Hokusai

Forrer starts this book with about 35 pages of historical notes, which sketch Hokusai's career and the social milieu in which he lived, albeit with some maddening omissions. The timeline on page 37 notes a brief period in which he was "reduced to penury" - something the narrative seems to skip over.No matter, this book is really about the artwork: 130+ works, prints with a few drawings, in color or B&W to match the original work. Opaque, bright paper carries the printing well. Colors tend not to be saturated, something that disappointed me until I realized that it's probably true to the natural fading of inks 150-200 years old. In fact, the one real annoyance in the printing (plate 85) could have gotten its over-processed look from a misguided attempt to pull more contrast from a faded print than the print had to give.A few paragraphs describe each image. The more helpful notes identify the site of a scene, or pick out "product placement" of the publisher's name among kanji characters that I could not make sense of unaided. A few times, descriptions of the obvious seemed un-needed. In a number of places, the author added art-historian notes on the different inking of other known impressions of an image. That could have been helpful in a more scholarly study, but the brevity of this catalog makes such detail seem a bit much.None of that detracts from the art itself. Although the pieces aren't presented chronologically, they cover many parts of Hokusai's career. They include extracts from several series of prints, including the famous "36 Views of Mt. Fuji." No series appears in its entirety (the brevity I mentioned earlier), but I was happy to see selections from groups that I had not heard of before. Of course, the later work includes a few specimens of Hokusai's shunga - the erotic images that so startle a Western eye. This doesn't catalog Hokusai's work exhaustively or give the most detailed history of his life. It does, however, present a gorgeous collection of his work, a collection that goes well beyond what you might expect of an introduction.-- wiredweird

What it is: The most thorough biographical reference I know, by an 1890s French author, de Goncourt. It's been translated into English, with a few notes added by the modern author (Forrer). The text has many accompanying illustrations. Those include sketches and remarkable paintings on silk or paper. Quite a few will be unfamiliar to most viewers - they include unique objects (like the drawings) and many rare prints. In fact, some of the prints were only discovered recently, or so people thought until they were seen mentioned in de Goncourt's text.What I hoped for: A collection of Hokusai's art that really shows the art. This is basically a history or biography. Only a handful of the reproductions are in color, but printed well in those few cases. The overwhelming majority of illustrations are black-and-white, often too small to see any detail. Many large ones have such uncertain focus that detail gets lost, too. The real purpose of the pictures, though was to support the text. The illustrations do that adequately, like visual signposts along the path of Hokusai's career.If you're looking for a coffee-table set of Hokusai reproductions, give this one or two stars. The book is a biography, though, the best I know, and interesting in itself.Still, it's not what I was hoping for.//wiredweird

One thing that's not obvious, from reading the publisher's description of this book, is that it was first published for the Royal Academy exhibition in 1991. It was intended to accompany that exhibition, so the choice of prints was restricted to those that could be exhibited at the Academy, and the notes accompanying each print are intended to guide the reader through that exhibition. Some of the criticisms the book has received seem to be based on the reader approaching the book as a stand alone publication, rather than an accompanying text to an event. When approached as an exhibition catalogue, it is an excellent resource, and although there is some repetition this is to be expected when you consider that the text was placed alongside the prints when they were put on display at the RA - visitors to an exhibition view each exhibit in isolation and can't view every catalogue entry to find all of the information they need to understand what's in front of them.

I've only just received this book, so have yet to sit down and go through it thoroughly, but my first reaction is one of surprise that the text is in French. This doesn't bother me particularly, as I speak, read and write French fluently, having lived in a francophone country for many years, but I can see it being a problem for some. I'm especially surprised as I have a copy of the sister-publication, Hireshige, and that is in English.

Merveilleux album pour ceux qui aiment les estampes et les dessins du grand maître japonais. Je l'ai offert et je le recommande car les reproductions sont d'excellente qualité et le prix en est très raisonnable.

plus j'apprends sur ce grand maître; plus je l'apprécie. Quel talent et quelle perfection. De belles reproductions et un bon éventail de son oeuvre.

je recommande ce livre a ceux qui aiment l'art le vrai d'un maitre en la matière HOKUSAI .La vie et la nature retransmise par les pinceaux du maitre sur le japon que seul son regard voie et de ses mains en imprègne les estampes

Très bel ouvrage que l' on a plaisir à feuilleter...à lire ... et à relire....Ouvrage à offrir aux amateurs d' Estampes Japonaises...