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Lot Essay
Shower below the Summit, Sanka hakuu, as the print is officially titled, is one of three absolute acknowledged masterpieces in Hokusai’s series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Fugaku sanjūrokkei. Moreover, it is one of only five views in the series of eventually forty-six designs devoid of any human presence. As such, it is perfectly, and quite exceptionally, in adherence with the original concept of Hokusai’s project, as we will see later. It is also quite tempting to see it as a counterpart to another acknowledged masterpiece, the South Wind and Clear Dawn, Gaifū kaisei print. Both designs have an almost equally large view of the mountain, the Clear Dawn one being overgrown by trees up to a certain level, and there is just a reddish-brown top above, with some snow still remaining on its crest. In the Shower below the Summit print, most of the mountain is obscured by the rain and in the dark, but the lightning makes parts of the rocky surface light up in a dark red. Both prints also feature quite unusual cloud formations, as far as I know unheard of in the Japanese print tradition, something like stratocumulus in the Clear Dawn print, and altocumulus in the Shower below the Summit print – although it must be said that the latter don’t go with sudden showers and lightning.
Regarding the pedigree, the print is associated with the Havilands, a family originating in England but emigrating to America in the seventeenth century. Among the family members it is especially Charles Field Haviland (1832-1896) who is known for his vast Japanese collections, sold in 18 sales at Drouot, Paris, in the years 1922 to 1927. In the early nineteenth century, David Haviland (b. 1814) opened a shop of porcelains in New York which is how the family business started. Due to the economic crisis that hit the United States, he then moves to Southwestern France, settling in Limoges, the French centre of the porcelain industry with already some more than thirty factories in operation in 1850. Here, David, who is soon joined by his above-mentioned nephew Charles Field Haviland, founds Haviland et Compagnie in 1864, which would dominate the local industry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It was especially William Dannat Haviland who took a great interest in both Japonism and Art déco.
Regarding the pedigree, the print is associated with the Havilands, a family originating in England but emigrating to America in the seventeenth century. Among the family members it is especially Charles Field Haviland (1832-1896) who is known for his vast Japanese collections, sold in 18 sales at Drouot, Paris, in the years 1922 to 1927. In the early nineteenth century, David Haviland (b. 1814) opened a shop of porcelains in New York which is how the family business started. Due to the economic crisis that hit the United States, he then moves to Southwestern France, settling in Limoges, the French centre of the porcelain industry with already some more than thirty factories in operation in 1850. Here, David, who is soon joined by his above-mentioned nephew Charles Field Haviland, founds Haviland et Compagnie in 1864, which would dominate the local industry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It was especially William Dannat Haviland who took a great interest in both Japonism and Art déco.