19th-20th century Japanese printmaker
(1760 - 1849)
Hokusai was known as "the old man mad with painting." His work remains without parallel in the annals of ukiyo-e. His unerring sense of line and color, his inventiveness, his mastery of traditional forms, and his ability to combine all these elements in inimitable compositions, mark him not only as Japan's pre-eminent designer of ukiyo-e, but also as one of the world's greatest artists.