Artwork
Looking through Brooklyn Bridge
Looking through Brooklyn Bridge is a print by C. R. W. Nevinson. It dates from 1921 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1921, *Looking through Brooklyn Bridge* is a print by English artist Christopher Nevinson. Known for his wartime work, Nevinson turned his attention after World War I to modern urban environments, and this piece records a view framed by the iconic suspension bridge in New York City.
Subject & Meaning
The composition isolates the bridge’s understructure, emphasizing the massive steel cables and girders that dominate the picture plane. By framing the city’s skyline only as a faint suggestion, Nevinson draws attention to the engineered form itself, reflecting his fascination with the power and geometry of contemporary architecture.
Technique & Style
Rendered with swift, loose lines, the print resembles a schematic drawing rather than a finished rendering. The intersecting steel elements generate a stark network of light and shadow, while the sketchy handling conveys both the physical weight of the bridge and the immediacy of the artist’s observation.
History & Provenance
Nevinson produced the work shortly after his studies at the Slade School of Art, where he was a contemporary of Stanley Spencer and Mark Gertler. Influenced by Italian Futurism through his acquaintance with F.T. Marinetti, he applied that dynamism to an American subject. The print is now held by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of the First World War.
