Above the Old Bridge, Ipswich, or Little Venice

Art Historical Context

Arthur Wesley Dow's *Above the Old Bridge,, or Little Venice*ca. 1893–95) captures a serene riverside scene in Ipswich, Massachusetts, evoking the charm of a quaint "Little Venice" with its clustered houses and overhanging trees. This intimate color woodcut, measuring just 5 x 2¼ inches, showcases Dow's early mastery of the medium, a technique he championed after studying Japanese prints during his travels in the 1880s and 1890s. As pioneering American artist and educator, Dow bridged Eastern and Western traditions, introducing ukiyo-e-inspired woodblock printing to the U.S. through his Pratt Institute classes. Here, he carves and prints vibrant layers of color directly onto the woodblock, achieving subtle tonal harmonies and flattened forms that emphasize composition over realism—a hallmark of his "Japanese method." This print reflects the late 19th-century fascination with Japonisme, influencing modernists like Georgia O'Keeffe, whom Dow later taught. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (gift of Mrs. W. L. Putnam, 1942), this gem invites visitors to appreciate Dow's role in elevating printmaking as fine art, blending American landscapes with innovative global techniques.

About the Artist

Arthur Wesley Dow · 1857–1922

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) was an American artist, printmaker, and educator whose ideas about composition and design exerted an outsized influence on American modernism, reaching well beyond anything his own paintings and prints might have achieved on their own. Born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, he studied in Boston and then in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he absorbed the academic training...