The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Hokusai
The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Hokusai
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The Great Wave off Kanagawa, is a masterpiece that belongs to a series of woodblock prints with the same theme featuring views of the Mount Fuji .
InThe Great Wave off Kanagawa, we observe a massive wave threatening the fishing boats with the Mount Fuji in the background. It's striking because it's a very well-known image and is a reference from that country, visible in the background of this print.
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This work is a woodblock print, in short, the most famous in the world's oriental art already disseminated and the most known of the Japanese painter and engraverKatsushika Hokusai. Considered a master, he used the style of ukiyo-e which aimed to reflect the life and interests of the lower classes of society.
Gigantic,The Great Wave, may not depict a tsunami, but we conclude that the force of the waters represented, create an effect that suggests there is a strong wind caused by the tides that threatens the fragile boats.
"The Great Wave off Kanagawa" The most famous work of its kind
The Great Wave, is the most famous of its kind because it is one of the most recognized images in the world. Many museums conserve copies of the work. There are cataloged about 35 copies of this woodblock print, where we can find them in the most famous museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of New York, usually from private collections.
Waves of the Ocean is another engraving in which the artist uses the same style, not as famous as The Great Wave, but equally imposing and beautiful as his masterpiece.
Woodblock printing is a technique of engraving that uses wood as a matrix. To do this, it must be done with a cutting tool that will serve to carve the figure that will be printed. In the next step, a rubber roller with ink is used, which when passing through the wood, the image is transferred to the paper or other desired support. Finally, only the raised parts of the carving will reveal the impression that will remain in the engraving.
Katsushika Hokusai was born in Katsushika, in the year 1760, east of the city of Tóquio, in Japan. With an incredible ability for drawing, he began to paint with 6 years old and at 16 became an apprentice engraver. He developed this activity for three years, at the same time he carried out his first illustrations, thus he was improving his knowledge. With 18 years he was accepted as an apprentice of the master Katsukawa Shunshō, one of the most important artists of ukiyo-e of his time. This is the one who baptized him with the name ‘Shunrō’, and it was from 1779 onwards, Hokusai began to use as a signature in his first works.
He died at 89 years old, in the city of Tóquio, on April 18, 1849.
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