Towing a Barge in the Snow, from the album The Silver World

Date:: 1790
Medium:: Woodblock print; oban
Format:: Oban
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

$3,000–$500,000+. Snow and night scenes tend to command premium prices for this artist. Key value factors: Utamaro's finest works feature mica-ground backgrounds and individualized portraits. Condition of the delicate mica surface dramatically affects value.

Description

"Towing a Barge in the Snow, from the album The Silver World" is a ukiyo-e landscape print by Kitagawa Utamaro, created during the Edo period. This atmospheric composition captures a specific place and moment with the poetic sensibility that characterizes the finest Japanese landscape prints.

The snow scene demonstrates Kitagawa Utamaro's mastery of atmospheric effects, using the white of the paper itself as a compositional element while layered color blocks create the subtle interplay of light and shadow across the frozen landscape. The quiet stillness of the scene evokes mono no aware — the bittersweet awareness of impermanence that runs through Japanese aesthetics.

This print represents Kitagawa Utamaro's contribution to the ukiyo-e tradition during the Edo period. As with all works by this artist, it reflects both individual artistic vision and the broader cultural moment in which it was created. For collectors and admirers of Japanese printmaking, it offers a window into the sophisticated aesthetic world that produced some of the most beloved images in art history.