<b>RECLINING COURTESAN PAINTING</b>Kastushika Hokusaic. 1802<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

This beautiful painting was executed by Japan’s most celebrated artist, Katsushika Hokusai. The work depicts a woman dressed in a stunning kimono ensemble, reclining as she looks out contemplatively toward the negative space, which anchors a poem by Santo Kyoden.

The work is executed on paper with striking applications of ink by Hokusai’s confident hand. This astonishing painting demonstrates both a sense of artistic spontaneity with Hokusai’s quick, confident strokes and refinement in how the artist rendered the woman’s stance, clothing, and the overall composition with its well-articulated calligraphy.  

The poem by Kyoden appears in virtually identical form in several other paintings by Hokusai. John Carpenter’s translation of the poem appears in his essay “Hokusai and Kyoden,” in Gian Carlo Calza & John Carpenter’s Hokusai Paintings, Selected Essays (University of Venice, The International Hokusai Research Center, Venice 1994; pp. 99-100.). The poem translates to the following:

“Tobacco, when lit, becomes a cloud;

a string of fine days turns to rain;

under a quilt, atop a futon,

life’s pleasant encounters

never linger long….”

The painting is mounted as a kakemono scroll with a finely appointed mount. Additional images are available by request.

Connoisseur's Note

The provenance of this painting is outstanding. This work is among the few available original Hokusai paintings that have been featured in exhibitions and well documented in the research of art historians and Hokusai experts.

EXHIBITIONS

Milan, Italy—Palazzo Reale Museum (1999)

“Hokusai: Il Vecchio pazzo per la pittura” (Hokusai: The Old Man Mad About Painting). Curator: Gian Carlo Calza, Hokusai International Centre, University of Venice.

Salem, Massachusetts—Peabody Essex Museum (2004)

“Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile”—Curator: Andrew Maske

New York, NY – Asia Society Gallery (2008)

“Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings”

PUBLICATIONS

Kobijutsu, Number 85, January 1988—Essay by Nagata Seiji in the series “Katsushika Hokusai Nikuhitsu Kansho,” no. 21)

Hokusai: Il Vecchio pazzo per la pittura—Catalogue for the Great Hokusai

Exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italy. 1994. Published by Electa, Milan (1994). Catalog edited by Curator Gian Carlo Calza. This painting is illustrated on p. 163 as Plate III-29, with descriptive text on pp. 454-455. 

Hokusai, by Gian Carlo Calza (with essays by Calza, Roger Keyes, Matthi Forer,

John M. Rosenfield, Richard Lane, Asano Shugo, Tsuji Nobuo, and Kobayashi Tadashi). Published in English by Phaidon Press (NY and London, 2003).

This book is an English translation of the Hokusai Exhibition catalog from Milan, 1994.

The painting appears as Plate III-29 (page 149);  text description: page 440.

Hokusai no Bijin (Hokusai’s Beautiful Women) by Kobayashi Tadashi

Published by Shogakkan, Tokyo 2005

This painting appears in a large 2-page spread on pp. 36-37; descriptive text on pp. 52-53.

The New York Times, March 14, 2008. Review by art critic Karen Rosenberg of the

Asia Society exhibition, “Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680–1860.”  The reviewer describes this painting as follows:

“… In a loosely brushed ink painting of a reclining courtesan from around 1800, Hokusai collaborated with the poet Santo Kyoden.  The evocative verse is written from the courtesan’s point of view:  ‘Sometimes I turn into a cloud/ like smoke from tobacco I have lit, /  other times I turn into rain / which makes a client linger a bit.’  Both text and image capture the fleeting sensuality of the floating world….”

This painting also appeared on the cover of a 2010 calendar called “Hokusai: Whispers,” published in Italy by LEM Art Group.