The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c1830, by Katsushika Hokusai

This world famous print has inspired artists as famous as Van Gogh since it's creation in 1830 by Katsushika Hokusai.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is part of the series 'Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji' (which actually contains 46 prints). Hokusai’s obsession with Mount Fuji was part of his desire for artistic immortality – in Buddhist and Daoist tradition, The Japanese believe the active volcano holds the secret of immortality, as one popular interpretation of its name suggests: “Fu-shi” (“not death”).

That the Great Wave became the best known print in the west was in large part due to Hokusai’s formative experience of European art. Prints from early in his career show him attempting, rather awkwardly, to apply the lesson of mathematical perspective, learnt from European prints brought into Japan by Dutch traders. By the time of Under the Wave, the sense of deep space was far more subtle. The rigid converging lines of European perspective drawing become the gently sloping sides of the sacred mountain. In all other ways it could not have been further from anything being made in Europe at the time.

Hokusai was inspired by European art, but his unique style in the swirling, thrusting of the wave inspired European artists in turn. Most notably the similarities can be seen in Vincent Van Gogh 'The Starry Night' where the swirls and colors of the night sky echo the turbulence of the water in the The Great Wave.

Printed onto high quality cotton canvas using the Giclée printing technique ensures that these beautiful prints can be enjoyed by your family for years to come.

Please note all of our canvases come delivered unframed, rolled and unstretched ready for you to add to a frame of your choice.

Hokusai - The Great Wave Off Kanagawa Canvas Wall Art