The Menai Straits with Britannia Bridge and Suspension Bridge

Location

Country: Serbia
City: Belgrade
Place: British Embassy

There are numerous printed views of the Britannia and Menai Suspension bridges, published at around the time that the Britannia Bridge opened. However, landscape paintings in oil of the two imposing new constructions were less common.

The artist of this painting is as yet uncertain. However, it may have been painted by Henry Barnard Gray (active 1844-1871). Gray was known during his life as a landscape and sporting painter and exhibited his work in London from 1844 to 1871. In 1850, he exhibited ‘The Britannia Tubular Bridge across the Menai Straits, North Wales’ at the Royal Academy. According to the Academy’s records it was made ‘from sketches made upon the spot at the commencement of raising the first tube’. In the same year, Gray exhibited ‘Study from Nature, near Penryn Castle, North Wales’ at the Society of British Artists and showed a second similar study there in the following year. In 1851, he exhibited a ‘Scene in North Wales’ at the British Institution, followed by ‘Sunset, a Scene on the Menai Straits’ in 1852.

Places

Wales, Britannia Bridge, Menai Suspension Bridge, Marquess of Anglesey's Column, Gwynedd, Anglesey, Menai Strait

Subjects

steamship, steam train, railway, topography, landscape C19th, British School C19th, tree, horse, valley, strait, bridge (rural), tower, ship

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

British 19th century unknown

Title

The Menai Straits with Britannia Bridge and Suspension Bridge

Date

c.1850-1855

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 75.50 cm, width: 109.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Parker Gallery, November 1964

GAC number

6757