Hiroshige 広重: Koume Embankment 小梅提 (Deluxe, “First” Edition) (SOLD)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 広重 (1797-1858)

Title: Koume Embankment 小梅提

Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei) 名所江戸百景

Date: 2/1857

Two women cross a wooden bridge towards the Koume Embankment, their figures as much a part of the landscape as the other elements of the scenery. Two children who seem immune to the cold are playing with puppies in the foreground. A few leaves cling to the trees on the rightmost bank. Hiroshige’s quiet genius is most evident in these deluxe works from this series as our eye is led on a gentle journey of exquisite balance and harmony as it follows the paths that cross in his characteristic diagonals throughout the design. Hiroshige himself wrote this praise of a similar view in Ehon Edo miyage “Although the scenery is not at all that special, the flow of the water in the canal stretches out like along obi sash, and the farmers till the fields extending into the distance, giving it an indescribable sense of elegance and secluded repose–a perfect place to spend one’s last years.” We can see that Hiroshige is feeling his own mortality, yet appreciating the rich beauty of the landscape that surrounded him. He has captured perfectly the elegance and emotion of his own description of the scene. From the deluxe edition (also called the first edition), with the notable characteristic of the bold blue that glows with rich, azure depth in the center of the canal and serves as an anchor to the rest of the design. The square portion of the cartouche even features blindprinting. Number 104 in the series.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.  Dimensions: ôban (36 x 24.4 cm)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: Henry Smith II: “Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous View of Edo”, plate 104. See Brooklyn Museum, MFA Boston, Art Institute of Chicago, RISD Museum, Chazen Museum of Art. Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIR571