The Sumida River in Winter (Fuyu, Sumidagawa), from the series "Views of the Four Seasons in Famous Places (Meisho shiki no nagame)"

The Sumida River in Winter is a print from Utagawa Hiroshige's series Views of the Four Seasons in Famous Places, dated to 1840 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago (object 56240). Across his career Hiroshige treated the Sumida as the principal stage of Edo's river life, and in this Meisho shiki no nagame design he gives the river its winter face. The water runs as a broad horizontal band through the lower part of the sheet, with snow-laden banks rising on either side and bare trees standing against a graded sky. Small boats and figures along the embankment provide a sense of continued human activity even in the cold season. Snow is built up through reserves of unprinted paper supplemented by gray bokashi washes, and the dominant palette is muted indigo, gray, and warm brown. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the composition typifies Hiroshige's later approach to seasonal city scenes: a balance of empty river, accented banks, and middle-distance figures held together by the soft tonal logic of a winter day. The Meisho shiki series, less famous than One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, is an important precursor in his development of seasonal famous-place portraits, and this winter Sumida sheet is one of its most concentrated and harmonious designs.