Hokusai's Great Wave


Great wave off Kanagawa
From 1830s. Seen as archetypal Japanese but actually not that old: Prussian blue used (ie synthetic dye from Germany), perspective is European! Japan was still closed to all but a few Chinese and Dutch traders until 1859 having closed its borders to trade for some 200yrs, but this shows how European art was reaching Japan.  Ironically, once trade opened up, Japanese art became fashionable around the world and influenced Van Gogh, etc.
Some see the wave as a metaphor for the influence of the outside world on imperial Japan, crashing down on the little fishing boats. It is a romantic vision of a passing world, much as Constable’s Haywain does the same for rural England.
Thousands of prints made, so it was a cheap, popular artwork – earliest prints from the block have the sharpest edges so most valuable.
There is a cheeky uncredited pastiche version in Julia Donaldson’s childrens book, “The Snail and the Whale”!


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