|
Ando
Hiroshige (1797-1858) is famous Japanese painter and Ukiyo-e maker. His
main works were landscapes, like "100 famous places of Edo" and "53 stages
of Tokaido". The last great figure of the Ukiyo-e, or popular, school of
printmaking, he transmuted everyday landscapes into intimate, lyrical scenes
that made him even more successful than his contemporary, Hokusai.
Ando Hiroshige was born in Edo (now
Tokyo) and at first, like his father,
was a fire warden. The prints of Hokusai are said to have first kindled in
him the desire to become an artist, and he entered the studio of Utagawa
Toyohiro, a renowned painter, as an apprentice. In 1812 Hiroshige took his
teacher's name (a sign of graduation), signing his work Utagawa Hiroshige.
His career falls roughly into three periods. From 1811 to about 1830 he
created prints of traditional subjects such as young women and actors.
During the next 15 years he won fame as a landscape artist, reaching a peak
of success and achievement in 1833 when his masterpiece, the print series
Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (scenes on the highway connecting Edo
and Kyoto), was published. He maintained this high level of craftsmanship in
other travel series, including Celebrated Places in Japan and Sixty-nine
Stations on the Kiso Highway. The work he did during the third period, the
last years of his life, is sometimes of lesser quality, as he appears to
have hurriedly met the demands of popularity. He died of cholera on October
12, 1858, in Edo.
With Hokusai, Hiroshige dominated the popular art of Japan in the first
half of the 19th century. His work was not as bold or innovative as that of
the older master, but he captured, in a poetic, gentle way that all could
understand, the ordinary person's experience of the Japanese landscape as
well as the varied moods of memorable places at different times. His total
output was immense, some 5400 prints in all.
|
 |
