…by all means, enter in and feel it for yourself.
But none admired Hokusai more than Vincent van Gogh. I’ll allow him to describe this very work in his own words:
“These waves are claws — the boat is caught in them, you can feel it!”
The Impressionists were intensely inspired and interested in Japanese art. Claude Monet himself had an original print of this piece in his home.
Look to the centre-right of this piece: the mountain is almost swallowed up whole by the wave crashing down.
This is just one of a series of 36 different woodblocks, all of which feature Mount Fuji in various guises: at times centre-stage, at others drawn with a single line in the distance.
He painted it in 1830… when he was 70 years old.
🌊
The famous “Great Wave” by woodblock artist Hokusai is perhaps the most iconic artwork ever to leave Japan. It even has its own emoji:
