Artists
Three masters of ukiyo-e

Masters of the floating world.

Three generations of one school: landscape with Hokusai and Hiroshige, the figure with Utamaro. All three worked for the popular print of Edo.

No. 01

Katsushika
Hokusai.

Japan · 1760 – 1849

Hokusai spent his life pursuing a single thing: the true line. « At seventy-three I have come to understand a little of the structure of nature », he wrote, convinced that real mastery would come only after a hundred years. The Great Wave, its claw of foam held above the boats, was born of that stubborn patience.

Medium
Nishiki-e woodblock print, full colour · Ink and colour on washi paper
Works
Three prints
Exhibitions
4
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No. 02

Utagawa
Hiroshige.

Japan · 1797 – 1858

Hiroshige is the poet of rain and snow. Where Hokusai sought structure, he sought atmosphere: the slanting downpour that streaks the sky, the evening mist, the silence of a bridge under the storm. His skies, graded from dark to light, invented a weather of their own in print.

Medium
Nishiki-e woodblock print, full colour · Ink and colour on washi paper
Works
Three prints
Exhibitions
4
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No. 03

Kitagawa
Utamaro.

Japan · vers 1753 – 1806

Utamaro turned the female face into a landscape. A master of bijin-ga, the portrait of beautiful women, he gave up the setting for the close-up, isolating a gesture, a sidelong glance, the nape bared by the chignon, and brought the genre to an unprecedented psychological intensity.

Medium
Nishiki-e woodblock print, full colour · Ink, colour and mica on washi paper
Works
One print
Exhibitions
3
View artist
The collection

Beyond these three names, the gallery follows the whole Edo school: surimono, illustrated books, period reissues. Write to us for a specific search.

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