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), A Wild Duck Swimming by a Snow-covered Bank beneath Snow-laden Reeds, 1830s
- Object
- Colour woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōtanzaku panel, 38.2 × 17 cm
- Held by
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Accession
- 1952.338 (AIC object 77322)
- File
- The museum's own IIIF endpoint, 5050 × 11135 px from a native 5060 × 11157
- Crop
- [96, 104, 4944, 10992] → 4848 × 10888 px, ratio 2.2459
- Printed at
- 40 × 50 cm sheet: image 16.63 × 37.35 cm, original size, 1:1 — 740 dpi available
50 × 70 cm sheet: image 27.61 × 62.00 cm, 1.66× — 446 dpi available
Which impression, and why this one
Almost half of this panel is unprinted paper standing in for snow, and the rest is a narrow range of greys and browns that a tired impression flattens into one tone. Chicago's copy keeps the separation — the bank, the reeds and the water read as three different things — and the paper is still light enough for the snow to be snow.
What we measured
The printed block runs 4848 × 10888 px, a ratio of 2.2459 against the catalogued 2.2471 — a difference of 0.05 %, the closest agreement in the collection. The scale is anchored on the catalogued sheet height of 38.2 cm. The four corners were checked at 1:1 per our trimming rule: no chamfer, no torn edge, and the bare paper inside the crop is the picture's own white — the snow. Nothing is trimmed inward.
A narrow picture on a standard sheet
An ōtanzaku panel fits no standard frame of its own, so it is centred on the house sheets with wide side borders — about 11.7 cm of white at each side at 1:1, the widest in the shop. 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 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 11.69 cm each side, 5.88 above, 6.77 below.
- 50 × 70 cm sheet
- A 50 × 70 cm frame. Nearest standard 20 × 28 in. Margins 11.20 cm each side, 3.72 above, 4.28 below.
- If you mat it
- On a panel this narrow a mat rarely improves matters. 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