Hiroshige: Landscape, Cityscape: Woodblock Prints in the Ashmolean Museum

by Clare Pollard, Mitsuko Ito Watanabe, Hiroshige Utagawa

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) is one of the best known of all Japanese woodblock print designers. He is particularly renowned for his landscape prints, which are among the most frequently reproduced of all Japanese works of art. Hiroshige's landscape prints were hugely successful both in Japan and in the West. Their unusual compositions, humorous depictions of people involved in everyday activities and masterly expression of weather, light and seasons, proved enormously influential on many leading European artists. Aimed at a general audience, this book illustrates and discusses 53 Hiroshige landscape prints in the Ashmolean Museum's collection and explores their historical background. It gives a concise introduction to Hiroshige's life and career within the context of Japan's booming nineteenth-century woodblock print industry and explores the development of the landscape print as a new genre in this period. It also discusses and illustrates the process and techniques of traditional Japanese woodblock print-making. Contents: How to 'read' a Japanese Print, Preface, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) Woodblock Print Designer, Making a Japanese Woodblock Print, I Views along the Tokaido, II Views of the Provinces, III Views of Edo, IV Views of Mount Fuji, Further Reading.

Genres: Art

160 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2018

Reviews

[T P Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good exploration of a collection of Hiroshige works. Nice insights into the collection and the individual prints. I'd have liked it to be slightly larger in format to do justice to the illustrations.