Katsushika Hokusai
Painter (1760 - 1849) Tokyo, Japan

Hokusai was an energetic artist who rose early and painted until nightfall, and he continued to work until the last days of his life. Of Hokusai's approximately 30,000 works, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji stands out. This famous series of 46 color prints marked a milestone in Japanese landscape printing, as Hokusai's grandeur of design and skill of execution had not been seen before. This tireless painter, or "old man crazy about painting," as he called himself, died at the age of 89, probably without having satisfied his search for truth in painting. "At the age of five I had a mania for making sketches of things; by 50 I had produced a large number of drawings. However, none of them had any real merit until the age of 70. At 73 I finally learned something about the true form of things, birds, animals, insects, fish, herbs and trees. Therefore at the age of 80 I will have made some progress, at 90 I will have penetrated further into the essence of art, at 100 I will have finally reached an exceptional level and at 110, every dot and every line of my drawings will have a life of their own."