Gezicht op Hungerford Bridge, te Londen 1841 - 1885

This print captures a view of the Hungerford Bridge in London. Although the artist is unknown, their approach reveals much about how images function as carriers of meaning. The composition is structured around a series of horizontal lines – the river, the bridge, the skyline – intersected by the vertical elements of the bridge towers and masts. This creates a grid, a foundational structure, upon which the scene is built. The delicate lines used to depict the bridge and boats give the image a sense of transparency, almost as if we’re looking through a veil. The architecture, rendered in such fine detail, invites us to consider how urban structures mediate our experience of space and movement. Look closely at the reflections in the water. They subtly destabilize the solidity of the bridge above, reminding us that what we perceive is always a construction, a reflection of something else. This interplay between solidity and reflection, between structure and fluidity, hints at the complexities of representation itself.