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Memorial Portrait of Utagawa Hiroshige

Memorial Portrait of Utagawa Hiroshige

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Utagawa Kunisada

Kunisada was the last third-generation Utagawa-school artist, and he created memorial portraits for both Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Memorial prints were commonly published for popular kabuki actors during the nineteenth century but they were rare for ukiyo-e artists until the Utagawa school, clearly demonstrating the level of fame achieved by its major members. This work sensitively depicts the artist dressed in priestly attire holding Buddhist rosary beads. On the outer robe is Hiroshige’s artist seal of Hiro. Kunisada’s signature includes the inscription “while thinking of him we shed tears,” along with the Buddhist seal that means “life is a mere puff of smoke.” The text on the print is a brief biography of the artist by the author Tenmei Ryojin. Hiroshige’s final death poem concludes the text: Higashi michi e Upon the Eastern Road, hitsu o no koshite leaving my brush behind; tabi no sora I travel upward to the sky nishi no mi kuni no to see places of fame mei tokoro o in the Western Paradise.
Artist
Utagawa Kunisada
(Japanese, 1786 - 1864)
Title
Memorial Portrait of Utagawa Hiroshige
Date
9/1858
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
367 x 251 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2637
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 157, no. 141
  • Schlombs, Adele. "Hiroshige: 1797-1858." Koln, Germany: Taschen, 2007. p. 47
  • Herwig, Henk, and Joshua S Mostow. "The Hundred Poets Compared: a Print Series by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei, 2007. p. 25
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 258

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008

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