From Cotman to Monet, Bridges, Aqueducts, and Roman Aqueducts in Art, Paintings, and Photography

You may think that a bridge is just a structure that goes from here to there by the shortest available route. Bridges are perhaps little more than short cuts across rivers, roads, railways and estuaries, yet somehow they are more than just the sum of their parts. They are functional objects, yet we have learned to appreciate them on an aesthetic level. We know their importance so we celebrate them in art and literature....... 'A Bridge too Far', 'The Bridges of Madison County', 'The Bridge Over the River Kwai', the list goes on and on.

This is an article about the bridges and aqueducts that have been celebrated and immortalised by artists through the centuries. Some, like Monet's bridge over the lily pond at Giverny, are decorative and contrived, whilst others, like Edward Willis Redfield's 'Brooklyn Bridge at Night' are more imposing and functional. Whilst other structures are torn down, replaced, and modernised, bridges tend to endure.

I like to think of bridges in a metaphorical sense. We 'burn our bridges', or we 'mend bridges' or we 'bridge the gap', or we 'build a bridge'. Bridges are about joining together. They exist as a geographical convenience, but also as a link between dreams and reality.

This would have been a fairly new structure when Monet painted it in 1874. The railway itself was still a recent innovation back then, and what a change it must have wrought on the late Victorian era. Suddenly even those too humble to own horse-drawn transport, could travel long distances in comfort and style.

Claude Oscar Monet was born in Paris in November 1840, and died in Giverny, France in 1926. During his long life, he will have seen great changes to the world around him. The advent of the  railway and the motor car both put an indelible mark on the landscape. Later in his life he will have seen the earliest airships and aeroplanes, and experienced the horrors of the first World War.

This tranquil painting of the railway bridge has a strangely modern feel about it, perhaps because this bridge, and others very like it, are still part of the landscape today.

Alfred Sisley painted several views along this stretch of river, and as you can see from this photograph, it's still an attractive place to paint and take photos. Some of the buildings in Sisley's painting have either been altered or replaced since 1888, but the old bridge remains unchanged.

Vincent Van Gogh painted several of the bridges in this region in the 1880s, but many of the original structures have been replaced over time. In 1962 this replica of the bridge of Langlois was built 2km south of the site of the original, as this photograph by Guido so beautifully shows, though sadly, the vivid yellow paintwork is not in evidence.

Utagawa Hiroshige (sometimes known as Ando Hiroshige) was born in 1797 and died in 1858. He was a Japanese artist specialising in the Japanese ukiyo-e tradition of painting.

From 1833 to 1834, Hiroshige undertook a 300 mile journey along the Tokaido route, visiting the 53 Stations where weary travellers were able to obtain food and lodging on their travels.Shukuba, as these stations were known, were post stations established during the Edo Period in Japan, and were mainly located on one of the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes. Hiroshige went on to publish the illustrations he made along the road, giving dates and locations, and recounting anecdotes told to him by fellow travellers. The series was very popular and went into several re-prints.

The Falls Bridge painted by McGubbin in the 1882 was subsequently rebuilt and renamed. Queens Bridge photographed above by Bidgee, stands on the same stretch of the river, and was built in 1889. There's quite a contrast between old Melbourne, and the modern city.

Abramtsevo is an estate located north of Moscow in the proximity of Khotkovo, that became a centre for the Slavophile art movement in the 19th century. It was here that the artist, Ilya Repin (1844-1930) created some of his loveliest and most evocative works, including this glorious study of a lady crossing a ricketty bridge in a woodland setting.

John Sell Cotman (16 May 1782 – 24 July 1842) was an artist of the Norwich school and an associate of John Crome. He was born in Norwich, England and worked primarily in watercolour but also produced architectural etchings and drawings. His carefully observed and meticulous paintings have a very serene feel to them, like this example, painted in Cumbria in1805.

Frederick Oakes Sylvester(1869-1915) was an American artist. His rendering of this St Louis bridge at night is very atmospheric and Impressionistic. The bridge is still as attractive today, as this contemporary photograph ably illustrates.

120 years have passed between the creation of the two images shown above, but many of the features shown in Seurat's picture can still clearly be identified in JrPol's more contemporary photograph. Georges Seurat (1859-91) painted a number of scenes in and around Port-en-Bessin.

Claude Monet arrived at his new home, Clos Normand in Giverny, France in 1883, and he lived there until his death in 1926. During his time at Giverny, he landscaped the gardens to provide him with wonderful scenes to paint and enjoy. Not least of these was his famous lily pond and Japanese bridge. The house was eventually inherited by Monet's son Michel, who, on his own death in 1966, bequeathed the house and gardens to L'Academie des Beaux Artes. After a long period of restoration during which the famous bridge had to be completely re-built, the property was eventually opened to the public, and can now be enjoyed by everyone.

Paul Cézanne (19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist, born in Aix-en-Provence, France. His highly characteristicl post-Impressionist style of painting forms a bridge between the Impressionism of Renoir and Monet, and the later Cubist innovations of Picasso and Matisse. Cézanne's often repetitive, clearly defined brushstrokes were used to build up planes of colour indicating form and mass, that would then, often be given distinctive linear outlines. It was a new way of painting and of expressing the landscape, and Cezanne's work influenced the development of many of the great 20th century artists.

Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist who helped to found the Hudson River art movement of the mid-19th century. Cole's paintings are mainly landscapes executed in a Romantic and naturalistic style, and many of his works were completed during lengthy trips to Europe. This Roman aqueduct is a typical example.

Cotman's fine watercolour drawing of Chirk Aqueduct in 1804 was made before the railroads carved their routes across the British countryside. The Aqueduct enabled the Llangollen canal to cross the valley at a convenient point in this hilly terrain near the Welsh-English border, and the railway sensibly followed suit some years later, as the 2005 photograph clearly shows.

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) was born in Paris to British parents, and, despite applying to become a French citizen, he remained British until his relatively early death aged 59. An early associate of the Impressionist artists, Frederic Bazille, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Sisley became famous for his wonderful landscape paintings which he preferred to paint 'en plein air' as far as possible.

This painting of the Marly Aqueduct is typical of his choice of subject matter, and the suggestion of bright sunlight baking the huge edifice is strengthened by his use of orange and red on the walls. I particularly like the small figure of a horseman in the foreground. I think it gives even more emphasis to the grand scale on which the aqueduct was built.

Louis XlV's grand palace of Versailles is famous for it's fountains, as was once the smaller palace at Marly. The huge quantities of water required to maintain these fountains needed to be brought to the palaces via aqueduct, and the Marly aqueduct, whose ruins still stand today, was completed in 1684. The Marly aqueduct was, however, only a component of the overall system. The famous Marly machine was designed and built at a nearby location to take the waters of the Seine 163m higher, and a series of 14 huge water wheels, together with 221 pumps were put into action. It was a marvel in it's day, and although the high cost of up-keep and maintenance of the machine proved too difficult to justify in the long-term, elements of the system remained in use until 1817.