Sketches
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Sketches is a 1800 paint by Katsushika School, a Ukiyo-e work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
These are quick practice sketches. You see figures drawn in loose ink lines on a single sheet. They look like notes Hokusai’s team used before carving print blocks. Before prints were made, artists drew these rough guides. The lines are light but full of motion—heads tilted, robes flowing. They’re not meant to be pretty. They’re meant to work. Check out more Hokusai sketches next at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Unsigned figural sketches in the style of Katsushika Hokusai have been excised and arranged on a single sheet, reflecting the preparatory drawings used by copyists to carve the initial block for ukiyo-e woodblock prints. The arrangement evokes Hokusai’s printed sketchbooks and drawing manuals, which typically grouped related subjects together across the page.
Read the full account in the museum source.
A late-Edo print shop known as the Katsushika School produced crowd-pleasing sketches that travelers could tuck into their sleeves.
See the richer artist page
