{"id":97559,"date":"2025-05-13T08:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97559\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T08:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:24:13","slug":"shocked-art-fans-are-all-saying-the-same-thing-after-seeing-the-original-great-wave-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97559\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocked art fans are all saying the same thing after seeing the original ‘Great Wave’ painting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art lovers have been left baffled after discovering the real size of a hugely popular creative piece of artwork.<\/p>\n

After visiting the Montreal art museum currently housing The Great Wave Off Kanagawa – a woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai – X user Callan shared the image online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post quickly caused a stir, with fans from around the world shocked after\u00a0realising the true size of the original 1830s piece.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of 36 in a series of woodblocks titled Thirty-Six Views Of Mount Fuji, the panel is much smaller than many members of the public had come to believe.<\/p>\n

‘Am I silly or did anyone else think this piece was much larger?’ asked Callan.<\/p>\n

Found as a card in plenty of gift shops, a poster in countless rooms and even spanning duvet covers and luxury throws, the print is familiar to both art lovers and those uninterested in artwork.<\/p>\n

But like many popular art pieces\u00a0such as Van Gogh’s Wheatfield With Crows or the Mona Lisa, seeing the real thing can sometimes be underwhelming.<\/p>\n

And it’s not because the artwork isn’t magnificent, but because it’s so different in scale than it typically appears in replicas and reprints.<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After visiting the famous print, this woman was left confused by its smaller-than-expected size<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (pictured) is a colour woodblock print by Hokusai made in 1830<\/p>\n

‘Very cool to see these details up close, either way!’ Callan continued.<\/p>\n

With 14,000 likes and hundreds of comments, many who viewed the post were similarly taken aback.<\/p>\n

One person wrote: ‘I definitely assumed it was bigger!’ Another echoed the sentiment, saying: ‘I’ve seen this in person too, but at the time I didn’t think about it.<\/p>\n

‘We have seen it projected or printed on big walls and I guess that’s why we tend to imagine the original is bigger?’<\/p>\n

One person argued that the precise nature of the details lend the piece to being enlarged.<\/p>\n

‘There’s so many big reproductions of it,’ wrote Michael Frank. ‘It’s a testament to how clean and elegant the work is.’<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"Many <\/p>\n

Many commenters who had also seen the original print shared their similar experiences\u00a0<\/p>\n

And another chimed in: ‘I too was shocked when I saw it in person. I guess we’re used to seeing poster-sized versions.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, those familiar with wooden prints pointed out that the scale is not unusual for the medium and genre.<\/p>\n

In fact, the piece – emblematic of the ukiyo-e style – might actually be on the larger end for its kind.<\/p>\n

One of the most well-known pieces of Japanese art in history, its dimensions are 24.6cm x 36.5cm – or 9.7in x 14.4in.<\/p>\n

The timeless image has before been described as ‘possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art’, which explains why viewers might have preconceptions about its appearance.<\/p>\n

In the context of wooden prints, ‘oban’ refers to pieces roughly 10in by 15in.<\/p>\n

One commenter pointed out bluntly: ‘This is the standard size for ukiyo-e prints, so yes, you are being silly.’<\/p>\n

Others in the comments shared their experiences of seeing their favourite artworks in person – only to realise they were much larger or smaller than expected.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Persistence Of Memory by Salavdor Dali is another classic that surprises viewers with its small scale (pictured)<\/p>\n

\"And <\/p>\n

And portraits such as Van Gogh’s\u00a0(pictured) and the Mona Lisa – so often replicated – are not as large as art fans may suspect<\/p>\n

‘Mona Lisa and Van Gogh’s self portrait are also super small,’ wrote one. ‘It’s funny how such small paintings have massive impacts.’<\/p>\n

Other paintings which are deceptively small upon first viewing are The Creation Of Man by Michelangelo and The Persistence Of Memory by Salvador Dali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art lovers have been left baffled after discovering the real size of a hugely popular creative piece of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,42521,4020,92,4022,77,368,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-97559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-culture","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-femail","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114499569407165550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}