai - Kanagawa oki nami ura

KATSURA YAMAGUCHI, INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR, JAPANESE & KOREAN ART

Pre-Impressionism
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was one of the preeminent Japanese painter/printmakers working in the ukiyo-e (“pictures from the floating world”) tradition, and he was instrumental in bringing landscapes to the forefront of ukiyo-e iconography. He is widely celebrated for his series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which portray the sacred Japanese mountain from varying directions and under different conditions.

To fully appreciate Hokusai’s distinguished legacy, one need only look to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists who were exposed to Japanese woodblock prints in France in the early 1900s. In addition to the formal qualities, they may have appreciated Hokusai’s “subjective” interpretations of the landscape (rather than formalist, realistic depictions). Hokusai designed scenes as he wanted them to appear, allowing viewers to experience them vicariously, through his eyes. It was precisely this notion of painting “impressions” that laid the groundwork for Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and others.


Related Sale
Sale 2266
Japanese and Korean Art
17 Mar 2009
New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Related Departments
Japanese Art

Keywords
Prints & Multiples

Lot 73, Sale 2266
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
Kanagawa oki nami ura (In the well of the great wave off Kanagawa), from
Price Realized: $68,500