Federico Cantu 1907-1989

 for crucifixions took on many shapes. Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) states: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet." According to Josephus, during Emperor Titus's Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), Roman soldiers nailed innumerable Jewish captives to crosses in various ways.

At times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin crux simplex. This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned. Frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T (crux commissa) or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism (crux immissa). The most ancient image of a Roman crucifixion depicts an individual on a T-shaped cross. It is a graffito found in a taberna (hostel for wayfarers) in Puteoli, dating to the time of Trajan or Hadrian (late 1st century to early 2nd century CE).

Second-century writers who speak of the execution cross describe the crucified person's arms as outstretched, not attached to a single stake: Lucian speaks of Prometheus as crucified "above the ravine with his hands outstretched". He also says that the shape of the letter T (the Greek letter tau) was that of the wooden instrument used for crucifying.Artemidorus, another writer of the same period, says that a cross is made of posts (plural) and nails and that the arms of the crucified are outstretched Speaking of the generic execution cross, Irenaeus (c. 130–202), a Christian writer, describes it as composed of an upright and a transverse beam, sometimes with a small projection in the upright

Crucifixión

 

 

Despues de ver una pintura, de volver y volver a verla, hay que cerrar los ojos y contemplarla

 

Durante la década que pasara Federico Cantú viviendo en Paris 1924-1934 ) , su pintura y temática fue tomando un rumbo mas académico , mas profundo mas místico

Quizá fue el cambio de atelier  - de Montparnasse a el del barrio Latino - y ahí encontrase con la cercanía de la “Eglice de sait Severin”   quien logra eclipsar su vocación sacra o de igual forma se podría tratar de su rechazo a la creencia surrealista de negar la religión! 

Lo cierto es que existen testimonios pictóricos de arte sacro ya abordado por él en 1925 y que culminara con su primer encargo mural para la Iglesia de Pasadena California en 1928  y que estría coronado por la Madona y Descanso en la Huida a Egipto que expuso en el Museo de Los Ángeles California en 1929 ( a los 22 años)

Exposición seguida de laque montara su maestro Alfredo Ramos Martinez en el mismo recinto!

Despues de dejar atrás Paris y ya incorporado a la escuela mexicana tenemos una infinidad de temas bíblicos que reiterara igual que Salvador Dalí en los Museos de Nueva York . ( recordemos que muchos de los pintores y escultores parisinos de la época que va de 1936 a 1942  trasladaron su atelier a Nueva York, lo mismo los galeristas como Pierre Matisse )

 

Con en surgimiento de la Segunda gran guerra, Federico se da a la tarea de pintar el Mural en la Parroquia de San Miguel Allende  en 1943( destruido por el padre Mercadillo y sus fanáticos)  , seguido de los temas de la Purisima en Monterrey en 1945, y la Pinacoteca Virreinal.  En los años siguientes y utilizando como modelo su Cristo de caña con aplicaciones de Madera , latón, piedra y madera , desarrolla una serie de obras de caballete que fue colocando en las mas prestigiadas colecciones y Museos : Museo Vaticano , Philadelphia Museum, Santa Bárbara Museum, Colección Licio Lagos ,Colección Banamex , Colección Misioneros de Guadalupe, etc.

 

Sin dudad Federico alcanzo lo sublime de su obra en los sacro y en lo profano, esos frescos , oleos y grabados y esculturas son profundamente hermosos.

Dotado de un gran sentido del humor, decía :  a Diego le decimos ateo porque le gusta el ate de Morelia , pero Orosco se enojaba mucho conmigo, me decía– mire Cantú porque pinta a esas vírgenes como mujeres despampanantes y hermosas! – bueno yo las pinto asi , porque asi las veo ¡- pero se ve que usted ve de diferente forma a la mujer!

 

Para finalizar esta idea;

Las obras de arte al igual que la leyenda del “violín rojo” siguen el cauce inesperado de sobrevivencia, que va mas allá de la vida del autor o de un coleccionista , estas obras saltan de mano en mano, a veces por desconocimiento  o por simple azar,  hasta que un dia pueden encontrar un lugar estable para perdurar por siglos.

 

 

Adolfo Cantú

Coleccion de Arte Cantú Y de Teresa

 

CYDT 010 O-FC

Madona 1928

Federico Cantú Garza 1907-1989

CYDT 010 O-FC

Madona 1928

Federico Cantú Garza 1907-1989

Madona  1928  & La Epifanía 1942

Federico Cantú 1907-1989

 

Federico y su obra sacra

La inclinación religiosa de Federico Cantú surge dentro de su obra a partir de su estancia en el Paris de los años 20, bocetos en cuadernos de trabajo llevados primeramente a trabajos de caballete pronto se convierten en obras murales que acompañaran la narrativa del artista durante toda su trayectoria , quizá como bien lo expresaba el propio Cantú , su pincel esta poseído por la mano de Dios quien constantemente lo guía como fueron guiados todos los maestros del Renacimiento Italiano

 

 

Del libro del apocalipsis

«El Cordero que fue inmolado es digno de tomar el poder, las riquezas, la sabiduría, la fortaleza, la honra, la gloria y la alabanza»

 

(Apocalipsis 5:6, 7:14, 13:8, etcétera). Pero sería correcto decir también que esta imagen es absolutamente central en toda la teología cristiana: el cordero ha sido una de las imágenes simbólicas centrales de la religión cristiana desde los primeros siglos de su existencia; la idea del cordero sin mancha, sacrificado por los pecados de los hombres ha sido uno de los leitmotivs (motivos) del cristianismo a través de su historia. De acuerdo con esto, uno podría esperar que las páginas del Nuevo Testamento estén llenas del imaginario del cordero, pero es bastante sorprendente, que aparte del libro de Apocalipsis, casi no encontremos esta imagen aquí. No la encontramos en las epístolas de Pablo, los primeros escritos del Nuevo Testamento;

Esto ocurre en el primer capítulo del Evangelio de Juan donde Juan el Bautista pronuncia esta enigmática exclamación: «He aquí el cordero de Dios, que quita los pecados del mundo».

 

El cordero de la Aqeda

 

Vayamos a los Tanajin, la palabra hebrea para cordero raramente aparece. Sin embargo, no es díficil adivinar dónde encontramos la palabra «cordero» por primera vez. Por supuesto, la primera cita se encuentra en Génesis 22, en la Aqedat Itzjak: Cuando Isaac es conducido a la montaña por su padre, le pregunta a Abraham: «He aquí el fuego y la leña; mas ¿dónde está el cordero para el holocausto?» en el libro de Apocalipsis, comienza aquí—, con la inocente, confiada y casi ingenua pregunta de Isaac: «¿dónde está el cordero para el holocausto?»

el Midrash explícitamente declara que Abraham ofreció dos sacrificios, comenzó con el sacrificio de su hijo y terminó con el sacrificio del carnero, y con esta tradición, se dice explícitamente que Isaac es el cordero de la ofrenda quemada:  אתה השה לעלה בני” -«Tú eres el cordero, mi hijo»

la imagen cristiana del cordero, cuya muerte y resurrección tienen un poder expiatorio y un efecto redentor en nombre de las generaciones futuras, está claramente relacionada con este sacrifício de Isaac (Aqedat Itzjak) en la tradición judía. La próxima vez continuaremos discutiendo esta conexión.

 

 LORELEY - POEMAS

Los acerbos documentales y las bibliotecas hemerotecas 

Son pieza esencial para la investigación , es en este rol donde el historiador encuentra un camino para plantear una nueva hipótesis que seguramente llegara a formar parte de la estructura de un historia no antes contada.

Foto en Pinacoteca de NL

Obra – Caída de Troya – Federico Cantú Garza 1907-1989

Gerardo Puertas – Elvira Lozano de Todd – Adolfo Cantú - Fernando Rivadeneira

 

Y es asi como a partir de una investigación que nos llevo a la recuperación y análisis del libro que Loreley titula:  “ Tentáculos de Fuego “ publicado en 1929 y su segunda edición en 1930, de repente aparece otra obra que cambia el panorama de la vida y obra de nuestra Poetisa , sin duda y gracias a los vasos comunicantes que existen entre La Colección documental Cantú Y de Teresa  y la Fundación PFGC, podemos proyectar nuevos e interesantes temas de análisis .

 

Poemas de Loreley , se convierte en un hallazgo muy especial porque nos permite conocer la pasión y sentimiento que Loreley vivio en lo personal , lejos de la visión mas comprometida que tendría en obras como “ Tentáculos de Fuego “, es decir podemos imaginar la diferencia que existe entre una obra por encargo y una obra pasional  y que lleva al pintor a imaginar dos panoramas equidistantes. 

 

 

Con mucho gusto y con esa pasión de redescubrir la vida y obra de Loreley presentamos esta obra del acervo de la biblioteca de la Fundación PFGC - Asociada a la FLDM.

 

Mis mas grande reconocimiento para Gerardo Puertas que ya como es costumbre compartimos proyectos curatoriales que engrandecen a nuestro Estado de Nuevo León

 

 

Adolfo Cantú

Colección de Arte CYDT

Fundación Museo Casa Estudio Federico & Elsa

Loreley

Maria Luisa Garza 

Cadereyta de Jiménez Nuevo León

 

Parroquia de la Ciudad de Cadereyta de Jiménez

27 de agosto de 1885

Previtero Crescencio Carrasco

Niña que nació el dia 15 de Agosto de 1885

 

Hija de Francisco Garza y Maria Petra Garza

 

Abuelos Paternos Manuel Garza y Maria Feliciano Gourcilu

 

Abuelos Maternos Juan de la Garza y Guadalupe Quintanilla

 

Firma Crescenciano Carrasco

 

 

Matrimonio de Adolfo Cantú Jáuregui 1873-1945 ( de 30 años de edad ) y Maria Luisa 1885 – 1980 Garza Garza ( 18 años de edad )

 

El 27 de septiembre de 1903

 

 

Federico Cantú  3 de marzo de 1907- 29 de enero 1989

 

Acta de defunción de Diana – 74 años  (de 1912)

8 de enero de 1986 murió a las 16:50

 

 

acta de matrimonio II papa nano

12 de junio de 1937

edad de papa nano 30 años 

Gloria 31 años

 

 

Acta de defunción  Loreley a los ( 95 años )

Noviembre de 1980

 

Adolfo Cantú

Colección de Arte CYDT

  Copyright © Loreley 2023 CYDT

 Museo CYDT

Loreley 2023

Con la aparición de los blogs a principios de los 2000s surgió un universo que paralelamente con Wikipedia nos permitió investigar, colaborar , exponer e intercambiar una gama de conocimientos  atesorados en diferentes puntos del planeta , que sino exactos ahora y con este flujo de información nos permitían acercarnos a un intercambio global de datos e investigaciones que antes serian poco mas que poco probable de compartir , en esa carrera se sumaron tanto aficionados como académicos. Por mi parte y viendo que no existían aun en 2006 documentación de personajes que dentro del arte habían aportado mucho; poetas, literatos, críticos de arte, pintores ,escultores  o mas ¡ de los que las nuevas generaciones desconocían 

 

Dándome a esta tarea el primer blog dedicado a la vida y obra de Federico Cantú Garza me llevaría paralelamente a sumar un universo de personajes en torno a su él; sin duda Loreley fue un tema mas que esencial , mismo que desataría una maestria e investigación para la Universidad de Houston Texas y dos maestrías mas en UANL. Han pasado ya casi dos décadas y con el 100 aniversario de la publicación de las novelas : Novia de Nervo y Los amores de Gaona , la UANL publico una de ellas sumado una ponencia en COARTE en torno a la vida y obra de Loreley

 

Este 2023 toco el turno a la obra que Loreley trabajara dentro y fuera de nuestro país entre 1928 y 29 y que dada la importancia del tema de la prohibición del consumo de alcohol que se dio en los Estados Unidos en los 20s , el gobierno mexicano no estaría ausente y republicara  en 1930 por orden presidencial  dicha obra : “ Tentáculos de Fuego” donde Loreley expone el problema a manera de novela 

 

Description: 

La novela Tentáculos de fuego, contenida en la presente edición, da a conocer la voz de una mujer mexicana de la que poco se ha hablado: María Luisa Garza, Loreley (1887-1980). Autora de seis libros y colaboradora en más de 16 publicaciones periódicas de distintas ciudades del sur de Estados Unidos y la República Mexicana, Loreley fue cumplidamente leída, comentada, seguida y criticada en la década de 1920. Su escritura la posicionó como paradigma de la mujer moderna de su tiempo; sin embargo, ella rechazó cualquier vínculo con los movimientos feministas de sus contemporáneas.

 

Para el Museo virtual CYDT y nuestra colección de arte Cantú Y de Teresa es un honor el compartir nuestro acerbo y nuestras horas de investigación para dar forma final a este tipo de proyectos académicos , sin dudad esto nos seria posible sin  el testimonio y vivencias de mi papá y mamá que desde el primer proyectos contaron apasionadamente pasajes de sus vidas junto con Loreley asi es que honor a quien honor merece  en hora buena a la al Fideicomiso Federico Y Elsa Museo Casa Estudio 

 

 

 

Por otro lado y sumando mas temas , presentamos por primera vez otra obra de Loreley, donde sale de  manera espontanea a proponer otra pluma completamente diferente a la que suele utilizar en sus novelas , Poemas de Loreley que ahora sumamos al blog y a la pagina de Wikipedia , es un obra que se encontraba perdida entre libreros y que ahora exponemos y sumamos a la biografía de nuestra  querida escritora . En hora buena por la bisabuela Loreley.

 

Adolfo Cantú

Colección de Arte Cantú Y de Teresa

 

URUYAMA MOROSHIGE (ACT. C. 1678-1698)

Koshoku Edo murasaki (The sensual violets of Edo)

Woodblock-printed illustrated book; ink on paper, 5 vols with yellow paper cover bound as one book, sigend Furuyama Moroshige, published eighth month 1686
Fukurotojibon (puch binding) hanshibon: 9 x 6 in. (22.9 x 15.2 cm.)

$6,000-8,000

Furuyama Moroshige is one of the best pupils of Hishikawa Moronobu (1630/31?-1694

KITAGAWA UTAMARO (1754-1806)

Kushi (Comb)

Woodblock print, from the series Meisho koshikake hakkei (Eight views of tea stalls in famous places), signed Utamaro hitsu, published by Ezakiya Kichibei
Vertical oban: 14¬ x 9æ in. (37.1 x 24.8 cm.)

$35,000-40,000

113

ICHIRAKUTEI EISUI (ACT. C. 1790-1823)

Matsubaya nai Yoyoharu (Yoyoharu of the House of Matsubaya)

Woodblock print, signed Eisui ga
Vertical oban: 15¿ x 9√ in. (38.4 x 25.1 cm.)

$20,000-30,000

Hawk Hunting

Signed Zokusei Nakajima Tetsuzo Fujiwara Iitsu hitsu (Secular name Nakajima Tetsuzo, painted by Fujiwara Iitsu), sealed Manji rojin and Katsushika Hokusai
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
35æ x 59 in. (90.8 x 149.9 cm.)
With a wood box dated 6 June 1994, titled and authenticated by Narazaki Muneshige (1904-2001)

$40,000-60,000

Since the Muromachi period (1392-1573), hawking was taken over largely by the warrior elite, who saw the bird of prey as
a symbol of their own bravery and might. So potent was this symbol that the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) banned trade in hawks in 1604 to emphasize his own hegemony. Imagery of hawks in their wild habitat, in cages or tethered to stands is prevalent on hanging scrolls, screens and sliding doors commissioned by the samurai elite.

KITAGAWA UTAMARO (1754-1806)

Momo chidori kyoka awase (Myraid birds: a kyoka poem competition)

Woodblock-printed illustrated book; 2 vols with navy paper covers and yellow title slips, published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, circa 1790Obon: 10 x 7¡ in. (25.4 x 18.7 cm.) each approx. (2)

$30,000-40,000

 

HOKUSAI’S GREAT WAVE Dr. Matthi Forrer

Fig. 2. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Monk Nichiren Calming the Stormy Sea. Japan. Edo period, c. 1835. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939, JP2860

Although many people in this world are familiar with ‘The Great Wave’ in either the original or whatever adaptation, reworked or even in some reconfigured form, few people are aware that this
was originally a work by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) in the format of a woodblock print with the modest measurements of circa 265 x 390 millimeters. Yet, this absolutely iconic image continues to inspire artists and designers all over the world, and now lends itself to shirts, sweaters, scarfs, shoes, bags, drinking cups, watch dials, wallpaper and much more, and even, quite disrespectfully, floor carpets. And whereas Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring yields 1.450.000 hits in Google, and Van Gogh’sSunflowers 5.530.000, Picasso’s Guernica 12.500.000, and Snoopy 73.700.000, the Mona Lisa beats them all with 129.000.000 hits, but still, the Great Wave will forever, I would say, be unbeatable with its 1.040.000.000 hits.

In his design, Hokusai captures a mere second in the life of a wave with the eternal Mount Fuji seen almost literally in the hollow
of it on the horizon, as is also corroborated in the print’s title In the Hollow of a Wave off Kanagawa, Kanagawa oki namiura. We can read the force of the wave speaking from its bands in two shades of blue, its crest ending in numerous claws set off against a light blue. Amidst the waves are three so-called oshiokuri boats on their

way to the Izu Peninsula and Awa Province, now Chiba Prefecture, to collect their cargo of fish and vegetables destined for Edo.
Like most human figures in the series of Fuji prints, the oarsmen, obsessed with haste, have no attention for Mount Fuji in the distance – and maybe not even for the waves?

In well-preserved early impressions, as the one offered here, we even see a pink cloud in the sky. There are also no signs of breaks in the title cartouche that we tend to see in most copies of this print. Indeed, it ranks beyond doubt among the twenty or so best impressions surviving today. As for its pedigree, the print came
to the present owner’s ancestors in the early 1900s and was most recently on public display in an exhibition at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (New Carlsberg Glypthoteque), Copenhagen, organized by the Denmark-Japan Society in 1993. It was there one of the highlights among no less than 18 prints from the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji selected from various both private and public Danish collections of mostly surprisingly good quality.

In the following I intend to address both the historical background of the image and what makes it such an iconic image, obviously speaking to a worldwide audience – but also including a Japanese audience? Anyway, most of the adapted and reworked Waves are

an obvious proof of a Western embrace, but was there also some esteem in Japan? We actually know of just one obvious almost contemporary Japanese adaptation, a small format print in black and white, issued on the occasion of a severe rainstorm and floods of melting snow following some tremors, coming down from Mount Fuji in the fourth month of 1834, resulting in quite some deaths. This is an illegal broadsheet, a so-called kawaraban, as it was in the Edo Period prohibited to report on current events such as, for example, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floodings, famines and epidemic diseases. The obvious amateur designer depicts the mountain full size to the right with Hokusai’s wave in reverse

in the foreground, heavy rain falling, and many people being swallowed in the waters. Titled Water Flooding from Mount Fuji,Fujisan shussui no zu (Fig. 1), the explanatory text also indicates the date of the disaster taking place ‘from the evening of the seventh day of the fourth month of TenpL· 5 (15 May 1834), Year of the Horse,’ no mistake there. Also following the recent tsunami hitting the northern coast of Japan in 2011, Hokusai’s design was cited regularly in reports. But both are very different from what Hokusai intended, we are naturally surrounded by nature and Mount Fuji is there, and we can simply live here peacefully. In Hokusai’s prints, nature is never a threat or posing any danger. There cannot be any doubt if the boats will make it to their destination.

Even earlier, in a diptych composition by ShunkL·sai Hokuei after
a kabuki play performed in IX/1833 at the Naka theatre in Osaka, the actor Arashi Rikan II is seen against a sea of clearly Hokusai- inspired waves. Hokusai’s Wave as a model for the backdrop of
a print by Kitagawa Toyohide after a kabuki play performed in IX/1841 at the Kado theatre in Osaka is even more obvious. Hokusai-inspired waves are even to be seen as late as V/1850
in a diptych composition by Osaka artist Hirosada. As for more examples of contemporary influence from Hokusai’s Wave, that
is with the claw-like foamy crests atop of the wave, it just suffices to look into prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), such as Nichiren calming the waves (Fig. 2), and especially also in several of his triptych compositions, and prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797- 1858) as we shall see later on (Fig. 3).

As for the direct background of both the print of the Wave and the series of prints of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Fugaku sanjL·rokkeiof which it forms part, we must probably see this as a way to
make some direct money after a difficult period in the artist’s life. Hokusai was then probably living with his daughter Oei as his wife had died in the sixth month of 1828, which put a rather abrupt end to his regular attending senryL· meetings, that is comical 17-syllabary poems where he obviously found an outlet for his troubles, notonly taking care of his wife, but also having to pay the debts resulting from his grandson’s gambling. As we understand from

the letter that he wrote on the 28th day of the first month of 1830 to his publishers Hanabusaya Heikichi and Hanabusaya BunzL·, we understand his situation: ‘/.../ this New Year, I have not a penny to spend, no clothes to put on, nor anything to eat /.../ having lost a full year thanks to my willful grandson.’ Badly in need of money, he asks them to already pay him for the illustrations of two volumes of the Shinpen Suikogaden novel that he completed and asks to send him the remaining volumes of Part 2B – Part 2A had been published in the first month of 1829. And he asks for a piece of silk so he can work on a commissioned painting.

Maybe not even awaiting their reaction, Hokusai seems to have also contacted the publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi, discussing with him an old idea that came up when he was working on his model book for lacquerers, Modern Patterns for Combs and Pipes, ImayL· kushi kiseru hinagata published in 1823, where he kind of incidentally included eight comb designs that included Mount Fuji. These would in turn inspire him to plan a series of prints titled Eight Fujis, Fugaku hattai, that was duly announced as ‘the wonders of nature, landscapes as they conform to the four seasons, in clear weather, rain, wind, snow, and in misty skies.’ But now, some seven years later, he imagined that he could as well embark on a much larger project, a series of prints of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Fugaku sanjL·rokkei. Surprisingly, Nishimuraya agrees, and the first ten designs of the series come out in 1830 in the then still quite exceptional and untested įban format for landscape prints, among them the print

Fig. 4. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hundred Views in the Eastern Capital, Tōto hyakkei. 1830

officially titled In the Hollow of a Wave off Kanagawa, or also Under the Wave off Kanagawa. All of these ten prints, among them also those of South Wind at Clear Dawn, GaifL· kaisei and Shower below the Summit, Sanka hakuu, as two other masterpieces in the series, are signed ‘Hokusai changing to Iitsu,’ Hokusai aratame Iitsu, a signature that we also find in a large surimono print portraying Yoshimura IsaburL· III as a salt-gatherer with a pair of buckets on a yoke, dated to the third month of 1830.

Sometime in the Autumn of 1830, the publisher Enshŗya Matabei commissions from Hokusai the designs of a number of small envelopes. Though published under the general title of Hundred Views in the Eastern Capital, Tįto hyakkei (Fig. 4), we can presently only identify nine of them, all signed ‘Hokusai changing to Iitsu,’Hokusai aratame Iitsu, as in the surimono print mentioned above, and in the first ten designs in the Fuji series. Quite remarkably, these envelopes are printed in tones of blue, apparently Hokusai’s first group of prints in this novel technique known as aizurie. It must have been these very small designs, measuring 191 x 51 mm, that inspired Hokusai to ask Nishimuraya to execute also the remainder of the Fuji series as prints in blue. Nishimuraya agrees and when he is completing the next instalment of the Ryŗtei Tanehiko novelShįhon jitate, Part 12, in the ninth or tenth month of 1830 so it could be launched in the first month of 1831, he duly announces: ‘The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, by the Old Iitsu, formerly known as Hokusai: Single sheet prints in blues, each featuring one view and to be issued successively. These prints show how the shape of Mount Fuji differs when seen from various locations such as from the coast of Shichirigahama,

Fig. 5. Henri Riviere (1864-1951). Les trente-six vues de la Tour Ei el. France. 19th century. Christie’s Paris, 15 November 2018, lot 63

or more distantly from the Island of Tsukudajima, and so on. On the whole they are of use to those wishing to learn and paint remarkable landscapes. The blocks being cut and printed successively, they may well amount to more than a hundred, and so not be restricted to thirty-six plates only.’

The next batch of ten prints issued in 1831 is, indeed, executed in tones of blue only, and they all have the signature ‘Iitsu, formerly Hokusai,’ saki no Hokusai Iitsu just like a group of ten small kobanformat prints also in blues, of fish, of birds, and a man washing potatoes, signed by Hokusai aged 72, that is 1831.

We don’t know when the first impressions of The Wave came to Europe. Certainly, Edmond de Goncourt knew the print, writing in 1896 that ‘the crest of the wave is torn apart and dispersed in a rainfall of drops in the shape of animal claws,’ and in September 1888, it also comes to the mind of Van Gogh in some observation on the colours blue and green, when he writes in one of his letters that ‘as you [Vincent’s brother Theo] say in your letter: these waves are claws and we feel that the boats are caught in them.’ We know that Claude Monet owned a copy of the print, as well as Henri Rivière did, who in 1902 even made a set of colour-lithographs titled Thirty-six Views of the Eiffel Tower (Fig. 5). And Debussy’s three symphonic sketches under the title of La mer of 1905 (Fig.

6) is also inspired by Hokusai’s print of the Wave. Interestingly, especially in view of the pedigree of the print introduced here, there is a design datable to 1885 by Arnold Krog, the artistic director of the Royal Copenhagen factory, of a porcelain saucer with swans

122

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849)

Kanagawa oki nami ura (Under the well of the Great Wave o Kanagawa) [“Great Wave”]

Woodblock print, from the series Fugaku sanjurokkei(Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji), signed Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu, published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo)

Horizontal oban: 9√ x 14¬ in. (25.1 x 37.1 cm.) $500,000-700,000

PROVENANCE:

Acquired by the family of the current owner in the early 1900s; thence by descent

EXHIBITED:

"Ukiyo-e: japanske farvetraesnit bloktrykte boger og album surimono fra danske samlinger", Ny Carlsberg glyptotek, Copenhagen, 2 June-31 Aug, 1993

LITERATURE:

Ukiyo-e: japanske farvetraesnit bloktrykte boger og album surimono fra danske samlinger (Denmark: Ny Carlsberg glyptotek, 1993). cat.no.8.