The Nijmegen Bridge, Holland 1946

Painted by Alex Colville, this scene depicts a bridge in Holland, all soft muted colors. It's as if he laid down thin washes of paint, carefully building up the image layer by layer. I wonder what Colville was thinking as he painted this picture, trying to capture not just a place, but a moment in history. You can see the remnants of war—the bridge itself, slightly destroyed, and all these vehicles traveling along it. I can almost feel the weight of that moment, the tension in the air as soldiers move across the bridge. It reminds me of other painters who have tried to capture the feeling of a specific time and place. There's this stillness, but also a sense of forward motion—not only for the vehicles pictured, but also for art history itself. It’s a constant push and pull, each artist building on what came before, trying to make sense of the world in their own way.