Ukiyo-e · 1857
Utagawa Hiroshige 1797–1858
Brooklyn Museum · New York
Travellers are caught by a downpour on a great wooden bridge — slanting rain that Van Gogh would later copy in oils.
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Watch the first minute here. The full film, with the painter, the history and a close reading of the details, is in Hear Art.
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Chapter 1 of 7
You are looking at a single unremarkable moment — a summer shower over a Tokyo river crossing — turned into one of the most influential prints ever made. Hiroshige published this in 1857 as part of One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and within decades Van Gogh had copied it in oil, awestruck by its radical simplicity.
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