Page 305 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

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KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Poppies
Woodblock print, from an untitled series known as Large
Flowers, signed Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu, published by
Nishimura Yohachi (Eijudo), circa 1833-34
Horizontal oban: 9¬ x 14Ω in. (24.4 x 36.8 cm.)
$90,000-120,000

Set against a pale blue background, the fully bloomed and
budding poppies bend in wind towards the right. The
appreciateable wood grain of the background in this early
impression adds pleasant effect of water surface with ripples.
Hokusai purposely employed coarse and blurry outlines
to convey the dynamic feeling of flowers swinging in the
strong wind. This unconventional composition, similar to
the famous Great Wave, creates a fascinating visual challenge
for Edo Period Japanese audiences who were accustomed to
read pictures from the right to left. Some scholars regard this
design as the best composition in the series (Sarah Thompsen,
Hokusai. Boston: MFA Publications, 2015. Pp 105).

Hokusai’s production of this Large Flowers series elevated
bird-and-flower prints from an overlooked genre to a popular
one. By depicting the flowers close-up, Hokusai captured the
characters of each flowers in this series as if they were 18th
century European figure portraits. The delicate treatment
of nature and the simple but striking color combination
influenced heavily on 19th century European art, especially
the movement of Art Nouveau.