Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai’s, wood print
with its claw-like wave that curls around and over in a lacy fall
has become one of the most recognized images in the world.
But the painting by Courbet presents a more realistic wave
smaller, not quite unspent in a chaos of foam, spray and surge.
There is no pleasant Mount Fuji in the background
only the vast endless expanse of sea and sky
dark and frenzied; the scene, the wild Normandy coast.
That a Japanese and a French artist would create
such dissimilar versions of an ocean wave might reflect
the differences in cultures and yet viewers might experience
a similar truth: “We are what the seas have made us
longingly immense.”