Hokusai masterpices

Umezawa manor in Sagami Province
Umezawa manor in Sagami Province, from the series 36 Views of Mount Fuji

Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art - Auguste Renoir

The old fool of drawing

The Grand Palais (located in the heart of Paris on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées) organised a huge exhibition about Katsushika Hokusai from October 2014 to January 2015.
Another exhibition Hokusai: Inspiration and influence took place in the Seattle Art Museum from October 2023 to January 2024.
There were also an international touring exhibitions Beyond the Great Wave: works by Hokusai from the British Museum from October 2023 to January 2024 (also at the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo in 2022 and at the Bowers Museum in USA in 2023-24).
He is considered as the most famous Japanese artist in the Western countries and one of the greatest masters in the history of art.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a brillant Japanese painter, drawer, carver and ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period (1603-1868).  He had many names and pseudonyms for his paintings: Shunrô, Sôri, Kakō, Taito, Gakyōrōjin, Iitsu, Manji...  He called himself Gakyojin Hokusai, literally the Old Fool of drawing.  Indeed, he left behind a collection of some 30,000 drawings (including paintings, sketches, woodblock, prints, picture books and some illustrations) without taking into account his other works: ceramics, sculptures...

At 3 years old, for unknown reasons, Hokusai was adopted by an uncle who held the prestigious position of mirror polisher in the household of the shogun (the commander-in-chief of feudal Japan).

His early works represent the full spectrum of ukiyo-e art, including single-sheet prints of landscapes and actors, hand paintings... Ukiyo-e literally means pictures of the floating world that took place from the 17th through the 19th centuries, depicting the customs and manners of everyday life.
The great wave off Kanagawa
The great wave off Kanagawa

Some facts

  • achieved popular success during the years 1800–1810
  • one of Japan's most prolific and enduringly popular artists
  • known by at least 30 names during his lifetime
  • woodblock print series 36 Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic image, The Great Wave off Kanagawa
  • modernized traditional print styles through his innovations in subject and composition
  • by the 1880's, Japanese prints were the rage in Western culture and Hokusai's prints were studied by young European artists, such as Van Gogh, in a style called Japonaiserie
  • modern and contemporary artists was influenced by Hokusai: Loïs Mailou Jones, John Cederquist, Yoshitomo Nara, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Linda Sormin, Taiko Chandler...

Some famous artworks

  • The great wave off Kanagawa, 1830-34
  • Fuji from Kanaya on the Tōkaidō, 1830-34
  • Falling mist waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province (1834-35)
  • The Amida Falls in the far reaches of the Kisokaidō Road (1834-35)
  • South wind, clear sky (1830-34)
  • Cherry Blossoms at Yoshino (1833)
  • The suspension bridge on the border of Hida and Etchū provinces (1834)
  • Yahagi Bridge at Okazaki on the Tōkaidō (1834)
  • Cranes on snow-covered pine (1834)

His last words on his deathbed

If heaven will extend my life by 10 more years, or even 5 more years of life, then I'll manage to become a true artist...

As an ordinary person who like drawing, I feel quite depressing😮  Like these famous quotes from the Masters: 

I've never let one day go by without painting, or at least without drawing - Auguste Renoir

As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward - Vincent Van Gogh

Well, there is no mystery, my former art teacher, Myriam Bat-Yosef* (1931-2023, Aquarius), already told me that: keep drawing everyday even for 15 min, to not lose the touch, to reach some level, The more you practise drawing, the better you become at it, practice, practice, practice, draw something every day, even if it's just a doodle!

* who has died aged 92, last year on October 8th, 2023🙏
I will do a future post about my drawing lessons with her (born on the same day :))
Peonies and Butterf
Peonies and Butterfly

Favourite masterpices

Chrysanthemums and bee, from an untitled series of Large flowers (1831-33)
Fuji from Gotenyama at Shinagawa on the Tōkaidō (1830-1834)
Lilies
Peonies and Butterfly
Peonies and Canary (1833)
Sesshu Ajigawaguchi Tenpozan (1832)
Shinagawa, from the series “53 Stations of the Tokaido (1806)
Small red blossoms on a vine
Soshu Umezawa, from 36 Views of Fuji
Umezawa manor in Sagami Province
Sesshu Ajigawaguchi Tenpozan
Sesshu Ajigawaguchi Tenpozan



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