Utagawa hiroshige biography

His mother died in earlyand his father followed later in the year, but not before handing his fire warden duties to his twelve-year-old son. Hiroshige's first wife helped finance his trips to sketch travel locations, in one instance selling some of her clothing and ornamental combs. This device, derived from Western art, was intended to add depth to the composition.

He was given the artist name of "Shigenobu". Hiroshige intended to make Shigenobu his heir in all matters, and Shigenobu adopted the name "Hiroshige" after his master's death inand thus today is known as Hiroshige II. However, the marriage to Otatsu was troubled and in they separated. Otatsu was remarried to another former pupil of Hiroshige, Shigemasa, who appropriated the name of the lineage and today is known as Hiroshige III.

Both Hiroshige II and Hiroshige III worked in a distinctive style based on that of Hiroshige, but neither achieved the level of success and recognition accorded to their master. In his declining years, Hiroshige still produced thousands of prints to meet the demand for his works, but few were as good as those of his early and middle periods.

He never lived in financial comfort, even in old age. He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of whether the epidemic killed him is unknown and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa. I shall see the famous places in the Western Land. Despite his productivity and popularity, Hiroshige was not wealthy—his commissions were less than those of other in-demand artists, amounting to an income of about twice the wages of a day labourer.

His will left instructions for the payment of his debts. Hiroshige produced over 8, works. They included details of date, location, and anecdotes of his fellow travelers, and were immensely popular.

Utagawa hiroshige biography: Utagawa Hiroshige born Andō Tokutarō (安藤

In fact, this series was so popular that he reissued it in three versions, one of which was made jointly with Kunisada. 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.

They travel in the rain, in snow, and during all of the seasons. Inworking with the publisher Uoya Eikichihe 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.

Hiroshige pioneered the use of the vertical format in landscape printing in his series Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo issued serially between and was immensely popular. The set was published posthumously and some prints had not been completed — he had created over on his own, but two were added by Hiroshige II after his death.

Hiroshige was a member of the Utagawa schoolalong with Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. This journey, along Japan's major pilgrimage route, took between ten and utagawa hiroshige biography days on foot and passed numerous temples, shrines and culturally significant landscapes. While the group that Hiroshige joined travelled along the road in order to deliver horses to the court, others often travelled for pleasure, reveling in local scenery and in food and beverages available at the waystations along the route.

Having discovered his talent for landscape, Hiroshige worked quickly and continuously from towhen much of his best work was produced and published. Hiroshige's lifestyle and finances during this period, however, remain unclear; some hypothesize that he lived a typical middle-class existence, drinking frequently and eating well, while others claim his habits were more modest.

Hiroshige's wife is believed to have sold clothing and accessories in order to support his work, providing the necessary funds for travel. She, however, died inhalting his production briefly. Hiroshige's talent for utagawa hiroshige biography placed him in a better position than many other ukiyo-e artists, as the shogunate banned prints of actors and courtesans, inin a bid to improve the moral health of the nation.

While others followed the traditional approach of showing landscape and significant pilgrimage sites as spectacular and idealised, Hiroshige combined visions of the countryside with the language of the popular print and seized upon the zest for travel, providing audiences with groups of prints that evoked the experience of travel and the public with a sense of collective ownership over the national landscapes, previously considered to be solely as property of the imperial family.

Hiroshige's head was described as being "round as a dumpling". It is the only known likeness of the artist. InHiroshige married for the second time, choosing a farmer's daughter, Oyasu, around fifteen years younger than him. In these years, Hiroshige produced triptychs depicting beautiful women and educated a number of pupils who, as was traditional, took on his name.

His three pupils were not successful as artists, though it is unclear whether this is due to a poor choice of pupils or poor teaching methods on Hiroshige's part. Inhe decided to become a Buddhist monk, which involved shaving his head. He continued to produce art, including One Hundred Famous Views of Edoinwhich had a considerable impact in Europe due to Hiroshige's vivid colors and unconventional perspectives.

InHiroshige fell ill, likely due to the cholera epidemic that took 28, lives in Japan. He dictated a poem as he died: "I leave my brush at Azuma, I go to the Land of the West on a journey To view the famous sights there. He was 62 years old and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa. He had, over the course of his lifetime, produced over 5, print designs, of which many copies were made.

Utagawa hiroshige biography: Utagawa Hiroshige, born as Andō Tokutarō

Hiroshige is considered to be the last great ukiyo-e master and his influence can be more obviously traced in Europe than Japan, as the great cultural shifts of the Meiji Period caused Japanese artists to look abroad for inspiration. Hiroshige's lyricism and brilliant use of color resonated with French and Dutch painters, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, similarly searching for new ways to approach landscape.

Vincent van Gogh made copies of Hiroshige's prints in order to learn from them and the artist's influence can be seen in van Gogh's use of vibrant yellows and oranges alongside blues. Hiroshige's work was particularly influential in shaping the Japonism movement, in which painters such as James McNeil Whistler and James Tissot borrowed both the style of Hiroshige's prints and used representations of similar work as indicators of taste within domestic interiors.

In the late nineteenth century, the popularity of ukiyo-e prints was such that they were seen as indicators of knowledge, taste and wealth that could be deployed in portraits or interiors in order to bestow these qualities upon their owner. This is particularly obvious in Whistler's Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screenin which Whistler's model, Joanna Hiffernan, is shown looking at prints from Hiroshige's Views of the Sixty-odd Provinceswhich Whistler himself owned, wearing a kimono beside a Japanese screen.

Hiroshige's landscapes, alongside those of Hokusaiare also widely understood to have shaped the development of contemporary manga; scenes depicting longing or the passing of time frequently draw upon Hiroshige's references to seasonal festivities. Content compiled and written by Sarah Ingram. Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Anna Blair.

The Art Story. Ways to support us. Important Art. Naruto Whirlpool, Awa Province c. Plum Estate, Kameido Early Training and Work. Mature Period. Late Period and Death. Influences and Connections. Useful Resources. Similar Art and Related Pages.

Utagawa hiroshige biography: Hiroshige (born , Edo [now Tokyo],

In turn, he also introduced to Ukiyo-e a topic that was alien to this direction: the image of fish, birds and flowers earlier on xylographs it was customary to depict Japanese beauties and actors of the Kabuki theater. Failed fireman The future master of woodcuts was born in the family of a hereditary samurai. Although at the time of the birth of Tokutaro as the artist called him at birth his father was in charge of the fire brigade of Edo.

Subsequently, the boy's name will change again and again: by tradition, in Japan, children were often renamed to confuse evil spirits. So, before becoming a famous artist Utagawa Hiroshige, he will have some time to be Tokubey, Juyamon and Jubei. The death of the Tokutaro family came very early. At first she came for one of three sisters. When he was 12, his mother was gone, his father died within a year.

According to custom, regardless of his young age, the boy inherited the profession of the head of the family. So the teenager began to monitor the prevention of utagawa hiroshige biographies in Edo Castle. Fortunately, these responsibilities left enough free time for the lesson, which was much more to his liking - drawing. His first work Tokutaro created at the age of 10 years.

He dreamed of learning from Toyokuni, the famous master of the school Utagawa. But, by a lucky coincidence, he already had too many students, and there was simply no room for one more. Good luck, researchers will call it after many years, because Toyokuni was considered an authoritarian teacher who most likely would not have allowed Hiroshige's talent to fully manifest itself.

But another teacher of the same school allowed, Toyohiro. This can be judged by the fact that already at the age of 15 a student was allowed to sign his works in Japan, some artists went to this for decades. After this, Hiroshige began work on his next series of landscape paintingwhich appeared in a series of Ukiyo-e prints entitled: Sixty-Nine Stations of the KisokaidoFine Arts Museum, San Francisco.

All these works were noted for their bold colours, exquisite lyricism, sweeping perspectives and realistic spatial depth. During the s, he worked increasingly with polychrome prints nishiki-ecreating some marvellously atmospheric pictures. Hiroshige never experienced financial security, even in old age: one reason why he continued working up to the end, even when his works declined somewhat in quality.

Inhe "retired from the world," and became a Buddhist monk, although this didn't stop him beginning his final work One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. He died during the great Tokyo cholera epidemic in and his remains were interred in a Buddhist temple in Asakusa. His followers, included his two top pupils, Shigenobu Hiroshige II and Shigemasa Hiroshige IIIboth of whom emulated his distinctive style though without his success.

Other students of Hiroshige included Shigekiyo, Shigemaru, and Hirokage. Working within the genre of famous places meisho-ehe depicted the exploits of travellers making their way along famous routes, in all weathers - becoming known as "the artist of rain, snow and mist" - in a style which became immensely popular with all classes of urban customer.

Note: During the 18th and 19th centuries, in Japan, tourism became a boom industry, leading to an upsurge in popular interest in travel locations. Ukiyo-e prints thus acted as the forerunner of travel photographs.