{"product_id":"hiroshige-asakusa-ricefields-cat-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival, 1857 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA white cat sits on a windowsill with its back to us, looking out. Beyond the lattice: rice fields, a line of low roofs, geese in the sky and Mount Fuji, small and pale. On the sill behind the cat lie a hairpin and a folded paper — the room is a brothel in the Yoshiwara, and the guest has left at dawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige tells the whole story by leaving the people out. It is the most quietly modern picture in the series: a framed view, a foreground object cut off by the edge, an animal standing in for everyone who is not shown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, the gift of Chester W. Wright, and it is an early, unfaded pull: the indigo band along the top is deep, the pink dawn light above the horizon is intact, and the greens in the fields have not gone yellow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 35.9 × 24.8 cm \/ 14.1 × 9.8 in — Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.7× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is exactly the ōban format a buyer in Edo held. Enlarged, the cat is the size of a real cat and the woodgrain of the block comes up through the sky — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eAsakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mōde)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1857; colour woodblock print, ōban, 35.9 × 24.8 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Chester W. Wright, Acc. No. 1961.147.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65757020553565,"sku":"MUS-013-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65757021962589,"sku":"MUS-013-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-asakusa-ricefields-plate.jpg?v=1788193710","url":"https:\/\/museartis.com\/products\/hiroshige-asakusa-ricefields-cat-giclee-print","provider":"Museartis","version":"1.0","type":"link"}