Utagawa Hiroshige (, also US: /ˌhɪərəˈ-/;Japanese: 歌川 広重 [ɯtaɡaɰa çiɾoɕiɡe]), born Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and for his vertical-format landscape series One Hundred well-known Views of Edo. The subjects of his exploit were peculiar of the ukiyo-e genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and additional scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868). The popular series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai was a strong influence on Hiroshige’s marginal of subject, though Hiroshige’s open was more poetic and ambient than Hokusai’s bolder, more formal prints. Subtle use of color was essential in Hiroshige’s prints, often printed similar to multiple impressions in the thesame area and when extensive use of bokashi (color gradation), both of which were rather labor-intensive techniques.
For scholars and collectors, Hiroshige’s death marked the introduction of a rapid halt in the ukiyo-e genre, especially in the slope of the westernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Hiroshige’s produce an effect came to have a marked influence upon western European painting towards the near of the 19th century as a share of the trend in Japonism. Western European artists, such as Manet and Monet, collected and next to studied Hiroshige’s compositions. Vincent van Gogh even went so far as to paint copies of two of Hiroshige’s prints from One Hundred renowned Views of Edo: Plum Park in Kameido and Sudden Shower on summit of Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake
What do you think of the works of Hiroshige?
Use the form below to say your opinion about Hiroshige. All opinions are welcome!