TitleLe Ruisseau
Artist
Frederick Arthur Bridgman
(American, 1847 - 1928)
Date1898
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 37 x 54 in.
Framed: 45 x 62 3/4 x 2 in.
SignedSigned bottom right: "F. A. Bridgman / 1898 / opus CCLVII B"
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of Rowe Collection
Object number2021.16.3
Label TextFrederick Bridgman was a leading artist in the Orientalist movement and is known for painting exotic faraway places that he visited in the Middle East and North Africa. This genre of painting gained popularity in Europe in the 1830s and peaked in the 1870s and 1880s. However, as the public’s taste for this kind of art began to wane, Bridgman was forced to explore alternative subject matter, such as Le Ruisseau, a large allegorical salon picture.Le Ruisseau (The Brook) features classically draped figures in a natural, although somewhat idealized, sylvan locale. There was a companion piece to Le Ruisseau entitled Le Torrent, whose whereabouts are unknown. Bridgman submitted both of these contrasting scenes to the Paris Salon of 1898—young women grouped around a placid brook in Le Ruisseau as opposed to forest spirits who are threatened by surging waters beneath them in Le Torrent.
Although Bridgman lived most of his life as an expatriate in Paris, he remained a loyal and active member of the National Academy of Design and became the Academy’s unofficial representative in Paris. He also contributed regularly to the Royal Academy exhibitions in London.
Collections
- New Acquisitions 2021
- 19th Century Highlights from the Collection
