The Bridge, Santa Marta |  Freer Gallery of Art (1887.12) | |
| Number: | 201 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 298 x 202 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
| No. of States: | 9 | |
| Known impressions: | 47 | |
| Catalogues: | K.204; M.201; W.171 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (47) | ||
STATE
Nine states are known before cancellation.
State 1
Signed with an indistinct butterfly at lower right.
The composition is mostly complete.
State 2
Vertical shading is added between the quay and the gunwale of the empty boat at left; more distinct ripples are added to the water above the bow of the boat in the centre foreground; a series of tiny lines is added to the sky to left of the tall thin chimney in the distance.
State 3
The butterfly signature has almost worn away; heavy shading is added to the hull of the empty boat at left; more ripples are added to the water above and to upper left of the boat in the centre foreground; a few short horizontal lines are added to the back of the woman with a child at left of the bridge; a series of short diagonal lines is added to the sky between the tall thin chimney and the buildings at right; there is additional shading on the trees in the far distance.
State 4
Two small groups of diagonal, almost horizontal and irregular lines are added to the sky above the tall thin chimney; pale diagonal shading is added above the roofs and trees in the centre distance.
State 5
The butterfly signature is redrawn at lower right, more distinctly, and heavily shaded.
Vertical drypoint lines are added to the water above the butterfly as well as between the boat in the centre foreground and the boat next to it; there are pale horizontal lines to left of the butterfly; slightly slanting lines are added between the boat at left and the quay and on the wall of the quay, itself; short diagonals are added on both sides of the tall thin chimney.
State 6
Considerable shading is added throughout the image, including: new work on the sky at upper left; fine horizontals and verticals on the water and the wall of the quay behind the bridge; fine verticals on the bridge railing at centre and between the figures on the bridge at right; very pale shading on some of the hanging laundry; a series of vertical lines under the arch of the bridge and beneath the hanging laundry; heavy shading at left between the boat and the arch of the bridge and to the right of the boat; lines indicating the reflection of the thin piece of cloth, which is hanging on the bridge to left of centre; horizontals above and verticals to the right of the standing boatman in the foreground; new verticals above and to left of the butterfly signature.
State 7
Fine horizontal lines now extend above the stern of the empty boat at left; several prominent vertical lines of reflection to right of the empty boat are removed; the reflection of the thin piece of cloth hanging on the bridge is widened at the bottom with a series of short vertical lines, and the upper part of the reflection is reduced in strength; a number of horizontal lines are added to right of the stern of the boat in the foreground.
State 8
Strong slightly diagonal lines are added to the stern of the boat in the foreground, just below the feet of the boatman; very fine shading is added to the reflections in the foreground, most notably vertical lines between the bow of the empty boat at left and the woman or girl on the quayside, a series of short horizontal ripples beween the quay and the bow of the boat in the foreground, and vertical and diagonal lines from the boatman's legs to the centre of the ripples at right.
State 9
Much of the fine shading on the the sky, bridge, water and the wall of the quay is worn or worn away, and other lines have been intentionally reduced in strength, most notably the butterfly signature and the diagonal lines on the stern of the boat in the foreground.
The amount of fine detail varies from impression to impression in this state, depending upon the wear of the plate, inking and wiping. For instance, two impressions have fairly clear ripples on the centre of the canal, remnants of lines on the stern of the foreground boat and slightly stronger butterfly signatures (see and ). On other examples of this state, some fine work is barely visible or fine lines are detectable only under magnification.
Published by Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau with the Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886.
State 9 (cancelled)
Cancelled with crossed diagonal lines.