The Coming Thunderstorm, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four Seasons

Description

The Coming Thunderstorm sends diagonal traces of wind and rain across Kitagawa Utamaro’s scene as figures work with an awning beside a doorway. A family crouches beneath its shelter. The coming thunderstorm gives an ordinary setting an immediate practical urgency, bringing different bodies into relationship through the effort to secure cover against changing weather.

Published in 1801, the woodblock image uses ink and color on paper and belongs to an illustrated book. Its seasonal setting gives the moment a place within a changing world rather than treating weather as an isolated spectacle. Utamaro makes the prospect of a storm part of the scene’s human interest. The work’s appeal lies in that interval before arrival, where familiar surroundings can acquire new urgency as the atmosphere begins to alter.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.