Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam is a watercolor created in November 1883 by Vincent van Gogh in Drenthe, The Netherlands.Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam. The Vincent van Gogh Gallery. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
Watercolor painting Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, of the view outside his room in Nieuw-Amsterdam, Drenthe: "I now have a reasonably large room where a stove has been placed, where there happens to be a small balcony. From which I can even see the heath with the huts. I also look out on a very curious drawbridge." Within the letter he drew a sketch of the bridge, which became the watercolor, Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam.To Theo van Gogh. Nieuw-Amsterdam, Friday, 12 or Saturday, 13 October 1883. Van Gogh Letters. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
The work was one of 148 watercolors made by Van Gogh, who said of working in that medium in 1881: What a splendid thing watercolour is to express atmosphere and distance, so that the figure is surrounded by air and can breathe in it, as it were.The Watercolours. The Vincent van Gogh Gallery. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
Five years after having made this work, van Gogh made Langlois Bridge at Arles in France which captures a lighter mood.Fred Orton; Griselda Pollock. Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed. Manchester University Press ND; 15 February 1997. . p. 361.
See also Early works of Vincent van Gogh List of works by Vincent van Gogh Langlois Bridge at Arles (Van Gogh series)
Notes
References
Further reading John E. Sweetman. The artist and the bridge: 1700-1920. Ashgate; 1999. .