Heritage Auctions – Masterpieces: Japanese Prints From The Nelkin Collection & Asian Art
Signature® Auctions March 20 & 21
HA.com/8191 HA.com/8192
DALLAS — Few images in art history have captivated the world like “Under the Wave Off Kanagawa,” more commonly known as “The Great Wave.” Created by Katsushika Hokusai in the early 1830s, this masterpiece of Japanese woodblock printing has become a global icon, influencing artists and collectors for nearly two centuries. Heritage Auctions will offer a rare, early impression of “The Great Wave” as a centerpiece of its March 20 auction, Masterpieces: Japanese Prints from The Nelkin Collection, coinciding with New York’s celebrated Asia Week.
“This image is universally recognized and cherished for its dynamism, elegance and timeless power,” said Nick Dawes, Heritage’s senior vice president of special collections. “I fell in love with ‘The Great Wave’ during ‘A’-level art in early 1970s England. The scholarly observations I read then and since on this extraordinary image have shaped my understanding of art history, and I feel immensely privileged to handle an original print. Thank you, Ruth Nelkin, for this gift!”
The March 20 auction marks the final installment of the successful Nelkin Collection series, following two record-setting Asian art sales in June and September 2024, which together set more than 60 world-record prices. This concluding sale presents a selection of works by Japan’s most renowned printmakers, including Suzuki Harunobu, Utagawa Hiroshige I, Utagawa Hiroshige II, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Totoya Hokkei, Keisai Eisen, Kawase Hasui and Yoshida Hiroshi.
Highlights include Hokusai’s “Li Bo (Ri Haku),” from the series “A True Mirror of Japanese and Chinese Poems (Shiika shashin kyō),” circa 1833, and from the collection of Henri Vever, which is a dynamic depiction of the famed Chinese poet, as well as a striking illusion print by Utagawa Yoshifuji (a student of Utagawa Kuniyoshi known for his playful compositions) depicting a formidable feline face ingeniously formed by multiple smaller cats. They are joined in this event by Kawase Hasui’s rare pre-earthquake landscapes, including “Mountain Temple at Sendai” (1919) and “Mishima River, Mutsu Province” (1919), both of which predate the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Also on offer is Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s “Fujiwara no Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight” (1883), one of the artist’s most evocative and celebrated works, rooted in setsuwa (narrative folklore) from the Konjaku Monogatarishū and Uji Shūi Monogatari collections of stories compiled between the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. The work portrays a tense moment in which the bandit Hakamadare attempts to ambush Fujiwara no Yasumasa, who remains unfazed as he plays his flute. The sheer presence of Yasumasa exerts an almost supernatural force and renders the would-be attacker paralyzed.
Heritage’s celebration of Asia Week continues on March 21 with its Asian Art Signature auction featuring an array of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian treasures. From Song dynasty ceramics to Ming dynasty jades and Qing dynasty porcelains, paintings and textiles, this auction brings together significant works from prestigious private collections, including that of the family of Yen Sheng-Po, a founding member of Hong Kong’s Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art and a close associate of Zhang Daqian. The auction offers porcelains, paintings, jades and other scholar’s objects from the collection, including a dramatic dragon-starring, beast-handled vase and a Ming dynasty jade duck enriched with skillfully carved and incised featherwork.
Other highlights of the March 21 auction are a rare Song dynasty Qingbai-glazed turtle-form covered box — an elegantly crafted scholar’s ink well from the Wang Zhao Lou Collection in Taiwan, as well as a Jin dynasty Yueyao celadon bowl, molded with an intricate bird design and once used as an oil lamp holder. From the collection of Sze Yuan Tang, similar examples can be found in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
A Longquan celadon crackle-glazed Cong vase, inspired by archaic ceremonial jade vessels from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with an attractive bluish hue, joins them in this event, as well as a Guangxu-marked Chinese famille rose Bajixiang dish and a majestic Seventeenth Century Chinese bronze tripod censer and cover — a masterpiece of ritual craftsmanship that stands as a testament to China’s enduring bronze-making tradition.
For information, www.ha.com or 214-409-1341.
Masterpieces: Japanese Prints From The Nelkin Collection Signature® Auction | March 20 | HA.com/8191
Asian Art Signature® Auction | March 21 | HA.com/8192
Inquiries: 877-HERITAGE (437-4824)
Charlene Wang | ext 3042 | CharleneW@HA.com
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