The design of Hokusai’s Great Wave became an integral part of van Gogh’s iconography, and he utilized it in several of his most famous works. Hokusai makes you cry out but in his case with his lines, his drawing… you say to yourself: these waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), the most celebrated of the Post-Impressionist painters, described Hokusai’s Great Wave to his brother Theo in a letter dated September 8, 1888: Certainly, these European painters drew inspiration from a wide range of Japanese art, but towards the end of the 19th century, as the movement evolved into Post-Impressionism, and as the expressive potential of intense pigments became a higher priority than the naturalistic depiction of light and color, Hokusai’s iconic seascape served all the more as their stylistic guide. It is worth noting here that in May 1872, years before the appearance of the word “Impressionism,” art critic Philippe Burty (1830–1890) coined the term “Japonisme” to describe the works of Claude Monet (1840–1926), Edgar Degas (1834–1917), and their compatriots. Whistler’s and Courbet’s efforts to incorporate into their seascapes a sense of dynamism and to simulate the refraction of light through water paved the way for modern art movements, particularly Impressionism, that focused upon such phenomena. Whistler’s paintings explored the marine theme over a longer time span, including works as early as 1862 ( Blue and Silver–The Blue Wave Biarritz ) and continuing at least until around 1885 ( Arrangement in Blue and Silver – The Great Sea ). Among the seven or more seascapes, all entitled The Wave or The Waves, that Courbet was known to have painted around 18, the work currently in the collection of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany is perhaps most reminiscent of Hokusai’s print. James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) were among those painters who realized that the depiction of waves was an opportunity to liberate themselves from the constraints of realism. As a result, painters were essentially forced to disregard their academic training, improvise, and emphasize their process of painting by leaving brush marks fully visible on their canvases–a practice that, under normal circumstances, was strictly avoided. Its form is in a constant state of flux, and its translucency defies predetermined approaches to shading and coloration. In addition to “wave,” other meanings of the French word vague include “vagueness” and “imprecision.” Indeed, in the context of 19th-century French realist painting, which regulated how the form, shading, and color of a given object ought to be described, a wave presented artists with serious challenges. In order to fully appreciate the initial impact that this print had upon European painters, we should consider the French translation of its title: La Grande Vague de Kanagawa. From the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Great Wave Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).
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