Utagawa Hiroshige
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 -1858)
歌川広重
Ukiyoe artists of the late Edo period.
Born in Edo, the son of a regular fireman's assistant.
He lost his parents when he was 13 and was forced to take over as a fireman's assistant at a young age, but his natural love of painting made him dislike the family profession, and in 1823 he handed it over to a relative and devoted himself exclusively to ukiyoe.
He became a pupil of Utagawa Toyohiro.
The following year, in 1812, Toyohiro already allowed him to take the name Utagawa Hiroshige.
He also studied the Kano school, Nanga and the Maruyama-Shijo school, and developed a wide-ranging painting style that also incorporated Western painting styles.
He first painted beauties, but was inspired by Katsushika Hokusai to turn to landscapes, and in 1831 he published the series To-to Meisho (Famous Places of the Eastern Capital), followed by the masterpiece Tokaido Gojusantsugi (The 53 Stages of the Tokaido), which sealed his reputation as a landscape painter.
His work also influenced Claude Monet and Van Gogh in Europe.
