Tuesday, January 25, 2005
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa
I was doing a little and I want to emphasize LITTLE research today and I came across a painting by Katsushika Hokusai that really intrigued me. The artist’s name wasn’t familiar to me (no surprise there) but the painting was very familiar. The painting
"The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" is from a set of woodcuts called "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" 1823-1829 10x15 in. and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
What was so cool was the highly graphic nature of the woodcut it's simplicity but also how the line work being simple was still very inspired. The more you look at it the more the story unfolds. Sort of hidden in the great wave are two boats that follow the contour lines of the waves and you can see the seamen bowing, crouching or (what I would be doing) praying for dear life! And if that wasn’t enough if you look real closely in the background you’ll see what appears to be another wave but in fact is a mountain. I assume it is Mount Fuji. Cool!
I see allot of unintentional similarities in this painting and my concept for "Jonah’s Last Look" a raging sea, the desperate life threatening situation and a symbol of stability or safety in the background.
I also discovered that impressionists Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Toulouse-lautrec enthusiastically collected and were profoundly influenced by Hokusai’s woodcuts.
"The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" is from a set of woodcuts called "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" 1823-1829 10x15 in. and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
What was so cool was the highly graphic nature of the woodcut it's simplicity but also how the line work being simple was still very inspired. The more you look at it the more the story unfolds. Sort of hidden in the great wave are two boats that follow the contour lines of the waves and you can see the seamen bowing, crouching or (what I would be doing) praying for dear life! And if that wasn’t enough if you look real closely in the background you’ll see what appears to be another wave but in fact is a mountain. I assume it is Mount Fuji. Cool!
I see allot of unintentional similarities in this painting and my concept for "Jonah’s Last Look" a raging sea, the desperate life threatening situation and a symbol of stability or safety in the background.
I also discovered that impressionists Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Toulouse-lautrec enthusiastically collected and were profoundly influenced by Hokusai’s woodcuts.
