The Wave, from "L'Estampe Originale"

Publisher André Marty French
1894
Not on view
Caricaturist and poster designer Jossot contributed this print to the avant-garde portfolio "L’Estampe originale" (1893–95). His composition pokes fun at the craze over Japanese art among artists and collectors at the time, known as Japonisme. Here, in a parody of Hokusai’s "Great Wave," an immense swell knocks a painter along with his easel and canvas out of a boat. The work satirizes compositional devices commonly adopted by Japoniste artists, such as a plunging perspective and radical cropping, by toppling the figure from the boat and cutting off his upper body with the lower edge of picture plane.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Wave, from "L'Estampe Originale"
  • Series/Portfolio: L'Estampe Originale, Album VI
  • Artist: Henri Gustave Jossot (French, Dijon 1866–1951 Sidi Bou Said)
  • Publisher: André Marty (French, born 1857)
  • Date: 1894
  • Medium: Lithograph printed in olive green
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 24 in. × 16 7/8 in. (61 × 42.9 cm)
    Image: 20 11/16 × 13 13/16 in. (52.5 × 35.1 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1922
  • Object Number: 22.82.1-57
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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