We in Russia say, repeating the words of the classic: "Pushkin is our everything." The Japanese might justly say, " Hokusai is our everything." This talented man lived a long and bright life: he was born in 1760, died in 1849. In Japan, he is known as a painter, graphic artist, poet, prose writer. Europeans are most revered as an artist, thanks to whom the world learned about the unusual and unusual art of the Land of the Rising Sun, and by and large - the entire East as a whole. "Hokusai is one of Japan's greatest artists. And for Europeans - the greatest, the most brilliant. He is simultaneously the Rembrandt, Callot, Goya and Daumier of Japan, " said the French researcher L. Gonz. In fairness, however, I must say that in the artist's homeland there are art critics who speak more restrained about Hokusai's work. This is most likely due to the innovation shown by him in many works, as well as monstrous productivity - Hokusai's artistic heritage includes many thousands, if not tens of thousands of works. As a young man, he studied under the famous engraver Katsukawa Shunso and other outstanding masters, was fond of Chinese landscapes, eagerly read books about European art, carefully looking at engravings reproducing the works of great masters. But he started out as an illustrator, and he remained attached to this work for the rest of his life, accompanying his drawings in a total of more than 500 books. Closer to 40 years and up to his fiftieth birthday, he became interested in surimono - drawing engraved greeting cards, a type of our art cards. Then he enthusiastically prepared and published collections of "Manga" - "Mixed Drawings" - a kind of drawing tutorials. In total, Hokusai created 12 such collections. The drawings presented there are similar to unfinished sketches. But this is only a first impression. In fact, these are small masterpieces, as if the artist shows students how to capture fish, birds, insects, thunderstorms, snow, wind, human characters, scene ... Read more