David Johnson (1827-1908)
West Cornwall, Connecticut, 1875
Oil on canvas, 16 1/4 x 13”)
Signed and dated lower right

Johnson, a New Yorker, was a prolific painter who worked not only at home but in Virginia, New Jersey, and all six New England states. In Connecticut he painted in Greenwich and Litchfield County.

His rustic West Cornwall Bridge looks barely functional. That its single vertical support merges uneasily with its liquid reflection adds to the feeling of fragility. The boulders, scattered by glaciers centuries before, and the more recently fractured tree trunks, speak volumes about the power of nature. Reverence for nature was an idea well fixed in the national consciousness.