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The drawing is from an album entitled Hokuba hikishita ('Sketches by Hokuba') which was sold at Sotheby's in London
on February 12, 1963. The drawings date from around 1840. Almost all are figure subjects depicting scenes from daily life,
executed in a free manner with short descriptive text by the artist. HOKUBA, who was born and lived in Edo, was one of Katsushika Hokusai’s (1760 - 1849) outstanding pupils, a very good ukiyo-e painter, as well as printmaker and illustrator. He designed many surimono and a number of illustrations for poetry (kyoka) books and novels, and is known mainly for his paintings of beauties (bijin-ga). He was very prolific, but no attempt has been made so far to document his large body of work. Drawings from the album are discussed and illustrated in: - Jack Hillier, Hokusai drawings; London, 1966 - Jack Hillier, The Harari Collection of Japanese Paintings and Drawings; London, 1970-73. - Gerhard Schack, Japanische Handzeichnungen; Hamburg, 1975, ed. al. |