Landscape with Bridge

Art Historical Context

**Landscape with Bridge** ca. 1750–70, Etching by Joseph Wagner after Charles Louis Clérisse* Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953 Step into the serene world of 18th-century with *Landscape with Bridge a delicate etching produced around 1750–70. Austrian printmaker Joseph Wagner skillfully translated the vision of French architect and artist Charles Louis Clérisseau, whose drawings often evoked the picturesque ruins and architectural fantasies of Italy during the Grand Tour era. This trimmed sheet, measuring 9 1/8 × 11 5/8 inches, captures a tranquil scene where a graceful bridge anchors a harmonious blend of natural beauty and man-made elegance. Etching's acid-bitten lines allowed Wagner to achieve fine textures and atmospheric depth, hallmarks of the Rococo-to-Neoclassical transition. Popular among collectors, such prints democratized access to elite travel imagery, reflecting Enlightenment ideals of nature's sublimity and classical inspiration. Housed in the Met's Drawings and Prints department, this work highlights printmaking's role in preserving ephemeral landscapes, inviting us to ponder bridges as metaphors for journeys through time.

About the Artist

Joseph Wagner|Charles Louis Clérisseau · 1706–1780

Joseph Wagner (1706–1780) was a highly accomplished German engraver and draughtsman who spent the majority of his career in Venice, where he became one of the most important figures in eighteenth-century Venetian printmaking. Born in Thalendorf near Lake Constance in 1706, Wagner initially trained as a painter under the Venetian-born artist Jacopo Amigoni before being persuaded to dedicate himself...