July 3, 2012

The Old Bridge

        Here's a lovely woodcut by an artist I know nothing about except his name and dates: Wynand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp (1874-1950).
        I'd love to know more about the scene - what is that city we see under the arches of the bridge?  What river's waters swirl so seductively past?  Is this a real place that the artist knew and loved, or a view sketched quickly on the way past while travelling, or a fantasy place representing an archetypal bridge?

[Picture: The Old Bridge, woodcut by Wynand Otto Jan Niewenkamp, 1920.
(Image from The Annex Galleries.)

2 comments:

Cally said...

Hi Anne, I think that's probably the Dijle river going through Mechelen, Belgium if it's the same bridge as in this similar image:
http://adventuresintheprinttrade.blogspot.be/2010/03/wanderer.html
There's also an article on Wikipedia about the artist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wijnand_Otto_Jan_Nieuwenkamp
Thanks for posting it, it's a beautiful woodcut!

Anne E.G. Nydam said...

Hello, Cally,
Thanks very much for the tip and the link. I wonder whether Nieuwenkamp saw this view from his houseboat?