Explore our Hokusai paintings collection which features the greatest Hokusai reproductions.
Katsushika Hokusai, known as Hokusai, was born in October-November 1770 in Edo, formerly known as Tokyo. Adopted by a family of craftsmen, nothing predestined Hokusai to become one of the greatest printmakers in the history of art. Despite this, he was fascinated by this universe from his earliest childhood and ended up joining a xylography workshop, where he engraved the last six leaves of the humorous novel Sancho. Comforted in his choice, he threw himself wholeheartedly into this obvious vocation by taking part in Shunsho’s workshop, which he was forced to leave when Shunsho died. Living in extreme poverty, Hokusai did not give up and studied Western artists assiduously. His patience was rewarded in 1804, when the painter presented a giant daruma in the courtyard of the Edo temple, drawn with a broom and a bucket of Indian ink.
However, it was at the age of 60 that Hokusai stopped his travels throughout Japan and began illustrating books, which brought him worldwide recognition. The genius draughtsman and master of the Japanese print knew how to leave an indelible trace in the world of Art, making him a major influence for Van Gogh or even Cézanne. Hokusai died in Edo on May 10, 1849, having said on his deathbed “Five more years and I would have become a great artist.
Katsushika Hokusai’s wooden print, The Great Wave, is one of the most famous and recognizable works of art in the world. This work is from the famous series of Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjûrokkei), a tour de force that established the popularity of landscape prints, which continues to this day.
Hokusai was an artist of the modern period and the Japanese print style. The famous Hokusai paintings are “The Great Wave”, “Falcon and Plum Blossom”, “Thirty-second Shirasuga Relay”, “Kikyo Flower and Dragonfly”, “Kudan” and “Portrait of Geisha”. Hokusai was particularly related to Shiba Kōkan, Bokusen, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet.
