Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/philip-wilson-steer-1990" aria-label="More by Philip Wilson Steer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Philip Wilson Steer</a>
Bridge
Purchased 1941
actions: expressive
adults
architecture
bank
boat - non-specific
bridge
bridges and viaducts
East Anglia
England
England, East
estuary
evening
man
people
places
society
Suffolk
talking
times of the day
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
Walberswick
water: inland
woman
<p>This picture was strongly attacked by the critics when it was first exhibited in 1887, and dismissed by one as 'either a deliberate daub or so much mere midsummer madness'. Steer considered giving up painting in the wake of this disapproval. With its exploitation of the creamy fluency of oil paint, its atmospheric lighting and subdued colouring, 'The Bridge' is like Whistler's landscapes he called 'Nocturnes'. It was unusual in London at the time for its lack of detail, and for the uncertainly about its subject. The view is probably at Walberswick in Suffolk.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
14 May 2005 – 20 November 2005
2005-11-20
14 May 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-05-14
Lady Lever Art Gallery (Port Sunlight, UK)
17 September 2005 – 20 November 2005
2005-11-20
2005-09-17
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, UK)
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections
2005-05-14
Beside the Seaside: the British Impressionists
Loan-out
23 June 2006 – 4 December 2006
2006-12-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-06-23
Philip Wilson Steer The British Impressionist
Collection based display
11 February 2013 – 2 June 2013
2013-06-02
12 February 2013 – 2 June 2013
2013-06-02
2013-02-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-02-11
Looking at the View
Collection based display
26 March 2015 – 27 May 2020
2020-05-27
26 March 2015 – 21 June 2015
2015-06-21
2015-03-26
Museo Nacional de Arte (Mexico City, Mexico)
18 July 2015 – 18 October 2015
2015-10-18
2015-07-18
Pinacoteca do Estado (São Paulo, Brazil)
2015-03-26
British Landscape
Tate partnerships & programmes
31 October 2022
4 October 2021
2021-10-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 8
Collection based display
The Bridge
support: 495 × 655 × 20 mm
frame: 639 × 803 × 89 mm
Purchased 1941
<div class="text">
<p>Philip Wilson Steer received his main artistic training in France. Inspired by the impressionist painters, he was drawn to seaside locations such as Walberswick in Suffolk. This view was exhibited at alternative avant-garde venues the Grosvenor Gallery, in London, and Les XX in Brussels. Even so, the lack of detail, atmospheric lighting and undefined subject were strongly attacked by traditional art critics as ‘either a deliberate daub or so much mere midsummer madness’. Steer considered giving up painting, but co-founded the New English Art Club and later became a great figure in British art.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>N05256</b> THE BRIDGE 1887–8</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘P W Steer’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 19 1/2×25 3/4 (49·5×65·5).
<br/>Purchased from the Leicester Galleries (Knapping Fund) 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Ellen M. Cobden (Mrs Walter Sickert); Mrs T. J. Cobden-Sanderson; R. Cobden-Sanderson, sold Christie's, 2 August 1940 (75), bt. Lessore; Leicester Galleries.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Summer Exhibition,</i> Grosvenor Gallery, April–July 1888 (105), as ‘The Bridge’; <i>Les XX</i>, Brussels, 1889 (Steer 2), as ‘Le Pont’; <i>New Year Exhibition</i>, Leicester Galleries, January 1941 (47), as ‘The Bridge, Étaples’; National Gallery, June–August 1943 (72); Tate Gallery, November–December 1960 (5).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl, 1945, pp.26, 189; John Rothenstein, <i>Modern English Painters: Sickert to Smith</i>, 1952, p.64.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Studio</i>, CXXII, 1941, p.65; Ironside, 1943, pl.9.</p>
<p>Known also as ‘The Bridge, Étaples’, the evidence for the identification of the location has been questioned by Bruce Laughton, who points out that early <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> of Walberswick estuary show a wooden footbridge over Dunwick Creek. A small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> (coll. Louis van Praagh), inscribed on the back ‘Étaples 1880s’, appears to be a first thought for this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, but although both <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> show the back view of a girl leaning on a railing, the view from the bridge is not the same.</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
actions: expressive adults architecture bank boat - non-specific bridge bridges and viaducts East Anglia England England, East estuary evening man people places society Suffolk talking times of the day transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions Walberswick water: inland woman