Hiroshige II: Snow at Kiso Gorge in Shinano Province (Sold)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826-1869)
Title: Snow at Kiso in Shinano Province
Series: One Hundred Views of Famous Places in the Provinces (Shokoku meisho hyakkei)
Date: 1859

Two travelers ascend the vertiginous snow-covered path along the famous Kiso Gorge in Shinano Province. The snow-covered cliff faces drop straight down to the icy Kiso River that races below. Behind the cliffs we see only a snippet of the evening sky. The path seems to emerge out of the mountain itself, as the entry point is hidden from the viewer. The Kiso Road made up the central part of the Nakasendo (also called the Kisokaido), an important travel route that ran between Edo and Kyoto. Shinano Province is now Nagano Prefecture. One of Hiroshige II’s best designs, from his most celebrated series.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Clean, with large margins and deluxe mica on the surface of the print. Faint purple writing and 2 hinging remnants on verso on top margin.
Dimensions: ôban (37.3 x 25.3 cm)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: See BM, MIA, Chazen, MFA for their examples. Mathew Welch & Yuiko Kimura-Tilford, Worldly Pleasures, Earthly Delights: Japanese Prints from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2011, p. 335, no. 292.
Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HSC105S