Page 132 - Christies Japanese and Korean Art Sept 22 2020 NYC

Selection From An Important Japanese Collection
(lot 102–127)

118
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: 9æ x 15 in. (24.8 x 38.1 cm.)
$100,000-200,000

Despite the omnipotence of the “Great Wave” (see lot
117), 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.