Page 357 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

Claude Monet’s Monkey Bridge 215
UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)
Koyo Saruhashi no zu (The Monkey Bridge in Kai
Province)
Woodblock print, signed Hiroshige hitsu, published by Tsutaya
Kichizo (Koeido)
Vertical oban diptych: 14º x 9¬ in. (36.2 x 24.4 cm.) each
approx. (2)
$80,000-90,000

PROVENANCE:
Claude Monet, Giverny
Michel Monet, Giverny (by descent from the above)
Rolande Verneiges, France (gift from the above)
Christie's Hong Kong, 25 November 2017, lot 130
The "Monkey Bridge" is one of the rarest of Hiroshige's
masterpieces and is considered to be the finest in the
vertical-diptych format. The design is thought to have
been completed soon after his journey in 1841 along the
Koshukaido, the road from Edo (Tokyo) to Koshu (Kai
province) near Lake Suwa on the Kisokaido. Another
impression of this image is in the Tokyo National Museum
and is a registered Important Art Object.

For other impressions, see Suzuki Juzo, Hiroshige (Tokyo:
Nikkei shinbun, 1970), no. 154; Vignier and Inada,
Utamaro... Hiroshige-Estampes Japonaises...Et Exposeés au
Museé des Arts Décoratifs en Janvier 1912 (Geneva: Minkoff
Reprint, 1973), pl. LXXIV, no. 281; Yamaguchi Keizaburo,
et al., Hiroshige, Ukiyo-e taikei, vol. 11 (Tokyo: Shueisha,
1974), no. 179; Tokyo National Museum, Tokubetsuten
ukiyo-e (Special exhibition of ukiyo-e) (Tokyo: Tokyo
National Museum, 1984), pl. 654, registered Important Art
Object; Matthi Forrer, The Baur Collection: Japanese Prints,
vol. 2 (Geneva: Collections Baur, 1994), pl. G529; Ota
Memorial Museum of Art, Utagawa Hiroshige ten: Seitan
nihyakushunen kinen (The exhibition of Utagawa Hiroshige:
The 200th anniversary of his birth) (Tokyo: Ota Memorial
Museum of Art, 1996), pl. 121.

Claude Monet, photographed in 1899