Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)"
Katsushika Hokusai’s much celebrated series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjûrokkei), was begun in 1830, when the artist was 70 years old. This tour-de-force series established the popularity of landscape prints, which continues to this day. Perhaps most striking about the series is Hokusai’s copious use of the newly affordable Berlin blue pigment, featured in many of the compositions in the color for the sky and water. Mount Fuji is the protagonist in each scene, viewed from afar or up close, during various weather conditions and seasons, and from all directions. The most famou...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Dimensions
- 25.4 × 37.6 cm (10 × 14 3/4 in.)
- Origin
- Japan
- Department
- Arts of Asia
- Holding institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image provider
- art-institute-chicago
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Subject Matter
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Water Both · 100%
The catalog lists water and waves as subjects, and the image is dominated by turbulent seawater and a large breaking wave.
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Waterscapes Both · 99%
The image presents a seascape with waves, boats, and Mount Fuji, while the catalog identifies the work as a landscape print from the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series.
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Movement Visual · 99%
The curling wave crests, diagonal boats, and repeated foam forms create a pronounced visual sense of motion.
Styles and Movements
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Ukiyo-e Interpretive · 96%
Hokusai’s Japanese color woodblock print and its Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji context strongly place the work within ukiyo-e printmaking.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 96%
Dark indigo and blue areas dominate the wave forms and boats against a much lighter cream and pale-blue ground.
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Asymmetrical Visual · 99%
The visual mass is unevenly distributed, with the large wave concentrated on the left and center and open sky extending across the right.
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Curvilinear Forms Visual · 99%
The wave and foam are built from numerous curling, flowing contours rather than predominantly straight or rectilinear shapes.
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Patterns Visual · 96%
Repeated foam curls and bands of water create recurring graphic motifs across the wave and foreground sea.
Medium and Techniques
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Prints Metadata · 100%
The catalog classifies the work as a print and identifies its medium as a color woodblock print.
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Woodcut and Linocut Metadata · 98%
The stated medium, “Color woodblock print; oban,” directly supports a woodblock-print technique; woodcut-and-linocut is the closest available catalog category.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 100%
The catalog dates the work to 1830/33, within the nineteenth century; its broader recorded date range is 1825–1838.
Geographic Regions
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Japanese Art Metadata · 100%
The artist is identified as Japanese and the place of origin is listed as Japan.
Source & rights
Katsushika Hokusai. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)". The Art Institute of Chicago.