Beaux-Arts de Paris collections hold a print of Hokusai's famous series of eight woodblock prints depicting waterfalls in different provinces. Produced around 1830, this visionary and synthetic series is an essential milestone in Japanese art from the Edo period and beyond, and has been the subject of numerous ramifications and reinterpretations that are still alive today. During this "spoken collection," designed as a sensitive encounter with the work, four specialists will offer complementary readings and contemporary insights.
 

Sophie Basch, professor of French literature at the Faculty of Arts of Sorbonne University, discusses the craze for Japanese art in Parisian artistic circles at the end of the 19th century, highlighting in particular the decisive role played by the Beaux-Arts de Paris during the great exhibition of Japanese prints in 1890. Giulia Longo, curator of prints and photographs at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, looks back at the circumstances surrounding its entry into the collections in 1908. Marianne Simon-Oikawa, professor of Japanese Studies at Paris Cité, discusses the figure of Hokusai, and Clélia Zernik, professor of philosophy of art at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, offers a contemporary perspective.
 

Photo credit: Katsushika Hokusai, Kirifuri Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province, colour woodblock print, circa 1833, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Est 4659