The Miners' Bridge, on the Llugwy, North Wales

1857

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Early 19th Century

Dominant colour

The Miners' Bridge, on the Llugwy, North Wales is a 1857 by Roger Fenton, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Roger Fenton
When & what style?: 1857 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a rickety wooden bridge dangling between two cliffs, with one lone man climbing its slanted planks. Fenton took this photo in 1857, just a few years after photography became portable. The man’s small shape makes the gorge feel huge—almost like the camera is daring you to step onto the bridge yourself. To see how other 19th-century photographers framed wild landscapes, look up subject: england, 19th century.

The story of this work

Overview

Roger Fenton was a versatile and prolific artist who abruptly ended his brief, 12-year career as a professional photographer to return to the practice of law. Nevertheless, his architectural and landscape photographs have brought him recognition as the greatest British photographer of the 1850s. In this picturesque scene, Fenton focused on a single figure ascending a precarious wooden bridge that hangs suspended between two craggy surfaces. He often included people in his photographs to indicate scale and to enliven the composition. Fenton's wet collodion negative rendered the texture of the…

Read the full account in the museum source.