Utagawa Hiroshige was born in 1797 and was a Japanese artist who produced over 8000 pieced of art.
Hiroshige greatly influenced many other artists, even after he had died. One of them included, Vincent Van Gogh. He created several copies of Hiroshige's work. He created his own versions of the art, 'Sudden shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge', calling his version the 'Bridge in Rain', and 'The Plum Garden' which he named 'Flowering Plum Tree'.
It was between the late 1820's and the early 1830's that Hiroshige began creating artworks of landscapes, instead of famous actors. It was at this point that his artwork took a sudden change in direction which lead to him creating the landscape series called the 'Famous Views of the Eastern Capital'. Landscape prints is what made him the most famous and recognised.
When looking at Hiroshige's work I came across a video that shows David Bull (a wood carver) and Ayumi Ohashi (a printer), recreate one of Hiroshige's work using the original print making method. I found this video really interesting as it contained the entire methodology and work that goes into producing that print, with an in depth narration throughout.
The reason why I wanted to research the work of Utagawa Hiroshige, was because of the time, effort and patients required to create a piece of print work.
Below are some pieces that caught my eye when I was flicking through some of his work.
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