Swing Bridge and Ravine; John GULLY; 639

Swing Bridge and Ravine; John GULLY; 639
From

The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatū

Name/Title

Swing Bridge and Ravine

About this object

An unframed image of a large swing bridge crossing a deep ravine; likely to be the Waiau Bridge in North Canterbury, designed by John Blackett and built by the Nelson Provincial Government in 1864. This bridge was awarded a prize at the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin. It is known that Gully displayed a watercolour study of this bridge at the same exhibition. The river below swirls down from the mountains in the background, past the rocks and cliffs in the foreground and the entire painting takes on a dramatic reddish hue.

Maker

John GULLY

Medium and Materials

Watercolour on paper

Subject and Association Keywords

Landscapes

Subject and Association Keywords

Landscapes/River

Subject and Association Keywords

Mountains

Subject and Association Keywords

Bridge

Subject and Association Keywords

Colonial

Subject and Association Keywords

New Zealand/South Island/Canterbury

Subject and Association Description

The subject is likely to be the Waiau Bridge in North Canterbury, a wooden horse-bridge built by the Nelson Provincial Government in 1864. The bridge was awarded a prize at the New Zealand exhibition in Dunedin in 1865. The 'Reports and awards of the jurors' described the bridge as: "a very daring and successful structure, and as seen in the beautiful water-colour drawing of it exhibited by J. Gully, Nelson, resembles a more gigantic cob-web stretched across the ravine, than any production of human ingenuity" (see 'New Zealand's Romantic Landscape: Paintings by John Gully, 1985, p. 29). The bridge was later neglected and blew away in a gale in 1874.

Credit Line

Donated by the Nelson City Council in 1982

Object Type

Painting

Object number

639

Rights

All rights reserved

This object is from
The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatū   The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatū
Tags
Bridge
Colonial
Landscapes
Landscapes/River
Mountains

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