Artwork of the Week: December 8
Delicate flakes of snow dance across this wintry scene. A deep blue watercolor highlights the Kanda River in this print, which flows through the region of Ochanomizu, meaning “water for tea.” Though twilight approaches, the sky retains a sliver hue as the last glimmer of light reflects off the freshly fallen snow. The stormy sky ushers in a winter night and a chill gradually descends upon the villagers as they approach shelter. Two women clutch their thick, cotton garments close to their chests while a man in the foreground huddles along the path, accumulating snow on his hunched back. Cropped at the waist, this figure and the empty space on the path invite the viewer to join the procession through the frozen night.
This tranquil woodblock print was created by the renowned Japanese artist, Ando Utagawa Hiroshige. The technique he uses here, ukiyo-e, derives from the Buddhist term ukiyo, which expresses the fleeting nature of life. Impressionist painters and printmakers of the Western world, such as Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt, resonated with capturing the transience of everyday life, and also created masterpieces that explored this topic. This woodblock print, created near the end of Hiroshige’s life, captures the changing society of the Edo period in Japan, lasting from the early 17th to the late 19th centuries.[MB1]
