While Ronin Gallery’s selection is on a much smaller scale – 15 works – it does give the opportunity to buy a print by Utagawa Hiroshige, a stand-out name in the world of ukiyo-e, the Pictures of the Floating World art which flourished from the 17th-19th centuries.
The prints on show in Hiroshige – Poet of Travel, from September 12-October 13 (Mon-Sat), concentrate on landscapes, seascapes and nature studies. Prices range from $5000-35,000+. Works include Shono from the series 53 Stations of the Tokaido (1833-34) and Plum Garden at Kameido from 100 Famous Views of Edo (1856-58). The exhibition will be on view in the gallery and online. Ronin Gallery is a family-owned Japanese and east Asian art gallery. Founded in 1975 in the Explorers Club Mansion, it is now located on Madison Avenue and 49th Street.
On June 1-2 Sotheby’s Hong Kong offered a collection of Japanese woodblock prints from the estate of the late John Payne. Hiroshige’s classic Sudden Shower over the Ohashi Bridge, Atake from the series One Hundred Views of Edo achieved a premium-inclusive price equivalent to £112,000, “second only to the world record achieved by Sotheby’s for the same print in London, 2005”.
