Hiroshige: Atake: a sudden summer shower on the Great Bridge over the Sumida (Ôhashi Atake no yûdachi) (Sold)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige
Title: Atake: a sudden summer shower on the Great Bridge over the Sumida (Ôhashi Atake no yûdachi)
Series: One hundred famous places of Edo (meisho Edo hyakkei)
Date: 9/1857

The New Great Bridge, Shin Ôhashi was completed in 1693, the name “new” refering to the existing Ôhashi (later Ryôgoku Bridge) to the north. Atake of the far bank was named after a gigantic bakufu ship, the 1,500-ton Atake-maru, which was moored in front of the shogunate boathouses here on the far left bank from the 1630s until it was dismantled in 1682.The scene of yûdachi, an evening descent of the thunder god, is a smummer rain in which the heavens suddenly darken late in the day, releasing torrents of rain in large drops, and then quickly clear. The dramatic scene is depicted by fine technique in a refined composition.The irregular pattern of the black clouds above manifests a rare degree of the spontaneous hand of the printer, differing visibly from one print to another. The torrent of rain is depicted by an overlay of black on gray at slightly different angles of straight lines. On the river below a boatman poles his log raft. On the bridge there are hasty movements of seven people who quickly cover themselves with whatever they have .This print is considered as the masterpiece of the series, and Vincent van Gogh depicted this scene in an oil painting in 1888.

later edition

Dimensions: oban vertical
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: H. Smith II: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, New York 1986. ill.58
Seal: Censor’s:aratame; date:9th month in Year of Snake
Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIR021