A Bridge

A Bridge follows the canons of eighteenth-century picturesque landscape imagery. The drawing has an academic quality which sets it apart from other sketches executed during Whistler's Rhineland tour, and the actual site has thus far eluded identification. The scene recalls a heavy stone bridge at Mayence, and similar bridges at Bingen and Coblentz were painted by Turner earlier in the century. Whistler could also have created a composite or imagined scene. Whistler drew with a soft lead, and then sharpened details with a harder pencil, while smudging in shadows with his finger. What is most interesting about the drawing is Whistler's consistency of vision. Although he soon abandoned such academic designs, he remained interested in river banks glimpsed through the arches of a bridge. Later etchings, like London Bridge, (F1898.358) as well as drawings and watercolors are based on such a composition.