Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paperexpand_more
Gift of Mrs. Carl W. Jones in Memory of Her Husbandexpand_more P.13,718
This composition became famous in the West because Vincent van Gogh made a copy of it in oils in 1887. Western painters like van Gogh admired ukiyo-e artists’ intimate views of nature and their focus on ordinary people—evident in this image of townspeople rushing across Ōhashi bridge to escape a sudden shower. The ominous clouds and the postures of the hapless people on the bridge suggest that the rain has just started. Atake, on the far shore, is rendered in gray tonalities that convey the obscuring effect of rain and the dim light of a cloudy evening sky. To achieve such remarkable results, Hiroshige collaborated with superb craftsmen. The soft, irregular shape of the low-hanging dark clouds reveals the care taken by the printer, and the extremely fine lines representing falling rain attest to the extraordinary skill of the carver.
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