120 Hiroshige Woodblock Prints

Woodblock prints from some of the celebrated artist's best-known works include scenes from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido.

The '100 Views of Edo' is one of the most famous artistic productions of all times. The art of Ukiyo-e, or Popular Painting, was the expression of a singular and isolated civilization, and had a considerable influence on European art.

This booklet illustrates a selection of 20 woodblock prints form the series of prints by Ando Hiroshige called Meisho Edo Hakkei or One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo. Published between 1856-59, they were the last series designed by Hiroshige, who died in 1858.

A dazzling reprint of Hiroshige's views of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), one of the masterpieces of the ukiyo-e woodblock tradition and a paradigm of the Japonisme that inspired Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau artists, from Vincent van Gogh to James McNeill Whistler.

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.

This volume offers an excellent overview of the accomplished artist who was one of the leading creators of landscape imagery in Japanese printmaking.