Page 292 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

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KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Gaifu kaisei (Fine wind, clear weather) [“Red Fuji”]
Woodblock print, from the series Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six
views of Mount Fuji), signed Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu, published by
Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo), late 1831
Horizontal oban: 9¬ x 14¬ in. (24.4 x 37.1 cm.)
$200,000-300,000

Despite the omnipotence of the “Great Wave”, the Japanese, and
most connoisseurs, find “Red Fuji” the centerpiece of Hokusai’s
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. It, like its variant “Storm below
the summit,” is the only design without human element in a set
otherwise devoted to activities in familiar places, presided over
by the sacred mountain. The scene here is late summer or early
autumn on the eastern side of the volcano. Dawn is breaking over
the Pacific Ocean, flushing the slopes, here printed in brick red
and brownish saturations at the crown. The fine wind of the title
is blowing from the south, penetrating cumulus clouds that the
Japanese liken to a shoal of small fish. The great off-center triangle
of the mountain reduces the tree line to a peppering of blue dots.
Unusual in Japanese depictions of sky, the air is a wide swath of
Berlin blue pigment, a novelty import in the 1830s, that gradually
darkens to the top. In this impression, the printer has gone for
dramatic effect with measured fuss, using the natural grain of the
wood block for contour and contrast.

With utmost simplicity of shapes and palette, Hokusai delivers not
verisimilitude but a sensation of the majesty and supernatural power
that inspired his personal devotion to Mount Fuji, as is obvious
from his countless drawings of it that culminate in his 1834 book
One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. Unlike other prints in the series
in which he uses perspective to link the foreground human scene
to the background theme, Mount Fuji, his emphasis on two-
dimensionality is deliberate: it accentuates both the symbolic aspect
and the visual drama. Much has been said about the influence of
this design on Western painters a few generations later, in particular
the parallel between Cézanne/Mont Sainte Victoire and Hokusai/
Fuji. Both artists revered a mountain for its cultural and physical
significance. While they invented unique combinations of form
to express it, the mode is abstraction that defies age. For the
astonishing variety of printings of “Red Fuji,” one is commended
to comparably fine impressions in museum collections accessible
online.