Great Picture Book of Everything

December 15, 2020 3:02 PM

A Great Wave of Hokusai Drawings Resurfaced at the British Museum IN 1829, WHEN THE CELEBRATED Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai was almost 70 years old, he created more than 100 drawings of a dazzling array of subjects: playful cats, serene landscapes, even severed heads. Hokusai’s fame continued to grow after his death in 1849, and the suite of small, elaborate drawings was last purchased a century later, at a Paris auction in 1948. Then it disappeared from the public eye. Now, a total of 103 drawings have resurfaced. (...) The British Museum is planning to exhibit the newly acquired drawings in the future. In the meantime, anyone can view all 103 works online, in high-resolution images made freely accessible on the museum’s website. (previously)
posted by bq (4 comments total)

Ah, and speaking of the Great Wave-- how about a lego version?
posted by gwint at 3:06 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

this is awesome! reminds me of Hokusai's "Tasty Morsels"--a three volume sorta untitled set of drawings that was meant to be turned into printed books, that is in MFA Boston, covered in a book called Hokusai's Lost Manga. I'm sure there are thousands more of his drawings scattered around that will never be found.
posted by th3ph17 at 3:40 PM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Excellent and informative interview with the BM's specialist curator of Japanese art, Tim Clark. A lot of detail here that didn't find its way into the Atlas Obscura article.
posted by verstegan at 4:16 PM on December 15, 2020 [7 favorites]

Here's the correct link for seeing all the drawings.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/ collection/search?keyword=daizen...
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:53 PM on December 15, 2020 [8 favorites]