River landscape: ferry-boat and Mount Fuji

Object Details

• Artist

  Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)

• Label

  Hokusai was eighty-three years old when he painted this landscape of Mount Fuji, which was an prominent subject of his prints and paintings in his later years. The composition follows a formula derived from Chinese landscape painting in which distant elements are placed higher in the composition. Here, Mount Fuji is at the highest, most distant point, but the focal scene of human activity—a boat loaded with passengers and cargo sweeping across the water—is in the foreground. This work displays many characteristics of Hokusai’s original style of landscape painting: a distinctive color palette of yellows, blues, and greens; expert control of composition, line, and thin application of ink and color; and the use of dots of various tonalities to depict landforms and trees.

• Provenance

  To 1903

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1903 [1]

  From 1903 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in Japan in 1903 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Kakemono List, S.I. 235, pg. 79, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. For information regarding purchase location, see Accession List.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Hokusai: Mad About Painting (November 20, 2019 to January 9, 2022)

  Landscapes in Japanese Art (February 2 to July 15, 2007)

  Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)

  Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)

  Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)

  Hokusai Bicentennial Exhibition (March 30, 1960 to August 16, 1961)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1840s, 1690s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Boats and boating, Art, Mount Fuji, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ukiyo-e, Rivers, Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings