Boy Viewing Mount Fuji
date: label: Date
content: 1839
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)
notes: label: Signatures
content: Signed: Gakyo Rojin Manji hitsu Yowai hachi-ju (aged 80 years).
label: Marks
content: Contains seal.
label: Label
content: Mount Fuji may be the most widely recognized symbol of Japan. The mountain and its name carry many meanings that are conveyed in Japanese by writing "Fuji" with different characters, such as a pair meaning "peerless." The highest mountain in Japan, Fuji's imminent power is contained in its seething volcanic core, hidden beneath its perennial cloak of snow. Regarded as sacred, Mount Fuji has been a site for religious pilgrimage, and ancient stories maintain that an elixir of immortality could be found at its peak. This painting frames the mountain in the bend of a willow that extends over a rushing stream. A young boy nestles in the tree, playing a flute while gazing at the mountain. This tranquil and engaging view of Fuji was one of hundreds produced by Hokusai during his lifetime. Here, at the age of nearly eighty, the artist gives visual form to his quest for long life by portraying a young boy in the thrall of the immortal mountain.
label: Label
content: A prolific and technically proficient painter, Hokusai had a special sympathy for common people, whom he often depicted in his paintings, prints, and illustrations for printed books. Here he employs thin washes of color almost without outline to bring forth the familiar form of the great volcanic mountain.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908), Japan, to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, through Edward S. Hull Jr., New York in 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono List, L. 170, pg. 37, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's
label: Provenance
content: well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art from the Collection (October 26, 2024 - ongoing)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai: Mad About Painting (November 20, 2019 to January 9, 2022)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai: Paintings and Drawings (January 28, 2012 to June 24, 2012)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)
label: Exhibition History
content: Real and Imagined Places in Japanese Art (March 4 to October 21, 2001)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (May 9, 1993 to August 1, 1994)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (November 7, 1986 to July 19, 1988)
label: Exhibition History
content: Famous Places of Japan (October 17, 1985 to February 13, 1986)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Prints (December 1, 1978 to April 12, 1979)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai Bicentennial Exhibition (March 30, 1960 to August 16, 1961)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: child
label: Topic
content: Mount Fuji
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
label: Topic
content: kakemono
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: On View
content: West Building (Freer Gallery of Art), Gallery 07: Japanese Art from the Collection
label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.110
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 36.2 x 51.3 cm (14 1/4 x 20 3/16 in)