Plum Garden at Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"
Medium
Color woodblock print; ōban
Dimensions
36 × 24.4 cm (14 3/16 × 9 9/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
26577
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This print is one of Utagawa Hiroshige’s most recognizable designs due to its innovative composition and unexpected colors—especially the reddish sky. The tree filling the composition was the most famous tree in Edo (now Tokyo), said to resemble a sleeping dragon. The image was famously copied by Vincent van Gogh in 1887 in his painting Flowering Plum Orchard (After Hiroshige).
About the Artist
Utagawa Hiroshige · 1826–1869
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), born Andō Tokutarō, was the last great master of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking and one of the most influential landscape artists in history. Born in Edo (modern Tokyo) into a low-ranking samurai family serving as fire wardens, Hiroshige transformed landscape printmaking into a poetic meditation on nature, weather, and everyday life. His revolutionary approac...