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Artist Profile: Utagawa Hiroshige
December 06, 2024
Born AndM TokutarM in 1797, Utagawa Hiroshige, was a Japanese ukiuo-e artist. Hiroshige was a member of the Utagawa school from a young age. The school specialized in woodblock printing, which Hiroshige would eventually become known for. In his works, he explored traditional ukiyo-e themes such as travel, representations of female beauty, actors, and historical scenes Hiroshige published his first series of landscape prints in 1831. Through their composition and extensive use of color and color gradation, these prints received critical acclaim. Hiroshige continued to create many landscape series over his career, including The Fifty-three Stations of the TMkaidM, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Often considered a master in the ukiyo-e style, many scholars view Hiroshige’s death as the beginning of the rapid decline of the genre.
Explore more artwork by Utagawa Hiroshige.
Utagawa Kunisada or Utagawa Toyokuni II, Memorial Portrait of
Hiroshige, woodblock print, 1786-1864, Courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower
Over Shin-Lhashi Bridge and Atake: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
(No. 58), woodblock print, ca 1850, 2007.240.1.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Evening Bell at Ikegami: Eight Views of the
Environs of Edo (No. 7), woodblock print, n.d., L11.2022.1027.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Hakone: Fifty-Three Stations of the TMkaidM
(No. 10), lithograph of original woodblock print, n.d., 2011.96.11.