Bamboo Quay by Kyobashi Bridge (Kyobashi Takegashi)
A selection of Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock prints are on exhibit in The School of Art’s Wakeley Gallery now through February 11, 2021. Each print is a small world to lose yourself in during these trying times.
These and other woodblock prints are part of IWU’s Campus Art Collection.
From the exhibition guide:
In Hiroshige’s groundbreaking series of woodblock prints, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido (1832-1833), he captured the journey along the Tokaido road, the highway connecting Edo to Kyoto, the imperial capital.
Hiroshige’s prints continue to convey the beauty of Japan and provide insight into the everyday life of its citizens during the Edo period. The appeal of his tender, lyrical landscapes was not restricted to the Japanese audience. Hiroshige’s work had a profound influence on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists of Europe: Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated with Hiroshige’s daring diagonal compositions and inventive use of perspective, while Van Gogh literally copied two of Hiroshige’s prints from the famous series, 100 Famous Views of Edo in oil paint.