Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-stanley-spencer-1977" aria-label="More by Sir Stanley Spencer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Stanley Spencer</a>
Bridge
Presented by the Art Fund 1942
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
Berkshire
bridge
bridges and viaducts
clothing and personal items
convolvulus
Cookham - non-specific
dog, Airedale terrier
England
England, South East
England, Southern
flower
group
groups
man
objects
people
places
plants and flowers
river
River Thames
suit
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
water: inland
woman
<p>Spencer’s paintings often have a strong sense of narrative even if it is not clear exactly what is taking place. The people on the bridge here are probably watching a boat race. They face in different directions, perhaps because a boat has just passed under the bridge. Spencer’s work frequently combined real and imagined elements. The bridge is an invented stone version of Cookham’s cast-iron bridge. However, the dog in the foreground is a specific animal the artist knew, the pet of a local resident who had taught Spencer to swim.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
17 April 2001 – 31 October 2001
2001-10-31
17 April 2001 – 31 October 2001
2001-10-31
2001-04-17
Stanley Spencer Gallery (Cookham, UK)
http://www.cookham.com/about/spencer.htm
2001-04-17
Annual Display
Loan-out
18 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
15 January 2008 – 27 April 2008
2008-04-27
2008-01-15
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
18 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
2008-10-18
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
23 January 2009 – 19 April 2009
2009-04-19
2009-01-23
York Art Gallery (York, UK)
http://www.york.art.museum
2008-10-18
Stanley Spencer
Loan-out
1 May 2009 – 31 October 2009
2009-10-31
1 May 2009 – 31 October 2009
2009-10-31
2009-05-01
Stanley Spencer Gallery (Cookham, UK)
http://www.cookham.com/about/spencer.htm
2009-05-01
Summer exhibition 2009
Loan-out
1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015
2015-03-31
1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015
2015-03-31
2014-04-01
Stanley Spencer Gallery (Cookham, UK)
http://www.cookham.com/about/spencer.htm
2014-04-01
Stanley Spencer
Loan-out
21 September 2020 – 26 September 2021
2021-09-26
21 September 2020 – 26 September 2021
2021-09-26
2020-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-09-21
Stanley Spencer
Collection based display
The Bridge
support: 1213 × 1226 mm
frame: 1420 × 1440 × 100 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1942
<div class="text">
<p>Spencer’s paintings often have a strong sense of narrative even if it is not clear exactly what is taking place. The people on the bridge here are probably watching a boat race. They face in different directions, perhaps because a boat has just passed under the bridge. Spencer’s work frequently combined real and imagined elements. The bridge is an invented stone version of Cookham’s cast-iron bridge. However, the dog in the foreground is a specific animal the artist knew, the pet of a local resident who had taught Spencer to swim.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-22T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05393</b> THE BRIDGE 1920</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 47 3/4×48 1/4 (121·5×122·5).
<br/>Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund 1942.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by the N.A.C.F. from the Leicester Galleries 1942.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leicester Galleries, November 1942 (26), as 1919.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Spencer, 1961, p.158.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Exh. cat., Stanley Spencer Gallery, summer 1963, on cover.</p>
<p>According to the artist (letter of 15 August 1951) this picture was painted in 1920, although in the Leicester Galleries exhibition catalogue of 1942 it is dated 1919. Gilbert Spencer (<i>op. cit.</i>) refers to this work as one of the last to be painted at ‘Fernlea’, Cookham, until Stanley's return there in 1959. He also notes that it seemed to him an ‘unCookhamish’ subject, which he could not identify and that he never knew its correct title. He pointed out to the compiler (26 October 1961) that the quatrefoil stone balustrades were a transcription of a detail from the cast-iron bridge at Cookham which appears in ‘Swan Upping’, and he thought the apparent aimlessness of the people on the bridge untypical of the artist's usual conception of a figure subject. The Airedale terrier dog in the foreground is ‘Tinker’, and belonged to a Cookham man, Guy Lacey, who taught the Spencer brothers to swim. One explanation of the subject that suggests itself is that the people on the bridge are watching a sculling race on the river, the boats having just passed under the bridge, and that the spectators are moving from one side of the bridge to the other to follow the progress of the race. See also the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-study-for-the-bridge-and-other-works-n05775" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05775</span></a>.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture Berkshire bridge bridges and viaducts clothing and personal items convolvulus Cookham - non-specific dog, Airedale terrier England England, South East England, Southern flower group groups man objects people places plants and flowers river River Thames suit UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features water: inland woman