Brooklyn Bridge (1899): Artwork and History

Brooklyn Bridge (1899) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Henry Ward Ranger American, 1858–1916.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Although best known for his bucolic views of the countryside near his Connecticut home, New York City was Henry Ward Ranger’s primary place of residence, and the artist found inspiration in the urban environment. In Brooklyn Bridge he recorded one of the greatest icons of modernity. Completed in 1883, this impressive structure was still the longest suspension bridge in the world when Ranger painted it sixteen years later. Yet instead of emphasizing its massive scale or modern construction the artist produced a fairly traditional view, integrating the bridge into the landscape. The painting displays a rich luminosity through Ranger’s method of layering applications of paint and using transparent glazes.

Object facts

• Title: Brooklyn Bridge
• Date: 1899
• Artist attribution: Henry Ward Ranger American, 1858–1916
• Place of origin: United States
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 72.4 × 91.8 cm (28 1/2 × 36 1/8 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Arts of the Americas
• Reference number: 1925.720

Collection credit

Gift of Charles L. Hutchinson

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.