The Bridge at Mantes

By the late 1860s the old bridge at Mantes had lost its main job. A newer bridge nearby opened in 1855 and took the road traffic, and the medieval arches, parts of them dating from the 12th century, carried little more than people on foot and the mills built along them. For Corot it remained a favourite motif. He had painted Mantes, its bridge and its Gothic church since the middle of the century, and this canvas, made around 1868 to 1870, is among the last of those views. A tall stone building stands on the bridge, with poplars rising beside it. On the near bank a woman stands with a small child and a dog, and a few small figures are out in the shallows on the right. Calouste Gulbenkian, the oil magnate whose collection this is, bought it from the London dealers Agnew's in April 1913.