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View through the arch of a bridge

Maker

(artist)
1782-1842

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1834

Medium

graphite on heavy wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 15.4 cm
Width: 24.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3862

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

voussoirs

Label Text

Cotman's lifelong interest in architecture finds full expression here in his use of the arch of a bridge as a framing device for a vista down the river Thames. The presence of what appears to be a typical red-sailed Thames barge inthe right middle-distance would provide firm evidence of the location, as does the inscription referring to 'King's College', for Cotman taught at King's from 1834 (the college is sited on the north bank of the Thames). The massive stone arch is presumably a span of London Bridge, which had been rebuilt in 1823-31, and was the last downstream bridge until Tower Bridge was built between 1886-94. Cotman uses a soft black pencil to describe the stark outlines of the windmill, shipping masts and sailing barge silhouetted against a darkening evening sky.

Provenance

Beaux Arts (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours, Manor House Museum, 1966

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, American Federation of the Arts, Washington, D.C. and nine cities in the USA, 1951

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949 - 1950

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 13

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949-50
no. 13

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower right, graphite, signed: "Cotman Kings College".

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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