Utagawa Hiroshige
(1797 - 1858) |
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Art Work
| Name: |
Utagawa Hiroshige |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
present-day Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality: |
Japanese |
| Birth: |
1797 |
| Death: |
1858 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
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| Medium: |
Woodblock |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Printmaking
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Biography
Hiroshige largely confined himself in his early work to common ukiyo-e themes. Then, Hiroshige made a dramatic turnabout, with the 1831 landscape series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital which was critically acclaimed for its composition and colors. With The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833–1834), his success was assured. These designs were drawn from Hiroshige's actual travels of the full distance of 300 miles. They included details of date, location, and anecdotes of his fellow travelers, and were immensely popular. Hiroshige went on to produce more than 2000 different prints of Edo and post stations Tokaido, as well as series such as The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (1834–1842). Of his estimated total of 5000 designs, these landscapes comprised the largest proportion.
He dominated landscape printmaking with his unique brand of intimate, almost small-scale works compared against the older traditions of landscape painting descended from Chinese landscape painters such as Sesshu. The travel prints generally depict travelers along famous routes experiencing the special attractions of various stops along the way. In 1856, working with the publisher Uoya Eikichi, he created a series of luxury edition prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition of mica to lend a unique iridescent effect, embossing, fabric printing, blind printing, and the use of glue printing (wherein ink is mixed with glue for a glittery effect). One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (issued serially between 1856 and 1859) was immensely popular. |
Samples of Work
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