The great wave of Kanagawa It is an Ukiyo-E-style woodcut, made by the Japanese painter Katsushka Hokusai (1760-1849) around the 1830. It is the first and most famous print of the series Thirty -six views of Mount Fujiin addition to being the most famous in its kind and one of the best known images in the world. Her extraordinary diffusion made it a real symbol of Japanese art and had a huge influence on European artists of the late 19th century and beyond. You may have seen it in numerous different places, but how is it possible? Because it is one woodcutor a print made by a wooden matrixwhich allows to produce many original copies, now preserved in museums and collections around the world.
The great wave of Kanagawa, the masterpiece reproduced indefinitely
A large wave that breaks in the foreground, boats and, in the distance, Mount Fuji. Even just with this meager description it is easy to recognize one of the most loved works of art ever: The great waveas it is often abbreviated, is perhaps the most famous of the works of a moment of great cultural fervor in Japan, the so -called Floating worldor Ukiyo-ewhich also crossed music and theater. This work is the best known in the series of Thirty -six views of Mount Fujiwhich the artist made in the early 1930s of the nineteenth century, after having worked on the idea for about thirty years: his great diffusion is certainly owed to his effectiveness and his own medium (the realization technique used). In fact, the work is not a painting but one xylography, that is, one press made by a matrix of wooden blocks (hence the name, from the Greek xilon = wood, GRAPHEIN = Writing, affecting). The woodcut press was a very popular art form in Japanese Edo period and allowed one of the most advanced color printing techniques of the time. In fact, the color of the wave is extraordinary, a mix of indigo and blue of Prussia, just arrived in Japan from Holland with the name of “Indaco di Berlin”. This technique allows you to create infinite prints from the same model, for this there are many “original” made by the same matrix, which are now preserved in various museums in the world, on thin sheets of only 25.7 × 37.9 centimeters.
How many copies of the great wave exist in the world
The exact number of copies is unknowngiven that the amount of “impressions” made by a set of wooden blocks was generally registered, however we know that many were produced. The British Museum recalls that a publisher had to sell at least 2,000 to make a profit, and that experts estimate were made Up to 8,000 impressions of the painting. Today we do not all have them anymore, considering how small and fragile they are: from the data updated to 2022 we know about the existence of about 100 copies. Usually among the various specimens there are small differences, both because you can decide to print with different colors and because the matrix can give signs of wear, Especially if used frequently: since the impressions are not dated or numbered, these signs are the only way to determine the chronological evolution of these copies.
Where is the great wave of Kanagawa
Many of the still existing copies are preserved in Japan, at the National Museum of Tokyo or at the Japanese Museum Ukiyo-E in Matsumoto, even if the most viewed are probably those of the British Museum of London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. Always in the United States, there are a Chicago, Los Angeles And Washingtonwhile in France, where the work had a very long and extraordinary success, and influenced the impressionists, they find themselves in Giverny and Paris, both al Musée Guimet both to Biblothèque Nationale de France. Further prints are present in Europe and in the world, for example in Melbourne, and in some private collections: this is the case of the one sold in 2023 at the record price of 2.8 million dollars. In Italy some copies are preserved at Eastern Art Museum Edoardo Chiossone of Genoa, al Palazzo Maffei Casa Museum of Verona, the Civic oriental art museum of Trieste, the Oriental art museum of Turin.
