Bridge on the River

Bridge on the River is a beautiful drawing in pencil and charcoal realized by the French painter Emile-Louis Minet in 1919. The state of preservation is very good, except for a small rip on the lower margin of the paper, whilst the higher and lower left corners present some folds. The piece of paper was torn from a sketchbook, and it presents some fringes on the higher margin. On the back, two trees are sketched and there is a small writing in pencil with the date “ 18 August 1919 ”. Next to it, there is an unreadable word and below “ Day ”.

Louis Minet was an important artist from Normandy. He lived in Rouen, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. During his life, he achieved great success and won a mention of honor at the Salon of French Artists in 1882. In 1917, he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Rouen and in 1905 curator of the Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen until 1922.

This artwork represents a beautiful French countryside: a large bridge on a river, maybe the Seine, and trees on the river bank. The artist was a realist painter, who paid much attention to air, light, and atmosphere. He drew inspiration from the landscapes and countryside of Normandy en plen air , as it probably occurred in this precise and dynamic drawing, typical of this artist’s production and of coeval painting.