Kunisada 53 Stations of the Tokaido


Book Description

The 53 Stations of the Tokaido by Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 12 January 1865) is both a tour through the landscape of Japan and a cultural introduction. But first of all it is a fashion magazine about beautiful, young and stylish Japanese women in 1838. These young beauties were one of the subjects Kunisada excelled in. Kunisada show beautiful girls from all walks of life, explorers and adventurers, musicians, theater stars, imperial concubines, country girls, business women. They all have beauty and great fashion taste as the common denominator. His landscapes were a means of circumventing censorship especially of theater prints and pin-up prints of pretty ladies, bijin-ga. The work is probably one of the most romantic of all the Tokaido series.




Hokusai 53 Stations of the Tokaido 1804 Horizontal


Book Description

Hokusai ́s 53 Stations of the Tokaido 1804 horizontal is something completely different from his first square edition 1801 and second edition 1802. Hokusai completely changes his style compared to the three previous series, 1801, 1802 and 1804 vertical. These designs are "clean" and a precursor for his famous 36 Views of Mt Fuji some 30 years later. In this series Hokusai focus on wonderful folkloric scenes of ordinary people going about their work, in addition to the travel scenes. Hokusai further develop the themes, touristic curiosities and landscapes that were to become a standard for later generations of Tokaido series. It was a great and beloved contribution to the Tokaido literature, which Hokusai dominated for some 30 years and this series is also much loved in the West.




Hokusai 53 Stations of the Tokaido 1802


Book Description

Hokusai ́s 53 Stations of the Tokaido 1802 is something completely different from his first square series 1801. Hokusai here employs the horizontal "landscape" format and abt the double size of his square 1801 series. In this series Hokusai focus on wonderful folkloric scenes of ordinary people going about their work, in addition to the travel scenes. Hokusai also begins to develop the landscapes that were to become a standard for later generations of Tokaido series. Hokusai develops the concept of the Tokaido print from cartoon to folklore and the beginning of landscape. He builds on a b/w guide, Tokaido meisho zue from 1797, ISBN 9781956773316. It was a great and early contribution to the growing Tokaido literature, which Hokusai dominated for some 30 years.




Hiroshige 53 Stations of the Tokaido Aritaya


Book Description

All the way through Hiroshige follows certain design principles of proportion of elements, arranging elements and views by diagonals and parallels and balancing of color elements. Compared to most of his other Tokaido series Hiroshige in Aritaya focus on letting the landscape tell the story instead of letting people or legend do that, although this is not followed through completely.




Hokusai 53 Stations of the Tokaido 1801


Book Description

Hokusai ́s 53 Stations of the Tokaido1801 is something completely different! It is his first. It is different from his famous 36 Views of Mt Fuji, which are sublime artistic expressions distilling a long life ́s work. It is different from much of Hokusai ́s other well known work, like his 100 Views of Mt Fuji. But in that series Hokusai still retained a lot of the humor and the caricature found here. It is different from the many other well known 53 Stations of the Tokaido in that Hokusai does not focus on the landscape and the markers that Hiroshige and others showed. Instead Hokusai focus on the events, the interactions between the travellers, the tales that you will share with your friends when you get back home. It was a great and earlier contribution to the Tokaido literature.




Yoshitaki Kunikazu Nansuitei Yoshiyuki 100 Views of Osaka


Book Description

Viewing Osaka through the series 100 Views of Naniwa (Osaka) is an amazing experience. It is a well executed repetition over a format by Hiroshige. Some add a Famous to the title. All 104 prints in the series are included here. This series is by three artists, Utagawa Yoshitaki, Utagawa Kunikazu and Nansuitei Yoshiyuki. Hiroshige I created his revolutionary series 100 Famous Views of Edo over three years, 1856-1859. This led to the publishing of copy series 100 Views of Naniwa (Osaka) by other artists. The book here is based mainly on prints in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Osaka Municipal Museum collections.




Keisai Eisen A Tokaido Board Game of Courtesans Fifty-three Pairings in the Yoshiwara


Book Description

Keisai Eisen (1790 -1848) is especially known for his bijin-ga, pretty women, and landscapes. He is well known for his participation in the series 69 stations of the Nakasendo together with Hiroshige. The series A Tokaido Board Game of Courtesans, Fifty-three Pairings in the Yoshiwara use the Tokaido with landscape inserts as an excuse for showing courtesans and geisha, bijin-ga, to skirt the censorship. It was published 1821-1823. His bijin-ga are considered to be masterpieces of the "decadent" Bunsei Era (1818-1830). Most of them have impressive hairdo with many ornamental hairpins and combs. Their dress is extravagant with beautiful patterns and sublime embroideries. Their faces are elongated squares with long noses and small pouted painted mouths. Courtesans were desirable for their rich and splendid attire, not so much for their beauty and their names were actually like trademarks for a series of girls performing the same name role with the brothel in question.




Hiroshige - Kunisada Two Brushes Tokaido


Book Description

The cooperative work between Hiroshige and Kunisada (1854 -1855) is probably the most romantic of all the Tokaido editions. Both Hiroshige and Kunisada did their own individual versions with the same type of theme - a combination of landscape and often unrelated portraits based in legend and other motifs. But they did not rise to the level of elegance of the "Two Brush" Tokaido. The figures and the landscape are very well balanced and the colors are fresh and joyful. The "Two Brush" Tokaido is both a tour through the landscape of Japan and a cultural introduction. The reason for the combination of landscape and theater was to circumvent censorship of the popular kabuki theater prints.




Joaquín Sorolla Portraits 3


Book Description

Joaquín Sorolla (born in Valencia 1863 - died in Cercedilla 1923) is one of the most successful Spanish painters ever. He was a genius in capturing the essence of the scene he was painting. In Joaquín Sorolla Portraits 3 1911 -1920 Sorolla paints still paints many important portraits although in the course of preparing for his grand masterpiece "The Vision of Spain", which hangs in the Hispanic Society of America, he did not have the same amount of time available. Sorolla also indulged in painting gardens as relaxation from the gigantic "The Vision of Spain" project. The portraits provide a deep and interesting look into both American and Spanish society in this period. In his early years Sorolla often showed social realism, in his culmination period showed the increasingly wealthy sitters that came to him and in his final period he is a celebrated portraitist of rich Americans and a cultural and political elite in Spain.




Kunisada 53 Stations of the Tokaido


Book Description

The 53 Stations of the Tokaido by Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 12 January 1865) is both a tour through the landscape of Japan and a cultural introduction. But first of all it is a fashion magazine about beautiful, young and stylish Japanese women in 1838. These young beauties were one of the subjects Kunisada excelled in. Kunisada show beautiful girls from all walks of life, explorers and adventurers, musicians, theater stars, imperial concubines, country girls, business women. They all have beauty and great fashion taste as the common denominator. His landscapes were a means of circumventing censorship especially of theater prints and pin-up prints of pretty ladies, bijin-ga. The work is probably one of the most romantic of all the Tokaido series.