Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam

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Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam

Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (1883) is a watercolor by Vincent van Gogh. He painted it in November 1883 while staying in Drenthe, the Netherlands. The painting shows a drawbridge near Nieuw-Amsterdam, which van Gogh could see from his room. In a letter to his brother Theo, he wrote: "I now have a reasonably large room where a stove has been placed, where there happens to be a small balcony. From which I can even see the heath with the huts. I also look out on a very curious drawbridge." In the letter he drew a sketch of the bridge, which became this watercolor. It is one of van Gogh's 148 watercolors. He said of using watercolor in 1881: "What a splendid thing watercolour is to express atmosphere and distance, so that the figure is surrounded by air and can breathe in it, as it were." About five years later he painted Langlois Bridge at Arles, which captures a lighter mood. The painting is in the Groninger Museum in Groningen, Netherlands.