diptych print
- Museum number
- 1961,0408,0.6
- Description
-
Woodblock print, vertical diptych. Hawk or falcon on an ornamental perch craning upwards towards flowering cherry tree.
- Production date
- 1833-1834
- Dimensions
-
Height: 50.80 centimetres
-
Width: 23.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- A hawk perches on a splendidly decorated stand
(takahoko). There are many similar pictures by painters
working in various Chinese-influenced styles (kanga).
Hokusai drew one in the first volume of Hokusai’s Sketches
(Hokusai manga, 1814), but the figure of the hawk here
most closely resembles one in One Hundred Views of Mt Fuji
(1834, cat. 176), while the stand is very similar to one
included in Album of model paintings (cat. 175). This work
and ‘Carp in waterfall’ (cat. 105) are from a set of five
large vertical prints by Hokusai of animals, birds and
fish. The others are ‘Horses in pasture’, ‘Turtles in water’
and ‘Cranes on a branch of snow-covered pine’. The tall
nagaōban format imitates a hanging scroll painting.
All five are auspicious subjects, and they may have been
produced to celebrate the New Year. The inclusion
of ‘Horses in pasture’ suggests 1834, a horse year.
(T. Clark, 2017, no. 104)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1961
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1961,0408,0.6
