Katsushika Hokusai, Kanagawa Oki nami Ura, From the serie 36 views of Mount-Fuji. Estimate : €15.000/20.000

PARIS, FRANCE.-On June 14 Sotheby’s will stage their first-ever sale in Paris devoted exclusively to Asian art, featuring 182 lots from (mainly European) private collections – some in the same family since the late 19th century – and covering the arts of Japan, China and South-East Asia.

This inaugural sale will begin with 33 lots comprising over 200 prints by the greatest artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Highlights include portraits of Kabuki actors by Katsukawa Sunsho (1725-92), notably Otani Hiroemon III (1726-90), estimate €2000/3000 (lot 14); and portraits of courtesans by the celebrated Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), one showing Kasugano (Seiro series) with the fan painted with one of her poems (lot 14, estimate €5000/7000).

There will also be a number of prints by Japanese landscape masters, notably the iconic Great Wave at Kanagawa from the famous Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), shown in Paris at Galerie Berès in 1974 and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1912 (lot 22, estimate €15,000/20,00); and an album containing 62 prints from the Hundred Famous Provincial Views (1859-60) by Hiroshige II, that has remained in the same French collection since the end of the 19th century (lot 33, estimate €30,000/40,000).

One of the most popular Japanese lots should be a pair of 17th/18th century six-fold screens whose beautifully preserved decoration, inspired by the famous 11th century tale by Lady Murasaki, shows bijin engaged in a variety of activities amidst trees, rocks and houses (lot 41, estimate €80,000/100,000).  (www.Artdaily.org)