1797 -1858 · Edo, roads of Japan and ukiyo-e landscape

Oblique rain, silent snow and bold framing make Hiroshige the incomparable poet of the Japanese landscape.

Utagawa Hiroshige was born in Edo, present-day Tokyo, in 1797 and died there in 1858. Son of a fire brigade officer, he briefly inherited this office before devoting himself to prints. Around fifteen, he entered Utagawa Toyohiro's studio and received his artist name. His first works represent actors and beauties, but landscape soon became his major domain. The success of the Fifty-three Stations of Tokaido, published in the 1830s, was due to the combination of recognizable places, ordinary travelers and changing climates. In Kanbara, the evening snow absorbed noise and simplified the village into white, gray and black masses. The pouring rain of Shouno is rendered by diagonal lines that make travelers run. In the Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a late series in vertical format, Hiroshige multiplies the cut foregrounds, the plunging views and the seasons: a plum branch frames Kameido's garden; the downpour on Shin-Ohashi transforms bridge, river and silhouettes into a meteorological moment. His images are designed with engravers, printers and publishers, according to the collective work of polychrome wood. Produced in thousands of copies, they circulate widely and influence Monet, Van Gogh, Whistler and modern Western composition. Hiroshige makes travel and time a shared poetic experience. The "Utagawa Hiroshige" selection notably compares Sudden Downpour on the Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Evening Snow in Kanbara. His reading favors color.

Hiroshige deals with what passes: a curtain of rain, a trace in the snow or a branch is enough to renew the world.