Katsushika Hokusai

1760-1849

Asian Artist

Hokusai was born in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan. He is considered one of the outstanding figures of the Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world" (everyday life), school of printmaking. In 1775, he learned the new, popular technique of woodcut printmaking. Between 1796 and 1802 he produced a vast number of book illustrations and color prints that drew their inspiration from the traditions, legends, and lives of the Japanese people. The free curved lines characteristic of his style gradually developed into a series of spirals that imparted the utmost freedom and grace to his work. In his late works Hokusai used large, broken strokes and a method of coloring that imparted a more somber mood. Among his best-known works the series of block prints known as the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. His prints were imported to Paris in the mid-19th century. They were enthusiastically collected, especially by such Impressionist artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, whose work was profoundly influenced by them.