Hiroshige
(1797-1858), Japanese painter and printmaker,
known especially for his landscape prints.
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 craftmanship 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.