Hokusai: Japanese Screens

Freer Gallery of Art founder Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) first discovered the great Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849) through his woodblock prints. Beginning in 1898, Freer turned to collecting Hokusai’s paintings, and by 1907 he had gathered a collection that remains unrivaled in its holdings of original Hokusai paintings and drawings. A selection from this collection, along with a few important subsequent acquisitions of Hokusai’s work, is on view. This installation features a magnificent pair of six-panel folding screens of Mount Fuji.

Two other exhibitions on Hokusai are Hokusai: Paintings and Drawings (February 18-June 24, 2012) at the Freer Gallery and Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (March 24–June 17, 2012) at the Sackler Gallery.