Brooklyn Bridge in Winter

Stow Wengenroth's lithograph Brooklyn Bridge in Winter shows a lone pedestrian crossing the bridge in the midst of a snowstorm. The bridge is renowned for bustling traffic and spectacular panoramic vistas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the East River, but none of these are evident in Wengenroth's image. Using the white of the paper to convey the accumulation of snow on the pedestrian walkway, the unoccupied bench in the left foreground, the horizontal beam supports over the roadway at lower right, and the projecting details of the bridge tower, Wengenroth created an atypical depiction of this famous landmark. He discreetly animated the diagonal expanse of white foreground by indicating several footprints in the snow. He subtly manipulated a range of light gray tones to convey the atmosphere of swirling clouds and falling snow, obscuring any view of the city and the river that would otherwise specifically situate the monumental structure. The horizontal composition emphasizes the vertical immensity of the bridge: the front plane is defined by cropped vertical cables at left and just to the right of the center; in the middle ground, the tower is cropped just above its distinctive gothic-style twin portals.

In Brooklyn Bridge in Winter and his Manhattan Gateway (TF 1995.52) of eleven years earlier, Wengenroth followed a lively tradition of artistic portrayal of the Brooklyn Bridge, a marvel of technological innovation that had quickly assumed an iconic significance as a symbol of the modern American metropolis. Stylistic experimenters such as John Marin in his Brooklyn Bridge, No. 6 (TF 1995.15) had imbued the structure with visible energy. Wengenroth, however, adhered to a more strictly representational approach also seen in John Taylor Arms's etching The Gates of the City (TF 1996.3). In Brooklyn Bridge in Winter, he presents the bridge as a decorative arrangement of lines, geometric shapes, and white and gray tones, with the magical effects of blinding snow transforming the familiar bridge structure into an opening onto a mysterious new world.

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

Stuckey, Ronald and Joan. The Lithographs of Stow Wengenroth 1931–1972. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Public Library in cooperation with Barre Publishers, 1974. No. 255.