Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, c. 1830

Some of the artists who were most influential on early European Modernism were not from Europe, but Japan. Hokusai, an interesting man who identified himself by 30 different names during his lifetime, was a master woodblock printmaker. These works influenced the flatness that became common in 20th Century Modernist painting.