Image: public domain, courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)

Katsushika Hokusai, 1830/33

A huge wave curls high above three fishing boats, its white foam about to crash down on the men inside. Far away, in the hollow of the wave, sits Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, looking tiny and calm.

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Did you know?

Hokusai began his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji around 1830, when he was about 70 years old.
The deep blue is Prussian blue, also called Berlin blue, a pigment imported from Europe.
Count the boats: there are three, and the fishermen in them bend low as the wave rises.
Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, appears as a small triangle in the hollow of the great wave.
As a woodblock print it was made in many copies: the Art Institute of Chicago owns three, and so does the British Museum.
In 1905 a detail of the wave decorated the cover of the first edition of Claude Debussy's music La Mer (The Sea).

About the artist

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was born in Edo, today's Tokyo, and spent almost his whole long life there, working until he was nearly 90.

His woodblock series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes The Great Wave off Kanagawa, made him world famous and later inspired many European artists.

He used at least thirty different artist names, in old age called himself an old man mad about painting, and hoped that by 110 every dot and line he drew would come alive.

Katsushika Hokusai ›

Where it is today: The Art Institute of Chicago · Museum page