A View of Walton Bridge
The elegant timber bridge at Walton-on-Thames — a Canaletto painted during his years working in England; that bridge is gone.
Walton Bridge
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
A View of Walton Bridge — at a glance
- Artist
- Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697–1768)
- Year
- 1754
- Movement
- Venetian view painting, in England
- Place
- Walton Bridge, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England
- Viewpoint
- The first (1750) timber bridge — replaced in 1783; the crossing and river remain (current bridge 2013)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 49 × 76 cm
- Now at
- Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Overview
A View of Walton Bridge is one of the pictures Canaletto painted while living and working in England from 1746 to about 1755. Dated 1754, it shows the first Walton Bridge over the Thames — a striking, geometric timber structure of interlaced beams designed by William Etheridge — with figures on the towpath, cattle, a barge, and the Surrey countryside. It is oil on canvas, about 49 by 76 cm, and it hangs in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Canaletto included himself sketching at the lower left.
Where was A View of Walton Bridge painted?
Scholarship Walton Bridge crosses the Thames between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton, upstream of Hampton Court, south-west of London. The remarkable wooden ‘mathematical’ bridge Canaletto painted opened in 1750 and lasted only until 1783, when it was replaced by a brick-and-stone bridge; there have been several bridges since, the current one opened in 2013. So the exact bridge in the picture is long gone, but the crossing, the river and the general setting remain.
How we know
- Canaletto's view of the real Walton Bridge; 'London' is a wrong, over-broad target.
What is in the painting?
The bridge springs across the middle distance in a single bold arc of latticed timber, its geometry emphasised against the sky. On the near towpath, figures walk and rest, cattle graze, a man fishes; a barge is on the river; trees frame the left. Canaletto has painted himself seated with a sketchbook at the lower left. The light is clear and English-grey-blue.
Look closely
The lattice bridge
A single bold arc of interlaced timber beams, its geometry drawn crisp against the sky.
The self-portrait
Canaletto has put himself in, seated with a sketchbook at the lower left.
The English towpath
Walkers, resting figures, grazing cattle and an angler on the near bank.
Analysis
Composition and technique
The lattice bridge as a crisp geometric arc across the picture, with pastoral incident on the near bank.
Scholarship Canaletto makes the engineered timber structure the star, drawing its interlacing beams precisely against the sky, and softens it with a very English foreground of towpath, cattle and anglers. The self-portrait sketching is a signature and a joke about the topographical painter at work.
History & provenance
The painting is in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (Fairfax Murray gift).
Sources
- Dulwich Picture Gallery, London — collection entry for Canaletto, ‘A View of Walton Bridge’ (1754)
- Charles Beddington, ‘Canaletto in England’ (2006)
Related paintings
More by Canaletto
The Stonemason's Yard
The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice
Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice
