Ando Hiroshige

(1797 Edo -1858) Japanese printmaker. Considered along with Hokusai the premier printmaker of the first half of the nineteenth century. His father was a smaurai and fireman. When he was twelve both his parents died. At fourteen, he was accepted at the famous Utagawa painting school, run by the ukiyo-e master Toyohiro Utagawa.

In 1818, at the age of twenty-one, Hiroshige published his first book of illustrations. He continued to create prints, mostly commissions for book illustrations, in the traditional style learned from Utagawa. Then in 1830 he began producing landscape prints. One of his great masterpieces is the series Tokaido gojusan-tsugi no uchi created from 1833 to 1834 with 55 prints in oban format. The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (rest stops along a coastal highway) became the basis of Hiroshige's fame and commercial success. For the next twenty years he concentrated on landscape prints.

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is considered as one of his greatest masterpieces.During his lifetime, Hiroshige was well known and commercially successful. However, Japanese society was not impressed and he did not receive the acclaim of other artists popular at the time. It wasn't until he was discovered by the Europeans, that his international and artistic reputation took off.

Hiroshige died at the age of 62 of cholera, leaving behind an estimated 5,400 prints, making him one of the most prolific artists of ukiyo-e.