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Treasures

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

This iconic woodblock print by Katsushiki Hokusai is the first in his series of "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" published in the early 1830s. Hokusai was a master of the art of Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," of which this print is an example. The Great Wave off Kanagawa is his most famous print, and was well known by turn-of-the-century artists in both Europe and America. Scenes of every day life, ukiyo-e prints were affordable and therefore available to large portions of the Japanese population. European and American artists saw in these works new strategies for using line, pattern, and color to transform the visible world into modernist compositions. Gertrude Ashley exhibited a landscape basket based upon this print at the summer show held in Deerfield in 1908. The basket was praised for its, "particularly harmonious color after a Japanese print showing the outline of waves and surf."¹

1. Gazette and Courier, June 27, 1908.

Date:

1826 - 1833

Creator:

Katsushika Hokusai