Utagawa Hiroshige – Wild Duck in Snow, 1830s | Framed Giclée Print

A wild duck swims along a snow-covered bank. Above it the reeds bend under their own load of snow; below, the water is a deep, even blue with white flakes falling across it. The bird is the only warm thing in the picture — buff and brown against the cold — and it is drawn with the economy of someone who had watched ducks for a long time.

The format is ōtanzaku, a tall narrow panel of about 38 by 17 centimetres, the shape used for poem-slips and for pictures hung in the narrow space between two posts. The snow is not painted on: it is the bare paper, left unprinted, with the blue laid around it.

What this is. 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.

Scale
Original: 38.2 × 17 cm / 15.0 × 6.7 in — ōtanzaku, Art Institute of Chicago
40 × 50 cm / 15.7 × 19.7 in — original size, 1:1. Image 16.63 × 37.35 cm.

Provenance
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), A Wild Duck Swimming by a Snow-covered Bank beneath Snow-laden Reeds, 1830s; colour woodblock print, ōtanzaku, 38.2 × 17 cm.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection.

Where this comes from
The museum file, the measurements, and what we are allowed to sell: the record for this sheet.

The frame
Giclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks, white border. Slim black aluminium frame, glazed with clear plexiglass instead of glass, so it travels safely. Print and frame ship together in one package and are assembled on arrival. Part of the Hotel Collection — volume pricing from ten pieces.