Hiroshige: Landscape, Cityscape : Woodblock Prints in the Ashmolean Museum

Illustrated discussion of over 50 prints from the Ashmolean Museum's collection serving as an introduction to the life and work of Utagawa Hiroshige. The art and process of Japanese wood-block print making is also covered.

Hugely popular in his own day and an enormous influence on Monet, van Gogh and other leading European artists, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 1858) has never lost his appeal. A prolific artist, he produced between 4,000 and 5,000 woodblock print designs. He is particularly renowned for his landscape prints, which are among the most frequently reproduced of all Japanese art in both Japan and the West. Hiroshige''s unusual compositions, humorous depictions of people involved in everyday activities and masterly expression of weather, light and season, are explored in this publication with its especially fine printing and experts'' notations. It is part of a series featuring the depth of the Japanese art holdings at the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford, the world''s first university art museum. The gems of information are numerous, including a page on "how to read a print" -- with such as a note on "the censor''s mark," a detail that only the cognoscenti might recognize. The book adds greatly to the art lover''s knowledge and pleasure. 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.