1760 -1849 · Edo, ukiyo-e, manga, Mount Fuji and Japanese landscape

Wave, wind, Fuji and inexhaustible line make Katsushika Hokusai one of the most inventive artists of the Edo period.

Katsushika Hokusai was born in Edo in 1760. Entering Katsukawa Shunshô's studio at a young age, he began with portraits of actors and images of the floating world, then tirelessly explored illustrated books, surimono, landscapes, paintings and drawing manuals. He changed his artist name numerous times, each identity marking a new phase of research. The fifteen volumes of the Manga bring together thousands of figures, professions, animals, plants, gestures and natural phenomena in a repertoire of extraordinary freedom. The fifteen volumes of the Manga bring together thousands of figures, professions, animals, plants, gestures and natural phenomena in a repertoire of extraordinary freedom. The fifteen volumes of the Manga bring together thousands of figures, professions, animals, plants, gestures and natural phenomena in a repertoire of extraordinary freedom. At the beginning of the 1830s, the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji profoundly renewed landscape prints. In the early 1830s, the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji profoundly renewed landscape prints. In the early 1830s, the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji profoundly renewed landscape prints. The Great Wave of Kanagawa combines three boats, a clawed sea and the tiny cone of Fuji in a composition that has become universal. Wind, rain, snow and lightning are never settings: they control the line and reveal human resistance. Hokusai continues his work into extreme old age, convinced that his art will truly gain again with age. Dragon above Mount Fuji, painted in 1849, summarizes this late ambition where mountains, breath and spiritual movement become one. The "Katsushika Hokusai" selection notably compares The Great Wave of Kanagawa and Ejiri in the province of Suruga. His reading favors light.

Hokusai transforms each phenomenon into visible movement: the wave bends, the wind crosses the paper and the Fuji remains.