About this artwork

Bassano Bridge is one of ten multicolour woodcut prints made by Mackie using an experimental printing technique developed over many years. He began by tracing the outlines of one of his watercolour paintings onto celluloid; this was used to create a stencil for cutting the wood block into separate colour blocks. By using block shapes like brush marks, these prints imitate the vibrancy and Impressionistic fluidity of painted watercolours. Bassano Bridge required fourteen blocks, printed by hand in different colours and tones. Often blocks were used more than once or areas overprinted, resulting in up to forty colour applications for one print. This painstaking application of individual colours resulted in a rich variation between impressions, as clear from the two examples in our collection, this one and the Bassano Bridge bequeathed in 2012 by the Henry and Sula Walton collection. The image shows the Bridge of the Alpini in Bassano del Grappa near Venice. The watercolour of this composition is in Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Updated before 2020

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Charles Hodge Mackie

Charles Hodge Mackie