Woolley & Wallis
Lot 167
UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1798-1861) KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760-1849) WATANABE SEITEI (1851-1918) EDO PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY Four framed and glazed Japanese woodblock prints by Kuniyoshi, three from the series Tsuzoku Suikoden goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori (108 Heroes of the Popular Water Margins, c.1827-30), each print depicting one of the eponymous characters, all approx. 37.5cm x 25.8cm; the fourth from the series Kisokaido rokujoku tsugi no uchi (Sixty-Nine Post Stations of the Kisokaido, c.1852) and depicting Princess Yaegaki with her fox friends, all approx. 31.7cm x 22.8cm; together with two printed albums, the first by Hokusai and entitled Denshin Kaishu, Hokusai Gaen (A Garden of Pictures by Hokusai, c.1820), vol.2, 22.6cm x 15.7cm; the other by Seitei, entitled Bijutsu sekai (Art World, 1892), vol.19, a publication produced to promote Japanese Art, with illustrations after Kuniyoshi, Okyo, Masanobu and others, 24.9cm x 16.1cm. (6) Provenance: from the collection of John Peter Russell (1858-1930), purchased from Siegfried Bing by repute, and thence by descent. Russell was an Australian Impressionist and a friend of Van Gogh's, painting the first oil portrait of the artist, now at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. He also painted with Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse credited Russell for introducing him to Impressionism. He married Anna Maria Antonietta Mattiocco, one of Rodin's favourite models, in 1888. Cf. W Tunnicliffe, John Russell: Australia's French Impressionist, pp.38-39 where Russell's interest for Japanese art and his print collecting are discussed. The book was published as a guide to the exhibition dedicated to John Russell held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2018.
