Rare Japanese woodblock prints on display in Poland
(Artdaily.org)

Polish-French art enthusiast Jerzy Leskowicz is obsessed with first-edition Japanese woodblock prints, and Katsushika Hokusai`s iconic 19th-century `The Great Wave Off Kanagawa` is only one of many in his collection. Part of that collection goes on display this weekend in Poland at the National Museum in Warsaw, where visitors can also admire Utagawa Hiroshige`s `A Sudden Shower over the Ohashi Bridge and Atake`, a favourite of celebrated 19th Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. `Virtually all of Van Gogh`s landscapes were inspired by Hiroshige,` said the 71-year-old Leskowicz, who sports a white moustache and made his fortune in real-estate. `Van Gogh copied Japanese prints and he even tried to reproduce the signatures on them,` added exhibition curator Anna Katarzyna Maleszko, as Japanese flute music played in the background. Leskowicz is particularly proud of owning first edition prints of the entire series `The Sixty-Nine Stations of Kisokaido` by Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen.