Flatford Bridge

Bridges, Children, Genre: Women, Homes, Landscape, Figure, Village Life

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 11.2 x 16.7 cm
Support Dimensions: 27.9 x 38.6 cm

Originally titled Off to Market-You’ll Take Care of Baby, this photograph retitled Flatford Bridge was first exhibited at the Pall Mall Exhibition by Gale in 1884. The volume A Victorian Country Album-The Photographs of Joseph Gale,  (Brian Coe-The Oxford Illustrated Press) includes it as a half-page illustration with the following commentary:

An attractive river scene. The British Journal of Photography said it was ‘the best composition of Mr. Gale’s, and the picture tells its own story. A rustic cottage, a pebbly brook, and wooden bridge form the groundwork of the subject. The figures are two-mother and daughter-the former of whom calls out as she crosses the bridge the words of the title.’ The Photographic News said it ‘has an air of truth which makes it a good picture.’ (p. 60)

Joseph Gale (1830-1906)