KULENOVIC  C o l l e c t i o n - Works on Paper
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Kavase Hasui 
Japanese painter (1883 -1975) 
“ Snow in Shiobara “ 1935. 
original japanese woodblock print


                             

Kawase Hasui ( 1883 - 1957) was a prominent Japanese painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and one of the chief printmakers in the shin hanga ("new prints") movement.

Hasui studied ukiyo-e and Japanese style painting at the studio of Kaburagi Kiyokata; 1878-1973). He mainly concentrated on making watercolors of actors, everyday life and landscapes, many of them published as illustrations in books and magazines in the last few years of the Meiji period and early Taisho period.

In the early Taisho period Hasui was recruited by the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, with the intention to design works for woodblock prints. Hasui left a large body of woodblock prints and watercolors. Many of the watercolors are linked to the woodblock prints, he also produced oil paintings, traditional hanging scrolls and a few byobu (folding screens).

In the West, Hasui is mainly known as a Japanese woodblock printmaker. He and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their excellent landscape prints. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo, publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure in Japan.