LEGO Art 31208 Hokusai – The Great Wave travels back through time

LEGO Art Design Manager Fiorella Groves explains how the artwork we see in 31208 Hokusai – The Great Wave is actually from two centuries ago.

The real-life The Great Wave painting was first made all the way back in 1831 by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai, using the Japanese printmaking technique to create a vibrant woodblock painting. However, while the original colours were vibrant, they ended up becoming gradually lost to time through fading. This presented a challenge for the LEGO designers tasked with creating a LEGO Art set based on the iconic artwork. However, with a little help from the British Museum, the team managed to overcome this.

"The versions [of the Great Wave] they have hanging around and the versions we see online are faded," explained LEGO Art Design Manager, Fiorella Groves. "The colours aren't as fresh, apart from the Prussian blue.

"What the British Museum did was [to recreate] a version of their own where they reimagined what the actual colours would have looked like in one of the early editions. That is where we had our big 'aha's. Why don't we create what it looked like fresh, rather than as it looks now?"

That's exactly what Fiorella and the team went on today, creating a vibrant set full of blue, grey, and cream tones that pops as a display set, rather than a brick-built copy of the muted versions of Hokusai's The Great Wave that often circulate today.

Hear more from Fiorella about what went into making LEGO Art 31208 Hokusai – The Great Wave and how the LEGO Group further collaborated with the British Museum in our video interview with her below, or head over to our YouTube channel. While you're there, be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all the latest LEGO news, reviews, interviews, and more.

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