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Stephen Parrish
(American, 1846 - 1938)
The Bridge at Bethlehem
Alternate Title(s)
- The Bridge at Bethlehem Pennsylvania
ca. 1883
7 7/8 × 12 in. (20 × 30.5 cm)
2016.11.23
Richard M. Scaife Bequest, 2015
Not on view
Leaving behind a career as a merchant and owner of a stationery shop in Philadelphia in the late 1870s, Parrish began to study art, including painting and etching. He became a principal figure in the American etching revival, known for his refined landscape views of New England, Canada, and northern Europe. Parrish began spending his summers at the art colony of Cornish, New Hampshire in the 1890s, joining artists such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Thomas Dewing, and George Deforest Brush, refocusing himself on oil painting. In this small scene of an old covered bridge at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he combined his skill as a draftsman to render descriptive details and sense of place, with decorative elements and a composition suggestive of Arts and Crafts design. The resulting view employs a high horizon, a limited palette of blues and greys, and painterly touches of detail to lend quaint charm to his depiction of the historic town and its peaceful river.
