Self-portrait at the Age of Eighty-three
Ink on paper. Drawn on a letter written by Hokusai.
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.'"
Hokusai Katsushika, The Drawings of Hokusai
SKETCHBOOK LINKS:
- Blogger: Sketchbook
- Artist Sketchbook Online
- Sketchbooks at Smithsonian Archives of American Art
- Kate Aspinall Sketchbooks
- Dan Eldon Journals
- Hokusai Website | Hokusai's Mangwa
- Leonardo de Vinci notebook | drawings
- Jim Pollock Sketchbooks
- Scattergood-Moore Sketchbook
- Turner's Sketchbooks in Tate
- van Gogh's letters
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