1854
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Snowy Garden is a 1854 by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Impressionism work, depicting Snow, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see three women building a huge snow rabbit while a man and woman stand nearby in a quiet garden. This print is actually two artists working together. One drew the people and the rabbit; the other, Hiroshige, painted the snowy trees and sky. It’s based on a popular graphic novel from the time, like a comic book scene frozen in ink. If you like how the snow feels soft and real, look up *sfumato*.
These prints depict an episode from A Rustic Genji , a Japanese graphic novel based on the 11th-century classic The Tale of Genji . Three maidservants are making a giant snow rabbit while the protagonist of A Rustic Genji, Ashikaga Jiro Mitsuuji, stands in the snow with a woman who is possibly his lover. Stylistic hallmarks tell us that Utagawa Kunisada was responsible for the figures and the giant snow rabbit and Utagawa Hiroshige designed the background landscape. This collaboration—both artists signed the prints—on a Genji -related work targeted a broader audience by capitalizing on each…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重) or Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重), born Andō Tokutarō (安藤 徳太郎; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
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