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), Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi), from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857
- Object
- Colour woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban, 37 × 25.4 cm
- Held by
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection
- Accession
- 1981.1206 (AIC object 64447)
- File
- The museum's own IIIF endpoint, 6772 × 9886 px
- Crop
- [121, 106, 6666, 9704] → 6545 × 9598 px, ratio 1.4665
- Printed at
- 40 × 50 cm sheet: image 25.23 × 37.00 cm, original size, 1:1 — 659 dpi available
50 × 70 cm sheet: image 42.00 × 61.59 cm, 1.66× — 396 dpi available
Which impression, and why this one
The rain on this sheet is cut, not drawn: two sets of fine diagonal lines from two separate blocks, laid across the whole picture. A worn block breaks those lines, and a faded impression loses the deep blue of the river underneath them. Chicago's is an early, unfaded pull with the lines intact — which is why we print it rather than the Metropolitan's, whose sheet is both faded and digitised about two and a half times smaller in each dimension.
Vincent van Gogh copied this composition in oil in 1887, framed by invented Japanese characters. He was working from a cheap print, not a masterpiece; what he wanted was the rain.
What we measured
The printed block runs 6545 × 9598 px in the museum's file, a ratio of 1.4665 against the catalogued 1.4567 — the width of a hand-trimmed edge. The cream paper margin and the collector's seal outside the block are left out; nothing of the picture, the title cartouche or the publisher's seals is lost. Print files built at a flat 300 dpi, nothing enlarged in software.
What we are allowed to sell
The work. Hiroshige died in 1858 and the sheet was published in 1857: 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 7.39 cm each side, 6.05 above, 6.95 below.
- 50 × 70 cm sheet
- A 50 × 70 cm frame. Nearest standard 20 × 28 in. Margins 4.00 cm each side, 3.91 above, 4.50 below.
- If you mat it
- Go one frame size up and cut the window three millimetres inside the printed image on every side. 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