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Hiroshige's Fans

The Guimet Museum presents for the first time in France until May 29, 2023 a unique set of prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) intended to adorn fans. Made between the 1830s and 1850s, they are among the rarest and most elaborate of the work of the artist, one of the last great image makers in Japan of the Edo period.

Thomas Morand. Deux femmes dans la forêt. 1870. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Hiroshige. Feuille d'éventail. Collection Georges Leskowicz

A seasonal and ephemeral accessory, the flat bamboo fan (uchiwa) became popular in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868) and became one of the mediums for expressing the creativity of the masters of the pictorial school. japanese ukiyo-e. First sold during the summer by peddlers or in temporary stalls on the occasion of festivals, the fans of Edo were offered from the end of the 18th century on the front of merchants of prints and illustrated books. , when they began to be signed by famous artists.

Hiroshige made more than six hundred and fifty prints intended to adorn this everyday accessory. The exhibition presented on the 2nd floor of the Guimet Museum invites you to discover the great graphic creativity as well as the favorite themes of the artist, through a selection of some ninety works, among the most beautiful of the Georges Leskowicz Collection. , the largest private collection of Hiroshige fan leaves.


Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet 6, place d'Iéna

75116 Paris


In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the French 19th century...



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