Utagawa Hiroshige

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (Tokyo, 1797 - 1858).
"Cherry Blossoms on Asuka Hill", ca. 1840.
Belongs to the series "Famous places of the eastern capital".
Ukiyo-e woodcut print on paper.
It shows some damage.
Measurements: 24 x 37,5 cm; 33,5 x 47 x 2,5 cm (frame).
Hiroshige Utagawa, artistic pseudonym of Hiroshige Ando, was a Japanese painter and engraver born in Edo, present-day Tokyo, considered today the last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition (Japanese woodcut). He was a disciple of Toyohiro at the Utagawa school, and achieved mastery around 1812. The young artist would further his training by studying the traditional Chinese-influenced painting techniques of the Kano school, as well as the realism of Shijo school painting and the perspective techniques of Western painting and uki-e (a genre of ukiyo-e that employs linear perspective). His apprenticeship work included numerous illustrations for books, as well as prints depicting beautiful women and kabuki actors in the style of the Utagawa school. Around 1831 he published his series of prints "Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital", modeled after Hokusai's views of Fuji, which had seen the light of day shortly before. The following year, in 1832, he was invited to participate in the official procession that would travel the road between Edo and Kyoto, which allowed him to travel the Tokaido route linking the two capitals. He made numerous sketches during the trip, which eventually resulted in the series "The Fifty-three Seasons of the Tokaido", which contains some of his most famous prints. Hiroshige's works are now held in some of the world's leading collections, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the British Museum in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the National Galleries of Denmark, Finland and Hungary, the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa (Israel) and the most important museums in Japan.