Artwork
The Falls of the Schuylkill and Chain Bridge
The Falls of the Schuylkill and Chain Bridge is a watercolor work on paper by the American Impressionist artist Pavel Petrovich Svinin. It dates from 1811 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Pavel Petrovich Svinin's 1811 watercolor and gouache depicts the natural and engineered landscape of the Falls of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia.
Pavel Petrovich Svinin's 1811 watercolor and gouache depicts the natural and engineered landscape of the Falls of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. The composition centers on the Chain Bridge spanning the river, surrounded by trees that frame the waterway. As a landscape work, the piece captures a specific American site, documenting the bridge structure and the surrounding foliage without additional allegorical figures or explicit symbolic narratives described in the available records.
The artwork serves as a visual record of the location and its infrastructure during the early nineteenth century.
Technique & Style
Pavel Petrovich Svinin executed The Falls of the Schuylkill and Chain Bridge in 1811 using watercolor and gouache applied to off-white wove paper. The work functions as a landscape painting that captures the bridge and surrounding trees with the specific handling characteristic of these opaque and transparent water-based media. The support consists of wove paper, which provides a textured foundation for the pigments.
The resulting composition measures 13.8 cm in height and 19.5 cm in width, presenting a compact yet detailed view of the American scene.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1811 by Pavel Petrovich Svinin. It is a watercolor and gouache work on off-white wove paper depicting a bridge and a tree. The artwork belongs to the landscape genre and is part of The American Wing collection. It is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The landscape painting The Falls of the Schuylkill and Chain Bridge is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its accession number is 1993.574.1. The work was first exhibited in 1995 as part of the museum's American Wing collection.
Completed in 1811, the watercolor and gouache on paper measures 13.8 by 19.5 centimeters and depicts a bridge and trees. It was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and entered its collection under the accession number 1993.574.1.
The painting has been included in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including a 1995 display of American Wing landscapes.
Overview
Pavel Petrovich Svinin’s watercolor, dated around 1811, portrays a scene along the Schuylkill River where a wooden bridge spans a rocky channel. The composition is framed by trees that border the water, creating a bright, open landscape typical of early American topographical studies.
Artist & collection
Artist
Pavel Petrovich Svinyin or Svinin (Russian: Па́вел Петро́вич Свиньи́н; 19 June 1787 – 21 April 1839) was a Russian writer, painter, and editor, known as a "Russian Munchausen" for many exaggerated accounts of his travels.
Black Methodists Holding a Prayer Meeting
A Ferry Scene on the Susquehanna at Wright's Ferry, near Havre de Grace
Moravian Sisters
View on the Hudson River (Copy after Engraving by Weld and S. Springsguth in Weld, Travels Through the States of North America, 1807)
A View of the Potomac at Harpers Ferry
Replenishing the Ship's Larder with Codfish off the Newfoundland Coast
Upper Falls of Solomon's Creek (after an Engraving in The Port Folio Magazine, December 1809)
Woody landscape
Rhuddlan Bridge, Flintshire
After the Tornado
Bishop Gate Bridge, Norwich
Landscape with Bridge
Landschaft mit Brücke
Ludlow Castle, overlooking the River Teme
Bridge over the river at Helmsley, in Yorkshire,
Harlem Bridge, New York
A bridge, perhaps the old bridge of Don, Aberdeen- Bridge and Stream
At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine