Color · 2 min read

Prussian Blue: The Berlin Color Behind Hokusai's Great Wave

December 2024

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The most famous wave in art owes part of its color to a pigment first sold in Berlin. Prussian blue, first made around 1704, traveled all the way to Japan, where Hokusai turned it into an icon.

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, known as The Great Wave, about 1830 to 1832 — Katsushika Hokusai, *Under the Wave off Kanagawa*, also known as *The Great Wave*, from the series *Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji*, about 1830–32. Woodblock print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, 1929. Public domain.

A blue made in a lab

Prussian blue was first synthesized around 1704. It is an iron compound: a white substance, once oxidized, turns into a deep, intense blue.¹

Until then, the finest blue, ultramarine, cost a fortune. The new blue was advertised in Berlin in 1710 as an opaque pigment “of excellent covering power.” It was in use there by 1712, and had reached England before 1721.²

Hokusai's blue

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was already in his seventies when he published his series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The Met notes that he became famous for landscapes made with a palette of indigo and imported Prussian blue.³

Next to indigo, a blue made from plants, the imported Prussian blue offered a new, deep blue for the sky and the sea.

“Hokusai cleverly played with perspective to make Japan's grandest mountain appear as a small triangular mound within the hollow of the cresting wave.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on The Great Wave

A print, not a painting

The Great Wave is a woodblock print, made to be printed many times and sold. That is why museums around the world each own their own impression. The one at The Met is about 26 by 38 cm.³

Its composition is said to have inspired Debussy's La Mer and Rilke's poem Der Berg, and it has become an icon of world art.³

Katsushika Hokusai, Reflection in Lake at Misaka in Kai Province, from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji — Katsushika Hokusai, *Reflection in Lake at Misaka in Kai Province*, from *Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji*, about 1830–32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain.

Blue everywhere

In this view from the same series, Mount Fuji is reflected in a lake, and the whole print is built on shades of blue.

Look at the water, the far mountain and the reflection: three different blues, one quiet harmony.

Casopra canvas Whispering Tide VI above a light oak bench in an indigo-blue entryway — In the photo: Whispering Tide VI, a Casopra canvas.

Living with deep blue

Deep blue is calming, and it makes a small space feel deeper. A wave in blue and white works beautifully in an entryway, a bedroom or a reading corner.

Echo it with one blue object, a bowl or a cushion, and let white do the rest, as Hokusai did with his foam.

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Waves in blue

Four vertical canvases of the sea, from Hokusai-like curls to calm swells.

Quiet Tide VI

Whispers of the Tide

Chromatic Tide II

Calm Tide

See all ocean waves

Back to La Maison Casopra

A blue made in a lab

Hokusai's blue

A print, not a painting

Blue everywhere

Living with deep blue

Waves in blue

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