Hiroshige 2023. From the Collection of Feliks ‘Manggha’ Jasieński

The Manggha Museum is holding an exhibition focusing on one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), who largely contributed to changing the visual language of Western art in the 19th and 20th centuries and the rise of the phenomenon known as Japonisme. The Feliks ‘Manggha’ Jasieński Collection comprises nearly two thousand woodblock prints of his design.

Even though Hiroshige came from a samurai family, he rather identified with the urban culture of Edo. The artist was famous primarily for his numerous landscape series, especially The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi), One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (Kisokaidō rokujūkyū tsugi no uchi). He was a true master at depicting landscape at various times of the year and the day, in changing weather conditions. He continued to experiment, developing original ploys in pictorial composition, new devices with respect to the treatment of space, and intriguing ways of representing reality.

The exhibition Hiroshige 2023: From the Collection of Feliks ‘Manggha’ Jasieński showcases three dominant topoi in the artist’s work – Nature, the Road, and Places – which interweave into a timeless statement. They are accompanied by significant motifs relevant to contemporary art and popular culture. There is also a biographical element, referring to Hiroshige’s samurai background, considered in the context of his prints depicting famous Japanese heroes, notably the 47 ronin in the series The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Chūshingura).

The exhibition is complemented by a space illustrating the artist’s influence on landscape painting in the Young Poland movement.