The record behind the sheet in your tube: the file we worked from, what we measured, which impression we chose and why, what we are allowed to sell, and the framing dimensions for this sheet.
The sheet you have
- Work
- Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Peacock and Peonies, 1830s
- Object
- Colour woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōtanzaku panel, 38 × 17.5 cm
- Held by
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Accession
- 1943.633 (AIC object 47519)
- File
- The museum's own IIIF endpoint, 5300 × 11312 px from a native 5310 × 11333
- Crop
- [104, 120, 5200, 11200] → 5096 × 11080 px, ratio 2.1743
- Printed at
- 40 × 50 cm sheet: image 17.12 × 37.22 cm, original size, 1:1 — 756 dpi available
50 × 70 cm sheet: image 28.52 × 62.00 cm, 1.67× — 454 dpi available
Which impression, and why this one
Hiroshige is remembered for landscapes, but he made hundreds of bird-and-flower panels, and they are the sheets where his colour is boldest. This one turns on three things that fade in order: the flat teal ground, the two strengths of pink in the peonies, and the metallic blue in the eyes of the tail feathers. Chicago's impression has the teal even and unfaded and the peacock blue intact. The poem in the upper left belongs to the design, not to the catalogue.
A narrow picture on a standard sheet
An ōtanzaku panel is about 38 by 17.5 centimetres — a ratio of roughly one to two — and fits no standard frame of its own. Rather than invent a non-standard sheet, we centre the panel on the house sheets with wide side borders: about 11.4 cm of white at each side at 1:1. That is the widest margin in the shop and it is deliberate. A tall narrow picture floating in white is what the format was for. The enlargement is limited by the sheet height, not the width.
What we measured
The printed block runs 5096 × 11080 px, a ratio of 2.1743 against the catalogued 2.1714 — a difference of 0.14 %. The scale is anchored on the catalogued sheet height of 38 cm. The four corners were checked at 1:1: no chamfer, no torn edge, so nothing is trimmed inward; the bare paper inside the crop is the picture's own white.
What we are allowed to sell
The work. Hiroshige died in 1858 and the panel was published in the 1830s: public domain in every market we ship to.
The photograph. The Art Institute of Chicago publishes images of public-domain works under Creative Commons Zero, for any purpose including commercial use. Taken from the museum's own endpoint.
What we do not claim. A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. Not a woodblock print, and not sold as one.
Framing this sheet
- 40 × 50 cm sheet
- A 40 × 50 cm frame, no mat. Nearest standard 16 × 20 in. Margins 11.44 cm each side, 5.94 above, 6.84 below.
- 50 × 70 cm sheet
- A 50 × 70 cm frame. Nearest standard 20 × 28 in. Margins 10.74 cm each side, 3.72 above, 4.28 below.
- If you mat it
- On a panel this narrow a mat rarely improves matters — the printed border is already doing that work. If you cut one, keep the window three millimetres inside the printed image. Do not trim the sheet.
Please measure before you buy or cut. These figures describe the file we print from. Sheets are cut by machine to about a millimetre and frames vary between makers. We replace a print that arrives damaged or wrong; we cannot replace a frame or mat that turns out not to fit.
All records: museartis.com/pages/sheet-records · Questions: info@museartis.com