bridge

The Ryogoku bridge–the Brooklyn Bridge of Tokyo? Week 15, Tuesday

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Bridges do seem to be particularly print-o-genic, judging by the number of prints that I have found of bridges. Of course, the Brooklyn Bridge is particularly iconic–and there are a lot more excellent pictures of it than of most of the other NY city bridges (which is why I picked it for the week-long series) . Some of that reflects its age, of course–it’s the oldest of the East River crossings and one of the oldest in NYC that’s still in use.

When flipping through images from Hokusai’s famous series The 36 Views of Mount Fuji, my eye was caught by the print Sunset across the Ryogoku Bridge from the bank of the Sumida River at Onmayagashi. With this print, as with many others, there were many editions, printed from reproduced blocks, with different inks, over decades. Not surprisingly, the colors vary tremendously. I looked at a number of editions of this print, and finally honed in on one that seemed to capture all the colors well. Almost all of the them had rich blues and greens, but the orange-pink of the sunset was barely visible in most. (Perhaps that color faded more quickly than the other colors?)

When I started reading about the Ryogoku bridge, there were many references and numerous pictures spanning the centuries. It is one of many bridges in Tokyo, but it dates back to the 17th century. I think it qualifies as a reasonable analog to the Brooklyn Bridge. I am not proposing to do a week of prints of the Ryogoku Bridge (though there are more than enough to do months!), but in addition to the one print that I was planning to share, I will include a few others.

In the original Hokusai Sunset print, I love the texture of the water aft of the boat, as well as how the sunset diffuses out behind the bridge, the mountain and the distant land.

If you have clicked through to the WordPress blog, then you can click on any of the images and get a magnified gallery with captions, which allows you to scroll through the images one by one, and you can zoom in on any of them as you would on any image on a web page.

A doubleheader, Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 7 (Friday)

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Closing out Brooklyn Bridge Week, I had two prints left by different artists (as well as a bunch of others that were rejected early on), and I just couldn’t make up my mind. So you get a bonus image today. As we started it with Stow Wengenroth, his last Brooklyn Bridge print will be one of the two. (Don’t worry, I’ll take a break from Wengenroth for a while now, after posting 4 of his prints in the past week!) The other is a second print of the bridge by John Taylor Arms (Remember “Cobwebs”?)

Compare today’s “Gates of the City” by Arms to Wengenroth’s “Brooklyn Bridge” Very much the same view, same angle, both beautiful textured pictures, yet quite different. Arms zooms in on the cables as seen through the arches close up, and his brick texture is detailed yet different from Wengenroth’s.

Wengenroth’s today is a night view called “Manhattan Gateway”. The fog and the time of day give the picture such a different feel. Look at the diffuse aura of the gas streetlamps, and the lights of the city in the background–even as reflected on the water of the East River. The texture of the wrought iron fence is highlighted here.

And thus we say farewell to Brooklyn Bridge Week! Back to a more varied “diet” starting on Saturday.

“Gates of the City” (Etching, 1922) and “Manhattan Gateway” (Lithograph, 1948)

“Le pont du Brooklyn”, Brooklyn Bridge Week, day 6 (Thursday)

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Even if I didn’t like the print, I’d be tempted to include one with this title. This is the first time this artist’s work will be seen on this blog. Jean Michel Mathieux-Marie (such a quintessentially French name) was born in 1947, and initially trained as an architect at the École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts [National School of Fine Arts, reputed to be the best art school in France. As an aside, the Beaux-Arts (as it is called) was formed by the merger in 1793 of the Royal Academy of Architecture (founded 1671) and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (founded 1648).] Within two years of graduating, he started learning drypoint engraving, which remains his preferred technique. Typical drypoint engraving (e.g. Martin Lewis) is done with a metal stylus on a soft copper plate. (Nowadays, apparently dental tools are among the more popular implements used.) Mathieux-Marie uses a diamond-tipped tool to engrave on a hard steel plate, which is unusual. It’s tough to find information on less well known contemporary artists like this, so this is all I know.

You may remember that drypoint is essentially a form of engraving using a fine needle or stylus, as opposed to traditional engraving, done with a broader gouge-like tool called a burin. Drypoint is much closer to drawing, which makes it especially attractive to artists who want to dabble in printmaking, and haven’t devoted considerable time to learning to use the burin.

I love this picture because of the angle from which the bridge is portrayed. Most pictures we’ve seen have been views along the bridge from on it. A couple have been side views. This is the only I’ve seen so far from below on the side. It has all of the texture of the Wengenroth prints we’ve looked at, plus the bottom surface of the bridge deck. In addition, we get to see the lower portion of the main towers. And don’t forget the texture of the clouds and the sky.

Le pont du Brooklyn (Drypoint, 2005)

“High arches” (No, not feet!), Wengenroth, Brooklyn Bridge Week, day 5 (Wednesday)

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The Amazing Stow Wengenroth. This print of the Brooklyn Bridge is from very much the same angle as the first of this week, “Brooklyn Bridge in Winter”, though on a sunny day, without any snow in sight. The textures are again remarkable: the cables, the brick of the towers, the pattern of the wires in the left background (which reminds me of yesterday’s print by JT Arms, “Cobwebs”), the tall buildings seen through the left hand arch, partially through the web of cables on the left. The shadows of the cables falling on the wooden decking are exquisite. The subtle and not so subtle variations are kind of amazing.

High Arches (Lithograph, 1960)

“Cobwebs”, Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 4 (Tuesday)

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John Taylor Arms was recognized in his own time as a master etcher. Here’s one of his two prints of the Brooklyn Bridge–this one is quite different from those we’ve already looked at, but also beautiful. The two Wengenroth prints we’ve looked at of the bridge are both looking along the bridge from on it, whereas the Bosman and this are from the side; the Bosman was a night view, and this is a day view.

Cobwebs (Etching, 1921)

Stow Wengenroth aGAIN? Brooklyn Bridge Week, Day 3 (Monday)

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I have a lot of Brooklyn Bridge prints to choose from, but Wengenroth takes the cake–so much so, that I’m going to risk us possibly overdosing on him this week. Today, we’ll look at a print from 1950 which shows the symmetry of the arches, framing some tall Manhattan buildings. Those buildings are seen through a latticework formed by the suspension cables on both sides. The sky is cloudy, producing shadows on the bridge as well as a dramatic view behind the main towers of the bridge. Again, the textures are exquisite: the wooden decking and fencing on the right; the rivets in the steel beam on the left; and just as in the Brooklyn Bridge in Winter print from Saturday, the cables in the foreground and the bricks of the main towers.

Brooklyn Bridge (Lithograph, 1950)

Brooklyn Bridge Week Day 2 (Week 14, Sunday)

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After looking at the Wengenroth print I posted yesterday, of the Brooklyn Bridge in Winter, I was struck by the memory of how many bridge pictures I’d seen, and thought it might be fun to do a series of pictures of bridges. Then I remembered how many Brooklyn Bridge prints I’d seen by artists I was already in love with. Even allowing myself a week and limiting myself to the Brooklyn Bridge, I still have quite a bit more than a weeks’ worth. I think more than a week on one topic, though, is probably a bit much, so I’ll make this Brooklyn Bridge Week (with yesterday being retroactively designated as day 1).

Today I’m going back to Richard Bosman. The most recent print of his we’ve looked at was, in fact, the Manhattan Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, done in black and white rather than his characteristic color. Today’s print is done in black, white and one color. Enjoy one of Bosman’s several portrayals of the Brooklyn Bridge (of which we’re only going to look at one this week).

The Brooklyn Bridge (Woodcut, 1996)

Brooklyn in the Snow: Week 14, Saturday

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Here’s another Wengenroth print I’ve been saving to share on the right occasion, not knowing exactly what the right occasion would be. It’s another snow scene, so I wanted to share it on a snowy day. Check! But even better…it’s the Brooklyn Bridge in the snow….and we happen to be staying in Brooklyn, just 2 miles from the Brooklyn Bridge. Check check!

Wengenroth was born and raised in Brooklyn. Different sources have given me different stories for where he lived his adult life. One version said he lived in Brooklyn till a few years before he died.

The print is a fairly close view of a man bundled up for the weather , walking head down across the bridge. Because this is a closer view than most of his pictures, his attention to detail in textures is even more apparent. Look at the bridge cables, especially the one in the right foreground. Look at the snow on the bridge cables and on the gas streetlamp, and of course the bricks of the bridge arches. Look at the textured rather than individual bridge suspension cables on right and left in the background of the print. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!

Brooklyn Bridge in Winter (Lithograph, 1959)