DOI Heft:
No. 183 (February 1925)
DOI Artikel:Binyon, Laurence: A note on Hokusai's prints
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0073
" GHOST LOOKING OVER A
BED-CURTAIN." COLOUR
WOODCUT BY HOKUSAI
Nothing is more remarkable about
Hokusai's career than the slowness of his
development. But then he is growing all
the time, and to the end. We are familiar
in Europe with the two contrasted types
of artist; the men who burst into sudden
mastery and produce in their youth the
most brilliant work, which they never
afterwards surpass ; and the others who
begin perhaps with mediocre or downright
bad work and by slow degrees work out
their true vein, continually exploring, and
continually enriching their art: Van Dyck
and Rembrandt are examples. Hokusai
was of the latter kind. In 1806 he pro-
duced another Chushingura set (Nos. 34-
39) ; and what an advance there is in the
interval! We are already half-way from the
" figures in a landscape " of his early work
to the " landscape with figures " of his
later matured manner. a 0 a
It was not till about 1820 that the
great colour-printed landscapes began.
But in the second decade of the century
what an amazing amount he accom-
plished ! To realise this, one has to
turn to the books. 1812 is the date of the
first volume of the Mangwa, that extra-
A NOTE ON HOKUSAI'S PRINTS
ordinary miscellany of drawings of every-
thing on earth—the world of legend and of
fancy not excluded. To turn over the pages
of these fifteen volumes—on which are
sometimes thrown a mere medley of things
observed, while at other times we are
startled by a most dramatic design of
figures in action, or by the grandeur of a
mountain landscape—is to have the im-
pression of an insatiable curiosity of eye
and mind, a superhuman energy of hand.
At the other side of the world, during
these same years, another artist of equally
prodigious industry was making a similar
effort, in his thousands of sketches, to
realise the inexhaustible variety and quan-
tity of nature. But Turner, of course, had
nothing of Hokusai's mastery of figure-
design : he could not rival, for instance,
thepagesof thatwonderful bookthe "Hoku-
sai Gwashiki," published in 1819. Yet
it is interesting to think of these two great
artists in different hemispheres, totally
unconscious of the other's existence,
working with passionate industry for the
same years, and becoming the two greatest
masters of landscape in modern times. 0
" UGUISU AND ROSES "
COLOUR WOODCUT
BY HOKUSAI
67
BED-CURTAIN." COLOUR
WOODCUT BY HOKUSAI
Nothing is more remarkable about
Hokusai's career than the slowness of his
development. But then he is growing all
the time, and to the end. We are familiar
in Europe with the two contrasted types
of artist; the men who burst into sudden
mastery and produce in their youth the
most brilliant work, which they never
afterwards surpass ; and the others who
begin perhaps with mediocre or downright
bad work and by slow degrees work out
their true vein, continually exploring, and
continually enriching their art: Van Dyck
and Rembrandt are examples. Hokusai
was of the latter kind. In 1806 he pro-
duced another Chushingura set (Nos. 34-
39) ; and what an advance there is in the
interval! We are already half-way from the
" figures in a landscape " of his early work
to the " landscape with figures " of his
later matured manner. a 0 a
It was not till about 1820 that the
great colour-printed landscapes began.
But in the second decade of the century
what an amazing amount he accom-
plished ! To realise this, one has to
turn to the books. 1812 is the date of the
first volume of the Mangwa, that extra-
A NOTE ON HOKUSAI'S PRINTS
ordinary miscellany of drawings of every-
thing on earth—the world of legend and of
fancy not excluded. To turn over the pages
of these fifteen volumes—on which are
sometimes thrown a mere medley of things
observed, while at other times we are
startled by a most dramatic design of
figures in action, or by the grandeur of a
mountain landscape—is to have the im-
pression of an insatiable curiosity of eye
and mind, a superhuman energy of hand.
At the other side of the world, during
these same years, another artist of equally
prodigious industry was making a similar
effort, in his thousands of sketches, to
realise the inexhaustible variety and quan-
tity of nature. But Turner, of course, had
nothing of Hokusai's mastery of figure-
design : he could not rival, for instance,
thepagesof thatwonderful bookthe "Hoku-
sai Gwashiki," published in 1819. Yet
it is interesting to think of these two great
artists in different hemispheres, totally
unconscious of the other's existence,
working with passionate industry for the
same years, and becoming the two greatest
masters of landscape in modern times. 0
" UGUISU AND ROSES "
COLOUR WOODCUT
BY HOKUSAI
67