Untitled

Utagawa Hiroshige

1840s–early 1850s · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

In his prints, Hiroshige used the unprinted white paper to represent snow, a technique also exploited in this painting, in which unpainted silk, reserved against the pale ink wash, suggests the snow-covered areas. Slightly bleeding ink creates the impression of fluffy snow, and snowflakes were rendered with splashes of opaque white pigment. By contrast, the figure's partially revealed red undergarment intensifies the white. Hiroshige's early works, of the mid-to late 1820s, depict slouching, long-faced women, while his later works present tall beauties in landscape settings, as in this scroll, made in the 1840s or early 1850s.

Artist

Utagawa Hiroshige

Date

1840s–early 1850s

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936