UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE: ACT VIII

拍品描述

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE: ACT VIII By Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797–1858), signed Hiroshige ga Japan, c. 1835-39 Color woodblock print on paper. Set inside a frame, behind glass. Horizontal oban. Signed Hiroshige ga, censor’s seal: kiwame; publisher: Izumiya Ichibei (Kansendo). Title Hachidanme (Act VIII), from the series Chushingura (The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers). The journey of Tonase and her daughter Konami from Yedo to Yamashima to find Rikiya. Behind them, by the roadside, stands the trunk of a huge pine tree, wreathed with an autumn-tinted creeper, while a woman stoops to tie up Konami's sandal. Behind Konami follows their porter, and behind him again is another traveler mounted on a packhorse, led by a coolie. In the background, over a wooded hill, appears the cone of Fuji, white against a blue sky. SIZE of the sheet 24 x 37.5 cm, SIZE incl. frame 37.5 x 52 cm On the right, Tonase and her daughter Konami travel on foot from Edo to Yamashima to meet with Rikiya in the hope of reaffirming the betrothal of the young couple. Instead of the usual setting of the rocky seacoast near Tago Bay, Hiroshige provides a background similar to landscapes in some of his Tokaido images. Mt. Fuji is in the background, and Hiroshige adds other travelers who would be present on the popular Tokaido Road journey. As the two women pause briefly, Konami seems to wonder if her love will last longer than the snow on Mt. Fuji. Utagawa Hiroshige (also referred to as Ando Hiroshige)is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, having created 8,000 prints of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. Much of Hiroshige’s work focuses on landscape. Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige took a softer, less formal approach with his Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833–34), completed after traveling that coastal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Hiroshige’s prolific output was somewhat due to his being paid very little per series. Still, this did not deter him, as he receded to Buddhist monkhood in 1856 to complete his brilliant and lasting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–58). He died in 1858, 10 years before Monet, Van Gogh, and many other Impressionist painters became eager collectors of Japanese art. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related print, with similar seals, at Sotheby’s, Japanese Woodblock Prints: Including the Sokolov Collection, 28 May 2021, London, lot 84 (sold for GBP 2,772 or approx. EUR 4,100 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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