Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

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Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

ca. 1830–1832

Hokusai

Not on view

For its dynamism, inventive composition, and brilliant blue palette, Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa, or The Great Wave, is the single most identifiable ukiyo-e print and one of the most influential images in art history. 

The artist visited the subject of waves multiple times throughout his career, using the few Dutch landscape prints accessible in Japan at the time as source material. Drawing on these examples in The Great Wave, he creates perspective through scale by rendering the boats in the foreground larger than Mount Fuji in the background. The rich blues were produced using a combination of indigo and the first modern synthetic pigment, Prussian blue—invented in Germany, and imported through Dutch and Chinese trade. Notable in its time for its fusion of Eastern and Western influences, The Great Wave went on to be heralded by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and is said to have inspired French composer Claude Debussy’s La mer (The Sea) (1903–1905) and Austrian writer Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Der Berg” (“The Mountain”). Today the image remains a source of inspiration.
Artist
Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)
Publisher
Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo) (Japanese)
Title
Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji
Date
ca. 1830–1832
Object Type
Print
Medium
Color woodblock print
Dimensions
9 13/16 x 14 1/2 in. (25 x 36.9 cm) Image: 9 13/16 x 14 7/16 in. (25 x 36.6 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment Fund
Accession Number
1969.32.6

Currently on view

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