Hokusai's work in a luxurious, large format book revealing all the poetry of the illustrations.
With a production of more than 30,000 drawings and paintings, Hokusai (1760 - 1849) was the most prolific, most varied and undoubtedly the most creative artist of ancient Japan. A universal genius for all that was drawing and painting in his time, he practiced all genres of ukiyo -e , "images of the floating world" as his contemporaries liked to say to talk about their pleasures and their daily lives. .
The work traces the career of this child from a popular district of the old Tokyo which was then called Edo, and the very particular atmosphere of this big city and of Japanese life when Japan, closed to foreigners, was developing in isolation a powerfully original culture.
Having become one of the great masters of printmaking, the "drawing madman" as he called himself, was rediscovered by the impressionists and aesthetes of the end of the 19th century . He has since remained one of the greatest and, through his personality, one of the most endearing figures of universal art.
This luxurious, very large format edition offers an exceptional restitution of Hokusai's emblematic works as well as lesser-known masterpieces, notably the luxurious surimonos created for the most demanding collectors. The text, signed by Henri-Alexis Baatsch, is a real immersion into the Japan of the artist's time , who is keen to restore its atmosphere and mysteries.
The book has a hard cover with a silk feel, tied with a midnight blue ribbon and an original binding allowing the pages to be opened wide. The lined paper, finally, is a real nod to Japanese print books.
