The Easel

Archives: Studio International

3rd November 2020

Tim Clark – interview: ‘This set of Hokusai’s drawings is a really important piece of the jigsaw’

A newly uncovered set of Hokusai drawings shows that, well before Japan had opened itself to the world, he was a “world artist”. The drawings incorporate European ideas about perspective and use images from ancient China and India. Hokusai received commissions from the Dutch East India Company. Van Gogh was a huge fan. His human poses have a “fundamental humanism. People compare it to Rembrandt and I think that is a very good comparison.”