Artwork Information
Onder de golf voor de kust van Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai
1830[-]33
![Onder de golf voor de kust van Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, 1830[-]33](https://www.thequadro.com/api/storage/artworks/thumb/l/katsushika-hokusai/katsushika-hokusai_thirty-six-views-of-mount-fuji_under-the-wave-off-kanagawa_7b07864e)
Hokusai's meesterwerk vangt een angstaanjagend mooi moment waarin de natuur de mensheid verkleint. Een enorme, klauwachtige golf domineert het tafereel en dreigt drie fragiele vissersboten te verpletteren, terwijl de kleine, met sneeuw bedekte Mount Fuji rustig op de achtergrond zit en de chaos volledig negeert. Deze prent, gemaakt rond 1831 als onderdeel van de serie 'Zesendertig gezichten op de berg Fuji', werd in Japan onmiddellijk een sensatie en beïnvloedde later impressionistische schilders in Europa. Het opvallende blauw komt van 'Pruisisch blauw', een synthetisch pigment dat destijds een trendy import uit Europa was.
- Technique
- Woodblock print (Ukiyo-e)
- Material
- Ink and color on paper
Interpretation Content
On the anniversary of Katsushika Hokusai's death (October 10), we return to "Under the Wave off Kanagawa" in remembrance. Created around 1831 as part of the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, the print belongs to the final and most brilliant phase of Hokusai's career. Then in his seventies and calling himself "the old man mad about painting," he used the woodblock print — a popular commercial medium — to probe the relationship between nature and humankind.
In the image, a towering wave curls into claws above three fast boats carrying fresh fish; the crews crouch low in the troughs, tiny and vulnerable. Far in the distance, the snow-capped summit of Mount Fuji sits small and perfectly still, setting up a stark opposition between movement and stillness, violence and eternity. The deep blue is Prussian blue, a synthetic pigment newly imported from Europe at the time, and it gives the sea its extraordinary tension.
The series was first published with thirty-six views and later expanded by ten, making forty-six prints in all. Taking Mount Fuji as its axis, it records the seasons, the weather and every variety of human life. This print is the most celebrated of them all, transforming ukiyo-e from an urban commodity into a classic of world art.
Its afterlife is immense: it inspired Van Gogh, Monet and other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, and prompted Debussy's La Mer. Its composition and visual language have seeped into modern design, cinema, animation and global popular culture, making it an enduring emblem of Japanese art.