Katsushika Hokusai and Gustav Klimt

It appears that Klimt's deeper interest in Katsushika Hokusai's work emerged somewhat later than his engagement with Hiroshige's prints. While the leading Secessionist was predominantly interested in the latter's compositional devices, Hokusai's art provided him with a much broader range of formal ideas and even some motifs, remaining a point of reference throughout his career. Klimt had numerous occasions to see Hokusai's original prints and books (which were exhibited in Vienna in 1900, 1901, and 1903) as well as their reproductions in various publications. Although it remains unclear which of Hokusai's prints Klimt may have had in his personal collection (since it was not preserved), a thorough analysis of his art suggests that he at least possessed some of Hokusai's books, in particular, the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji and the Hokusai Manga . Given their centrality for his work, the chapter explores the compelling influence of these two sets on Klimt's artistic output from the late 1890s onward and how Hokusai's models reverberated throughout his oeuvre .