The Blue Wave
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson British
Not on view
The Blue Wave, Nevinson’s first color lithograph, reflects the influence of Japanese color woodblock prints, in particular, Katsushika Hokusai’s 1830–32 Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Nevinson, like Hokusai, created an image in which nature is shown as sublime—that is, awe-inspiring in both its beauty and potential for danger. While Hokusai took a broader view and included additional elements, such as Mount Fuji and three small boats with rowers, Nevinson omitted representations of people and anything man-made. Instead, in this tightly cropped composition, he presented a nearly abstract image comprising dramatic rolling waves topped with crests of foam. The Blue Wave, made when Nevinson was focusing almost exclusively on war images, likely also refers to the trauma of warfare and contemporary turmoil.
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