Recent comments in /f/Art

deepfield67 t1_j1q0soz wrote

Reply to comment by chronoboy1985 in “Stardust”, Me, Analog collage, 2022 by YouDrewIt

Oh that's interesting. So that would have been around the Edo period, 1800s, when they opened Japan up a bit to foreign trade? It's interesting that Japan hadn't figured out a blue dye of their own. Do you know what is used to make Prussian blue that Japan didn't have, or hadn't figured out how to make?

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chronoboy1985 t1_j1ps4n0 wrote

Reply to comment by deepfield67 in “Stardust”, Me, Analog collage, 2022 by YouDrewIt

Fun Fact: The reason that piece was so popular (Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa) in Japan was because it was one of the first paintings/prints to use a deep blue color. If you look at prints from the previous centuries and even before the Sengoku Era, you never see blues or purples. If you do, they are usually faded or very light. Being a hermetic, isolationist country for centuries, they never had the materials to create blue dye. In the 1800’s they had limited trade with Europe and were able to acquire the synthetic “Prussian Blue” dye from Holland.

Hokusai used it profusely in his 36 Views of Mount Fuji series while using avant-garde perspective techniques that were all the rage in Europe. The striking, beautiful color of that particular print is what ultimately made it a world famous artwork. Im pretty sure I read somewhere that it’s either the most duplicated print in the world. or definitely close.

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