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Doesn’t that severely underreport the opportunities to see that print considering that there are ~100 surviving “originals”, some on regular display in big name

by exitb 3y ago

Doesn’t that severely underreport the opportunities to see that print considering that there are ~100 surviving “originals”, some on regular display in big name museums?

pavlov 3y ago
Of those 100, many are presumably in private collections. (A quick glance at the auction database on Artsy suggests that 2-3 originals of Great Wave are sold annually, so there must be dozens of them privately held.) The site lists 59 museum locations, which could be nearly complete if we assume 40% of copies are in private collections.
- msephton 3y ago
  I don't count private copies because I don't know anything about them. The main reason for the lower number is lack of data, plus some institutions have multiple copies: Boston have 7(!), NY Met 4, British Museum 3, Tokyo National 3, Chicago Art Institute 3, and many with a couple each.
msephton 3y ago
No it doesn't underreport. Why? It's complicated. Some of the ~100 known originals will never be available to view publicly, for a variety of reasons. Many museums don't provide data on their collection, which reduces the possible count by a dozen or so. Also it depends on your definition of "regular", as preservation demands they must be rested for 3+ years between viewings. So for example the impression in the Polish National Museum, Krakow, was last on view in 2021 and won't be viewable next until 2025 at the earliest. Boston are currently showing one of their seven(!) impressions. I expected them to rotate it out part way through, but that has yet to happen. Hopefully that answers your question.
- drcongo 3y ago
  Today I learned loads of stuff I didn't know I wanted to know. Thank you.
- Aunche 3y ago
  > preservation demands they must be rested for 3+ years between viewings Does the act of resting help the ink last longer or are they simply rate limiting the amount of light that the print receives?
  - msephton 3y ago
    As far as I know it's light, though I did see that The British Museum want to do some testing of inks/pigments on individual paper fibres to learn more.

by exitb 3y ago

Doesn’t that severely underreport the opportunities to see that print considering that there are ~100 surviving “originals”, some on regular display in big name museums?

pavlov 3y ago

Of those 100, many are presumably in private collections. (A quick glance at the auction database on Artsy suggests that 2-3 originals of Great Wave are sold annually, so there must be dozens of them privately held.) The site lists 59 museum locations, which could be nearly complete if we assume 40% of copies are in private collections.

msephton 3y ago
I don't count private copies because I don't know anything about them. The main reason for the lower number is lack of data, plus some institutions have multiple copies: Boston have 7(!), NY Met 4, British Museum 3, Tokyo National 3, Chicago Art Institute 3, and many with a couple each.

msephton 3y ago

No it doesn't underreport. Why? It's complicated. Some of the ~100 known originals will never be available to view publicly, for a variety of reasons. Many museums don't provide data on their collection, which reduces the possible count by a dozen or so. Also it depends on your definition of "regular", as preservation demands they must be rested for 3+ years between viewings. So for example the impression in the Polish National Museum, Krakow, was last on view in 2021 and won't be viewable next until 2025 at the earliest. Boston are currently showing one of their seven(!) impressions. I expected them to rotate it out part way through, but that has yet to happen. Hopefully that answers your question.

drcongo 3y ago
Today I learned loads of stuff I didn't know I wanted to know. Thank you.
Aunche 3y ago
> preservation demands they must be rested for 3+ years between viewings Does the act of resting help the ink last longer or are they simply rate limiting the amount of light that the print receives?
- msephton 3y ago
  As far as I know it's light, though I did see that The British Museum want to do some testing of inks/pigments on individual paper fibres to learn more.