Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) is the one of largest Japanese landscape designers, bearing this topic on an artistic level with the unequalled style. It was characterized by series from Estampe S on the Mont Fuji and Edo (current Tōkyō), drawing with genius the landscapes and the atmosphere of the city, taking again the moments of the daily life of the city before its transformation with the era Meiji (1868-1912).

These works are characterized by their vertical format, the subtle control of the frank colors - with the domination of the green and the blue - and its direction of the foreground, which will be taken again, later, by photography then the cinema.

General presentation

Hiroshige Utagawa () is a draftsman, engraver and painter Japanese. It was born in 1797 with Edo (today Tokyo) and died in the same city in 1858. Prolific author, credit between 1818 and 1858, its work consists of more 5 400 prints .

For more details: to see the catalogs principal works .

It is the last of the great names of the Ukiyo-e and in particular of the Estampe which it will have led to an incomparable top before the decline of the Xylographie to the Japan at the end of a history which will have lasted only one century. Breaking with its Masters, Hiroshige is made the humble interpreter of nature, but he is a true magician when he expresses using the rough means of engraving on wood the delicate transparencies of the atmosphere in the course of the years in landscapes where the man is always present. Its page layout is seizing.

Shortly after the reopening forced of Japan to the exchanges with the Occident, it is mainly through the work of Hiroshige that the world discovers towards 1870 the astonishing originality of the Graphic arts in this country. The Japonisme will have a determining influence on the painters Impressionnistes and then on the Art nouveau.

Biography

General context: an artist falling under the period of decline of the ukiyo-e

The Ukiyo-e , in French images of the floating world was born in Japan at the 17th century within the urban and middle-class culture of the main city from the time, Edo, become Tokyo in 1868.

The technique of realization of these prints consists of a engraving on wood: the original drawing with the brush is practiced on a sheet of paper résitant very fine (minogami), stuck to back on a rather tender plank of wood (cherry tree, pear tree, often crossed in the section of the trunk what explains the limits of the format O-round of applause). This board matrix will be dug with the gouge to leave in relief only the features of the brush. From there one as many draws layers in black and white it will be necessary of colors. The artist determines on each layer the color corresponding to surfaces of clothing, foliages, seas, mountains, etc… One engraves then in the same way, starting from the layers in black, of the different boards corresponding to each future color. One prints the sheet of paper (hosho) to stamp by successively applying it (in a sequence pre-determined by the artist) to each board derived from the first, located on it, but encrée of a different color, and one slightly rubs wet paper with a special fiber plug " baren" (outside in sheet of bamboo), which requires an exceptional dexterity on behalf of the engravers and of the printers. By superposition of transparent colors (vegetable or mineral), one can obtain a great subtlety in tons starting from a number of colors limited. Yellow on more or less dark indigo produces a green, if one adds again the board of ochers to it to certain places, these places will take a color green-olive dark, etc… Sometimes the board of the blacks is used for the location of the colors, without being printed, the black being omitted, which produces an effect of watercolour to the Western one. For the effects of snow, one holds the white of paper, one adds mica spangles to it, one corrugates certain places with a not encrée board. These effects are particularly perceptible in certain late prints of Hiroshigé, where it employs in the last of the thick greens or the covering reds, for example, to make pass from the foliages in the foreground (e.g. board 52 " Akasaka kiribatake" of the 100 sights of Edo), over the feature black (or coloured) of the drawing. The skill of the printer while supporting more or less with its plug, produces the effects of ranges so often exploited for the sea, the sky, the gray of the backgrounds of snow, the fogs. The rain sometimes in stripes of black, sometimes reserved, was sometimes added again in white ink. That supposed between painter, engraver and printer an artistic close friend complicity. Those of the Hoeidô editor looked after particularly their work at the time of the first edition of the " Large Tokaido" and shown a phenomenal skill. Hiroshigé had become Master, like Hokusai and their contemporaries, in the exploitation of these subtleties, which will come to still complicate, after the relative renunciation of the vegetable colors to the fragile colors, use of opaque colors to aniline and the azo dyes come from occident. These reproductions on engraved wood being of a relatively weak cost, the series production was easy. But the boards wore quickly, one thus printed in advance several times each board as a paper version minogami, before the first tests " commerciales" , in order to regraver of wood new for later pullings. That explains why the first edition, engraved starting from the drawing of the artist, has often more smoothness than the later editions, even neat, regravées starting from the thicker feature, less " sensible" , of the tests of safeguard in black and white, whose black dribbled sometimes a little. (Moreover, when they were already famous withdrawings of series and which were sold well, it happened that one does not choose any more the best workman engraver of the workshop!) To this occasion, before withdrawing, it happened that the artist improves the print to improve the composition of it: p.ex. " Nihombashi" (Hoeido) where two different versions exist, as in some other boards of the series. One finds even three alternatives different in certain cases, and the starting version always is not successful. To satisfy the greatest number of amateurs, the painters varied the forms and the subjects: scenes of the daily life with Edo, sights of famous, prone sites historical, landscapes, flowers and birds, illustrations erotic.

The prints whose Japanese were fondest of delicacies at the time name:

Bijin-ga i.e. representations of courtesans, Geisha S or of waitresses of houses of The.
yakusha-e i.e. the representation of the most popular actors of the theater Kabuki .

In Japan, art becomes more and more extensive to reach its apogee at the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th century.

But following the reforms of the era Kansei, and vis-a-vis the foreign pressures which push Japan to be opened towards the outside world, the interior policy is forsaken and more no new impulse making it possible to regenerate the culture and Arts is given.

Later, with the advent of the era Meiji (1868 - 1912), Japan opens with the western world and in return this one starts to penetrate Japan. The Photography and the Lithography or the Engraving and the Oil-base paint, accommodated with enthusiasm, ring the knell of the ukiyo-e . Back in favor is done only with the movement of the “new engraving” ( Shin-Hanga ), as from the years 1910-1920.

It is in this context that Hiroshige is registered, but also its contemporaries Kunisada Utagawa (1786 - 1864), Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 - 1861), Kikukawa Eizan (1787 - 1867), Keisai Eisen (1791 - 1848) and most known among all Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849).

Beginnings

Utagawa Hiroshige, from its true name Ando Tokutaro , was born in the barracks from firemen from Yayosugashi, in Edo, where worked his/her father Ando Genemon in the capacity as officer of brigade.

The family of Hiroshige was titular of a hereditary load firemen. The barracks was located not far from the castle of the Shogun Tokugawa and its government, with which it was in charge of the monitoring.

It loses his parents very young person and almost simultaneously: initially his/her mother, and a year later, his/her father. It was then fourteen years old. Father who, after thirty-five years of service, came to bequeath to Hiroshige his load (it was thus thirteen years old). Charge that moreover, the painter holds until his twenty-seven years, moment when it bequeaths it in his turn with Nakajiro, its son or his uncle (the exact relationship forever been able to be established).

Before that, it held its function of fireman without too many difficulties insofar as the barracks were to protect from fire only the castle of the shogun. What left him time for its passion: the drawing.

A roller entitled Procession of the islanders of Luchu was found and certain experts allotted it to Hiroshige. It did not have whereas ten years. What is sure, it is that the shōgunat received in 1806 an ambassador of the islands Lechu come to pay homage to him. For those which had it between the hands, the drawing shows a particularly early talent.

As from ten years, it would be Okajima Rinsai (1791-1865) which will have taught him traditional painting Kanō.

One knows that, thereafter, it tried to integrate the school of Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825), one of the Masters of the print at the beginning of the 19th century and was refused.

On the other hand, at fourteen years, it is accepted in the workshop of Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828), which was at the origin of the development of the print of landscape and which it learned there the styles Kanō and Shijō . One year after (in 1812), it was honoured with the name of brush of Utawa Hiroshige. And in 1828, with died of its Master, it took again the workshop under the name of Toyohiro II.

Tatsujiro Nakamura in its book Hiroshige Wakagaki (the first works of Hiroshige) of 1925 shows named prints of 1822 Uchi to Soto Sugata Hakkei and Goku Saishiki Imayo Utsushiye representing portraits of women. However its work carries more the influence of Eisen than that of its Toyohiro Master.

Until 1829, it is devoted mainly to the portraits, just like its predecessors before him: women, actors, warriors.

But the death of Toyohiro and the fact that Hokusai already opened the way of the painting of landscape by making some a kind with whole share will open new prospects to him. The demand becomes keen for the representations of landscapes.

It begins its career of landscape designer with famous Lieux of the capital of the East in 1831-1832, but it is its series the fifty-three stages of the road of the Tōkaido which launches it and the immediate celebrity in 1833-1834 is worth to him.

An instantaneous success in the painting of landscapes

A sudden recognition

the fifty-three stages of the road of Tōkaido , collection of fifty-five prints represent the fifty-three stages which connected (the shōgunat) Edo to Kyoto, the imperial city (either cinquantre-trois intermediate stages for which it is advisable to add Edo at the beginning, and Kyoto on arrival)

The first edition is the bestseller of the ukiyo-e with a pulling of more than 10 000 specimens and been worth with Hiroshige the immediate fame in Japan as painter landscape designer ( Hiroshige had been renamed by its contemporaries: “the painter of Tōkaidō”), and later, in the whole world. It is its work more known and it was often reproduced or imitate since. In front of success, withdrawings have made being, other versions (ten) left, including or not certain boards, while adding, varying the presentations.

Context

Each year, a delegation went to Kyoto to pay homage to the emperor by offering a horse to him. On order of the shōgunat of Edo, Hiroshige is charged to accompany the government by Tokugawa making the tour and to fix on paper the important moments. On the way, it makes sketches which it once takes again and paints of return to Edo.

If the name is the Cinquantetrois stages and counts actually fifty-five prints, almost each edition comprises completely different boards for each stage. Thus the first Shinagawa stage comprises nine versions, new the Kawasaki second phase versions, the third stage Kanagawa eight versions etc

Reasons of success

At that time (years 1830), the trade and circulation developed quickly. The offer in means of transport such horses and Reef tackle S, as well as the offer in inns increased unceasingly. Pilgrimages with Ise, in Shikoku, as well as the pleasure trips became extensive, more especially as the governmental constraints were less heavy. But especially the town of Kyoto was the subject of a growing admiration. Hiroshige thus fell at the good moment.

For that, it is necessary to add the new attraction for paintings of landscapes, and this partly thanks to Hokusai.

Lastly, Hiroshige can sublimate the natural beauty of the country by using the style fukibokashi (allowing ranges by bands or an absence of reason) and there add “magic” by using the rain, snow, the moon and the fog. The lyric dimension of the prints as well as the quality of impression completed the whole.

As from this moment, it multiplies the voyages and the sights of landscapes famous.

An intense production directed towards the studies of landscape

Hiroshige will remain always faithful to Edo its birthplace: in 1840 or 1841, he lives in the street Ogacho, then in the street Tokiwacho and finally in 1849, he settles in Nakabashi Kano-shinmichi where he will die later. Obviously, it will not be satisfied to travel only inside Edo. From May in December 1841, it goes in the area of Kai, in 1852, in the provinces of Kazusa and Awa, and in 1854, it is sent second once on mission official to Kyoto.

Of his tours, one found inter alia his newspapers: Newspaper of voyage (of which a part with burned in 1923), Newspaper of voyage of the temple Kanoyama and Newspaper of the voyage in the provinces of Kazusa and Awa . These newspapers, the poems which it contain, as well as a certain humor prove that he was well-read man contrary with many artists of his time. It is also known that it drew some haiku illustrating its tables from a collection entitled Haiku of former Masters on five hundred subjects . This confirms that he appreciated poetry, liked to read it and write worms. A series ( Eight sights of the surroundings of Edo ) was ordered besides at the instigation of a poet (Tahaido) who financed the editions of a series (private then public) where its poems appear. It is also the case of the Eight sights of Omi which are accompanied by poems, and of a certain number of other series where poetic texts answer the image.

But especially it will draw a multitude from it from prints which will be gathered in collections: famous Places of Kyoto , Sixty-nine stages of Kisōkaidō , Eight sights of the lake Biwa , Hundred sights of Edo etc

It took care to select the best editors of the time, the best workshops of engraving and impression.

In its second part of career, it used more the format Oban (format more vertical, it makes approximately 39,5x26,8 cm), and used the depth of field while placing the characters in the foreground to create space reference marks.

It used much the style fukibokashi allowing the color gradations. In many polychrome prints, one can notice the use of the Prussian blue, which was worth besides the nickname of Hiroshige to him blue .

Extremely of 8 000 prints carried out during its life (high fork of the estimate - including/understanding a good number of prints in black and white -, difficult to establish with precision because of certain boards where one hesitates in attribution, even if they carry " Hiroshige ga" , signature taken again by at least two of its successors during a time of their career, which undoubtedly did not oppose the editors), it was devoted in very great part to two topics:

generally, landscapes;
in particular, Edo, its city, of which it made approximately a thousand of prints.

But Hiroshige was a painter with the eclectic talents as prove it its kachō-ga (paintings of flowers and birds), his series on historical fish, its scenes, etc

End of its life

Hiroshige was married twice. His first wife died in October 1839, whereas it had forty-three years. It took for second woman the girl of a farmer of the Niinomura village in the province of Yenshu. This one, which was sixteen years old less than him, died in October 1876, that is to say eighteen years after the death of Hiroshige.

At the end of its life, not poor, but not excessively rich either, he lived in a dwelling of five parts, worrying until the end if he could refund certain contracted debts. Undoubtedly it was not really attracted by the money or could not it manage it. One said of Hiroshige that it was epicurean, but the only sure things are that it liked the meals with the inn when it travelled and that it appreciated the Saké.

Hiroshige died of the Choléra the six September 1858, the epidemic killing approximately twenty-eight thousand other inhabitants of Edo. Little before its death, during the anguish, it wrote its last poem:

I leave my brush to Azuma I will travel towards the grounds of the West To observe the famous points of view of

there

Its last series, Fuji Sanj Rokkei was in the course of edition by Tsutaya. Its republication of the 6th month of 1859 comprises a text of Sankei Shumba “Hiroshige delivered its last drawings to the editor at the beginning of the autumn, before dying, saying that it was about an addition of all his talents of acquired artist of alive sound”.

Its pupils

Travelling, Hiroshige did not have much time to devote to the transmission of its talent and to train young pupils. He also thought that the students in Art should learn by them-even.

Nevertheless, it had of them some, of which:

Suzuki Morita (1826-69), his/her adoptive son and husband of his daughter. It took the name of Hiroshige II of 1858 to 1865, then after those of Shigenobu or Ryûsho. It took certainly part in the development of certain prints of the Master, of which some of Hundred sights of famous sites of Edo .
Ando Tokubei (1843-1894) which did not leave outstanding traces by its works except some kachō-ga and of the boards showing the transformation of the country under the Meiji era.

Selection of works with accompanying notes

Cinquante three stages of the road of Tōkaidō

In the area of Muromachi, close to Kitazume and Odawara, the fish markets called “kitchen of the citizens” were numerous. It is here, more precisely in the middle of Nihonbashi than the voyage starts. It is to raise it day, around seven hours of the morning, that the procession springs on the road of Tōkaidō and gets under way in direction West (see cartography of the voyage).

It is composed of a daimyō , preceded by servants with the standards. On the left, the fish salesmen crossed the bridge: they started the day very early and leave to go to sell the fish which remains to them in door-to-door. On the right, two dogs which perhaps eat the fish remainders given up on the spot.

It releases such a tension from this first print which it was sold at once very well, which obliged to remake certain worn boards. It benefitted from it to add various characters.

The way of Hakone paints here, 10th stage of the voyage, located between the inn Odawara and the Mishima inn, is the most impracticable and dangerous part of the way, and this for at least three reasons:

the travellers who passed there were obliged to cross deep valleys and to climb particularly escarpés collars.
the checkpoints at the borders, in charge of the defense of Edo were armed to the teeth.
the travellers were subjected to frequent controls what did not improve the facility of the tour.

At the bottom, one can see the Fuji mount, but what marks especially the attention remains the chromatic composition, very sharp, energetic, plentiful and coloured. This print (the green colors of the mountain indicate that it is about the second pulling) is certainly most expressive of the series of the fifty-three stages of the road of Tōkaidō. And in spite of this intensity of the colors, the lake downwards manages to bring a general impression of calm. Calm which was to be however relative for the travellers when one knows the wind and the cold which it was to actually make. Let us note that it remains in this print a spirit resulting from the tradition Zen (Chan) of the painters Chinese well-read men: the dash of the mountain which answers calm receptive of water is close to the spirit of the roller of Huang Gongwang " Dwellings in the mounts Fu Chuen" , a chief of work visible with the museum of Taipeh.

D' Edo, Hiroshige had already been able to admire with far the Fuji mount, but Hara located between Numazu and Yoshiwara offers the best point of view than one can imagine on the top, culminating point of Japan (3 776 m). In front of him the mountains Awata and Ashigara rise, as well as a top of the chain of Aitaka.

It knew to return the power and the height of the top with precision, the prospect being returned by the characters in the foreground, and the beauty by the black tops which surrounds it. (For this station, at Hiroshige, the top generally escapes the framework. But this lucky find was invented by Hokusaï, in a print in black of the Mangwa .)

In the plain, not far from the rice fields, one sees two will hérons and on the way, a man and two women. The women are the voyageuses ones, and the road being then regarded as dangerous, a servant accompanies them, carrying the luggage. The reason for the kimono of the man is inspired by the first two characters of the name of Hiroshige.

Though allowing a comparison thanks to the similarity of the covered subject ( the mount Fuji ) and even if it were painted at the same time, the table of Hokusai differs on several points. Although presenting a similar visual angle on the Fuji mount, the presentation of the mountain is not the same one. Hiroshige initially seeks to describe scenes of daily life, where indeed the Fuji mount appears in a recurring way, but with the distance and like an element of poetic, lyric decoration, representative of the beauty of the Japanese landscapes. Hokusai on the contrary makes an central element, organics of it and seeks to study it in itself by varying the counterpoints: morning, evening, rain, storm, wind… going until making a hundred different versions of it. The vision of Hokusai is to some extent closer to that of Claude Monet when it makes, for example, the series of the Cathédrales of Rouen an about sixty years later. With this close Hokusai brings (serenity of the " dieu" Fuji against flash of storm) almost always a epic kind of back thought, an imposing style, so that it represents, even when they are scenes " intimes" daily life or landscapes - that Hiroshigue treats with a humbler feeling, more poetic and subtle. Let us summarize: Hiroshige is in Hokusai what Schubert was in Beethoven.

This table at the falling night is all the opposite of the precedent: the mountains, the trees, the dwellings, etc all the elements are represented by a saving in colors, only remain some black lines revealing the layers of snow and by contrast, the forms which they recover.

The only coloured keys are there to represent the characters: on the left an inhabitant of the village and on the right two travellers. They are curved like protecting itself from the cold and the large flakes which one sees falling to the background.

Near to the littoral, Kamabara knows actually relatively lenient temperatures, and so it is considered that the snow which recovers all the landscape is only the fruit of the imagination of Hiroshige, which does nothing but prove its force when should be depicted the natural elements.

All these elements combined give to final great lyric intensity with the unit.

In a landscape completely covered by snow, a caravan of travellers ( in the center ) is climbing the escarpés sides of the mountain to go to the strong castle of Kameyama ( in top, on the right ), built in its top. It is a military fortress which is also used as lodging for the travellers. Nowadays, there remain only the ruins of the keep and a park.

It is known that Hiroshige visited this place, but it was in summer, consequently this landscape was creates a posteriori , starting from its memories, of its interior vision.

High Hiroshige the kachō-ga like an art with whole share

The Kachō-ga (art to represent the flowers and the birds) was always one of the topics of the ukiyo-e , but the number of prints had been restricted before the era Tenpō (1830-1844). It is only during this era that two artists (Hiroshige and Hokusai) really raised this discipline with the same row as the bijin-ga or the yakusa-e . If Hokusai showed interest for more realistic representations, Hiroshige preferred on the contrary to tackle the subjects in a more lyric way, more stripped, going to essence… a little with the manner of a haiku (which precisely generally accompanied its paintings by birds).

On the table opposite, the table is him also accompanied by a Haiku : “The wild duck shouts. When the wind blows, water surface wrinkles”. This poem, like the others which it used, is not him. In addition to this table, Hiroshige carried out three other illustrations of poems on wild ducks.

Print releases an impression from freezing cold, the curved reed under the poid of snow, water and the sky seems to merge. If the reed is coarsely drawn with the feather, the bird is beucoup more detailed, except for the bottom of the plumage where no color was applied.

This style of prints is called baka-in because of the signature. Indeed, while looking at attentively, the red square in bottom on the right, one realizes that Hiroshige with signed of a stag shika (on the left) and of a horse uma (on the right), which can also be read “ baka ” (by combining the two signs) and which means idiotic.

The series Snow, the moon and flowers

To separately see each image and in full screen: , and

The first table was painted in the fourth month, the second table in the seventh month and the third table in the eighth month of the fourth year of the era Ansei (1857), that is to say for the last, one year before its death which took place the ninth month of the fifth year of the era Ansei (1858).

If the words “snows” and “the moon” of the title of the triptychs are explained easily by the covered subjects, it is not the same for the word “flowers” since they do not appear nowhere. An explanation would be the movements, the scum of the Vue of Naruto and Awa which would form forms close to the flowers. Of course, it is about a summary symbolic system of the elements first to which Hiroshige was attached for the components of its landscapes: the mountain (the terrestrial tortoise - round forms of Kiso, but also universal death), the moon (the celestial inspirer - serenity), and " flowers of the mer" (birth, the swirl of the life, spring, always associated with flowering, in particular of the cherry trees at the edge of the Sumida river).

The three prints carry the same seal, but the titles are written in various characters: Kisoji into semi-cursive, Kanazawa in ideograms of the Ching era and Naruto into cursive. Three being in the spirit of the three quoted symbols, the ideograms evoking the solemnity and serenity of what is eternal, the cursive one, the speed, the flexibility and the metamorphoses constant of alive, and semi-cursive the daily solidity of the terrestrial life, of the life " intermédiaire" (between birth and end, the moon completing its course with the western ) that the white (color of dead) recovers unrelentingly in the long term.

For the first table ( Vue of Naruto with Awa ), if the mountains are relatively realistic and resemble European paintings - they remain however a subtle allusion to painters like Mou K' I and Wou Chen -, it is not the same for the description of water, much less realistic and definitely more stylized. That is undoubtedly with the fact that Hiroshige forever considering this landscape of its own eyes and would have imagined it. Undoubtedly it also made use of a handbook of geography of the time entitled famous Lieux of Awanokuni whose illustration very close to this print represented the island of Hadakajima , as well as the islands Tobishima and Nakanose , themselves surrounded by similarly drawn floods.

The second table ( Moonlight on Kanazawa ) shows for topic a landscape known for its beauty. Kanazawa is a district of current the Yokohama and was often painted by the artists of the ukiyo-e . It is extremely probable that being close to Edo, Hiroshige there went many times and knows the place well. The more so as one went there in pilgrimage.

Painting is close to the Western style. With a saving in means, Hiroshige knew to retranscribe the moonlight: the moon is a round where no color was applied, in top the blue of the sky grows blurred with height of the moon, and right in the top of the mountains, on the horizon, the remote fog is illustrated by a purple blue.

On the third triptych ( Neige in Kisoji ) what strikes it is:

the saving in color, the margins of the table are represented only by the dark sky in top and the river in bottom. The painter did not put any margin on the right or on the left, showing thus that the mountains, like the " way of the vie" who traverses them, stretch himself well beyond the table.
the massive aspect of the mountains which take almost all the space of the print.

The series Hundred famous sights of sites of Edo

This print was used as model in Vincent van Gogh when he sought to include/understand how the Japanese painters worked. ( for further details, to see the subparagraph treating of the influence of Hiroshige on Van Gogh )

All the foreground is occupied by a large plum tree, of which one sees only one part. With the background and as far as the eye can see, other plum trees in flowers. At the bottom of the decoration the small hardly outlined silhouettes of the visitors come are to contemplate the beauty of flowering. These outlines of people come to bring the counterpoint necessary to the tree of the foreground and make it possible to give depth of field.

The table emphasizes two colors: green of grass in the lower part and the red of the sky (the scene undoubtedly occurs to the rising sun or setting). Into the mileu is inserted an almost white band which comes to make the transition between the green and the red and contrasts with the very dark trunk of the foreground.

The pruneraie was located at Edo (Tōkyō), behind the Kameido-Tenjin sanctuary, celebrates for its glycines. It may be that the tree represented is that which was most famous of Edo, the Garyūume .

Nowadays only the stones of the ruins of the old villa “Pruneraie” come to point out the last splendor of the garden which was gradually left with the abandonment following a flood which has occurred in 1910.

Just like the preceding one, this print was used as model in Vincent van Gogh when he sought to include/understand how the Japanese painters worked. ( for further details, to see the subparagraph treating of the influence of Hiroshige on Van Gogh )

With the following one, it is about one of the most famous prints of Hiroshige.

The entire table represents a scene of violent rain on the Ōhashi bridge, close to Atake. On the bridge of people has a presentiment of itself and protect themselves from the rain, a man alone in a barge on Sumida is soaked and with far, on the bank, the houses are lost in the gray and are not distinguished almost more.

One distinguishes two tension fields in this table: the bank at the bottom which comes to reinforce the depth of field and which, for a horizon, is curiously not horizontal and the bridge which also is to him tilted energy of left bottom to the right half of the table. The originality lies here in the side sight of the bridge which does not make it possible to perceive the beginning or the end of it and gives the impression of stretching.

Using some Hiroshige artifices knew to describe with precision the outburst of the natural elements: the opaque mass of the clouds in top, color the gradations under the bridge, houses on the bank drowned in the oscurity, the features squaring the table which represent the intensity of the rain.

With the preceding one, it is about one of the most famous prints of Hiroshige.

In Edo, at the time where it was carried out (1857), certain districts had gathered around a trade in particular and bore a name directly in connection with the profession. Thus, this table represents the districts of the dyers of Kanda. Dyeing says konya in Japanese and the district bore the name of konyamachi .

Once the tinted fabric, it was to then be washed and dried. It is what is visible in this print: the pieces of fabrics are wide on driers and fly in the wind.

It was not rare that the painter has fun to slip his name into an element of the decoration of a print what is the case here since the fabrics are printed of both character “E” and “hiro” for Hiroshige.

With the background two important components appear: the castle of Edo where Hiroshige was formerly attached in the capacity as fireman and all to far, the Fuji mount.

The influence of Hiroshige on the Western painters

As from the years 1860, Far East, and in particular Japan, become a source of important inspiration (colors, prospects, composition, subjects, etc) for the western world and will cause to renew in-depth the Art S and the Architecture of the European countries, period of the Japonisme. With the opening of Meiji, the relations of exchange intensify with Japan. An example often quoted and of importance is the participation of Japan in the World Fairs of 1862 to London, and 1867,1878 and 1889 in Paris. In the Japanese house, the visitors discover many objets d'art, in addition put on sale at the end of the exposures. The general public is interested in it quickly.

But it is by the means of the private collectors (Samuel Bing, Felix Bracquemond and Japanese Hayashi Tadamasa), of the literature (Edmond de Goncourt wrote two monographs on Japanese painters: Outamaro in 1891, Hokusai in 1896 and had envisaged eleven others of them before its death, including one on Hiroshige) and of the “Japanese dinners” (joining together Edgar Degas, Louis Gonse, Edmond de Goncourt, Felix Bracquemond, etc) that the painters will know Japanese works, among which appear (inter alia) the prints of the painters of the ukiyo-e .

Many painters will find a source of inspiration there, consolidating their own vision (Camille Pissarro: “The Japanese artists confirm to me in our party taken”) or modifying their vision of painting. Thus will be influenced American Whistler (the Princess of the Country of the Porcelain), Henri of Toulouse-Lautrec (his posters, its signature), Paul Cézanne (the Holy-Victoire mountain), Paul Gauguin (the series on Tahitiennes), etc

But it will be also the case of two painters of first order, themselves collectors of hundreds of prints: Vincent Van Gogh, the artist who was influenced the most by Japan and Claude Monet.

The influence on Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is doubtless the European painter more influenced by Japanese painting. In some portraits ( Agostina Segatori with the coffee testify to the Tambourine , the portraits of the father Tanguy, Italian: nevertheless adapted to the Western mode), but also its Irises very strongly inspired by Hokusai ( Iris and cicada of 1832 for example), its trees, etc

Amateur of prints, it collected of them several hundreds, of which twelve are of Hiroshige.

During the summer 1887, it retranscribed three Japanese prints literally:

the Courtesan according to Kesai Eisen (1790 - 1848). Strictly speaking, the reproduction represents only the woman on ocher bottom, Van Gogh having added the thick edge decorated with a pond decorated with water lilies and stems with bamboo. It had found the image as a cover for a number of the magazine set of themes Paris Illustré in 1886 (number prepared by Hayashi Tadamasa).
the Plum tree in flowers and a bridge under the rain according to Utagawa Hiroshige (see reproductions opposite), which it had.

Admiring and praising the dexterity of the Japanese artists, he wrote with his brother Théo: “Their work is also simple to breathe and they make a figure in some sure features with same ease as if it were as simple as to button its waistcoat”.

It is that in the good company, the effect of mode japonisante brought to be dressed in Kimono S , to install folding screens in the living rooms, to initiate itself with the ceremony of the.

Van Gogh goes much further. During its stay in Antwerp, it decorates its room in the style with the Ukiyo-e , to Paris it goes to the store of the collector Samuel Bing, and present at spring 1887, the coffee of the Tambourine with Montmartre, an exposure of Japanese prints collected with his Théo brother.

The purpose of the imitation of three caused works was to impregnate Japanese style. As from this moment there, Van Gogh will affix on her fabrics of the colors often not mixed and especially will see in the prints a justification with her own use of the black, quasi banished by the other painters Impressionniste S. He will reintroduce the eigenvalue of the feature to delimit plans or objects, and to give them strength. In addition to the subjects, it will be also inspired by the use of space by the Japanese painters, of the promptness which in the table the curves and the twists (Cfs print. Swirls of Naruto, torsions of the pines and the trees in general, the clouds, even of rock sudden appearance, these " veins of Dragon" underlying the composition of Hokusai like famous the Vague ), of dialectical between here and over there (particularly exploited by Hiroshige with its foreground which pushes back the distances) and of the Eastern prospect air, exits, for the Japanese painters, of the spirit of Zen.

The influence on Claude Monet

It is proven that Claude Monet was largely inspired by the Japanese painters: it took part in the “Japanese dinners” organized by Samuel Bing, speaking about Japanese Art with other painters and writers, cotoyait Hayashi Tadamasa, went to the gallery Durand-Ruel to Paris in the years 1890… And its tables feel some. One of the most obvious evidence is certainly the portrait of his first wife (Camille Doncieux) equipped as a Japanese woman (see illustration), but generally it took again to the Japanese artists certain plays of color, certain topics, the movement, framing. On the other hand, it is doubtful that it took up the idea directly (easy idea, however largely widespread) of its series (cathedral of Rouen, haystacks, poplars, the Thames in London, Venice, etc) with the Japanese painters, for the reason which its ambition was extremely different. Where Japanese represents a place by various points of view (see the Trentesix sights of the mount Fuji of Hokusai for example), at different times, and makes play the hours of the day, the natural elements (snow, rain, wind, storm), Monet prefers to paint a place under the same angle (or almost), per same hour, concentrating on the manner of representing the atmosphere, environment, the light and of retranscribing the fugacious emotions felt at the time of painting (even if some took weeks and the emotion to him being retranscribed a posteriori ).

Monet was influenced by the Japanese painters generally, certainly, but its two references were primarily Hokusai and Hiroshige. If one feels the influence of Hokusai for the water lilies, if that of Hiroshige arises on the representations of bridge (the “physical” model being the Japanese bridge that Monet had settled in its garden of Giverny) or of poplars (see comparative illustrations), it is not in these anecdotic vicinities of composition that it is necessary to stop: overall, it is the type of attention which the Japanese painters gave to the world, the landscapes, the plants, to the people, it is the concern of the psychological climate, the variability of the vision according to the moment and the mood, which impregnated it. Monet, (or Whistler) and the Impressionists in general, is, through the lesson of the painters of prints such as Hiroshigé, through the ukiyo-e , become particularly sensitive so that the vision of the present changing world reflected human being, in moments invaluable, irreproductibles, but fixable by Article They learned from the Japanese images that it could exist a mode of expression able to renew their painting, this " vision of the world flottant" , a capable mode of expression to translate and to fix, paradoxically, in a new way subtleties of the variations of the human heart.

Works

Collections of prints of famous landscapes

Places of the capital of the East ( Louse Meisho ), 1831-1832 and 1833-1843.
Twenty-eight sights of moonlight ( Tsuki Niju Hakkei ), 1832.
Fifty-three stages of Tōkaidō ( Tokaido Gojusan No Uchi ), 1833-1834 for the 1st edition, followed by ten other editions going of the end of the year 1830 to 1857
Images of famous sites in Osaka ( Naniwa Meisho Zuye ), 1834.
Sixty-nine stations of Kisokaidō ( Kiso Kaido Rokujuku Tsugi ), 1834-1842
Eight sights of Omi ( Omi Hakkei-No Uchi ), 1834? , then 1847-1852 and 1857.
Seen of Kyoto ( Kyoto Meisho ), 1834-1835
Six rivers Tamagawa ( Ginsekai Louse Ju-nor-kei ), 1835,1837 and 1857.
Eight sights of kanazawa ( Kanazawa Hakkei ), 1835-1836.
Seen famous of snow, the moon and flowers ( Meisho Setsugekka ), approximately 1846.
famous Restaurants of the capital of the East ( Louse Komei Kaiseki Zukushi ), 1852-1853.
Thirty-six sights of the mount Fuji ( Fuji Sanju Rokkei ), 1852 and 1858.
Seen famous of the sixty provinces ( Rokujuyoshu meisho zue ), 1853 - 1856.
Hundred sights of famous sites of Edo ( Meisho Yedo Hiakkei ), 1856-1858.
Fights between mountains and seas ( Sankai Mitate Zumo ), 1858.

Prints representing of the people

Eight sights comparing of the women and their dreams ( Soto to uchi sugata hakkei ), 1821.
decorative Papers according to the hundred poets ( Ogura nazora-e Hyaku-nin isshu ), 1845-1849.

Triptychs

Seen famous of Edo ( Edo Meisho ), 1830.
Snow, the moon and flowers , 1857.

Prints on nature

Series of Poisson ( Uwo-zukushi ), 1832.
a selection of ten flowers ( Tosei Rokkasen ), 1854-1858.

historical Prints

Tales of Genji in fifty four chapters ( Genji Monogatari Gojuyojo ), unknown date.
the Warehouse of honesty ( Chushingura ), 1836.
history of the revenge of the brothers Soga ( Soga Monogatari Zuye ), 1848.

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