Two prints of Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave are hitting the auction block next month in New York. The Edo Period woodblock print is one of the most beloved scenes in art history. While thousands of original prints were made of The Great Wave, only a rare few are as well-preserved as the editions being offered at Christie’s and Bonhams in September.
The Great Wave by Hokusai
The Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is best remembered for his Edo Period woodblock prints. Today, nearly two centuries after its creation, Hokusai’s The Great Wave is not only the world’s most recognizable Japanese artwork. It has also become one of the most iconic images of all time. Formally titled Kanagawa-oki nami-ura (Under the Great Wave off Kanagawa), the print comes from Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Famously, The Great Wave depicts Tokyo-bound sailors facing off against a dramatic tsunami, with a distant Mount Fuji looming in the background.
Experts say that around 5,000 to 8,000 of the original woodblock prints of Hokusai’s The Great Wave survive today. However, very few remain in pristine condition. In September, Bonhams and Christie’s will each auction off a top-quality original print of The Great Wave in New York. In a press release, Bonhams described its version as “an outstanding print of the globally celebrated image.” Jeff Olson, director of Japanese Art at Bonhams New York, told ARTnews, “The color of the print is good with little fading. And most importantly, the print is innocent. There are no signs of in-painting, which occurs in a lot in examples of The Great Wave.”
The Market For Hokusai is “Very, Very Good”
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterChristie’s estimates that its edition of Hokusai’s The Great Wave will sell for $500,000 to $700,000. Bonhams offered a similar estimate of $700,000 to $900,000 for its version of the woodblock print. According to Takaaki Murakami, head of Japanese and Korean Art at Christie’s, “The market for the Hokusai Great Wave print is very, very good right now.” In recent years, these prints have consistently sold above their high estimates at auction. A version of The Great Wave fetched $2.8 million at Christie’s in 2023, shattering its pre-sale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000—and making it the most expensive work by Hokusai ever sold at auction.
September Sales of Asian Art in New York
The auctions of Hokusai’s The Great Wave coincide with the September 2024 edition of Asia Week New York. Led by The Great Wave, Christie’s sale of Japanese and Korean art takes place on September 17. The sale also features an 18th-century Joseon dynasty porcelain jar with an estimate of $350,000 to $400,000, as well as an original painting by Hokusai, Swimming Carp, with an estimate of $250,000 to $300,000. At Bonhams, The Great Wave will headline the auction house’s September 18 sale of Japanese prints and watercolors from a private collection. The Bonhams sale also features other prints by Hokusai, including a complete series titled A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, estimated to fetch between $450,000 to $550,000.
