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Overview
Sir Henry George "Harry" Rushbury (1889-1968) was an English painter and etcher. Born the son of a clerk in Harborne, then on the outskirts of Birmingham, Rushbury studied on a scholarship under Robert Catterson Smith at the Birmingham School of Art from the age of thirteen. He worked as an assistant to arts and crafts artist Henry Payne, chiefly as a stained-glass artist, until 1912 when he moved to London, where he shared lodgings with fellow Birmingham student, Gerald Brockhurst, who is well represented in Te Papa's collection.
Rushbury was an official war artist during World War I, and took up etching and drypoint under the influence of Francis Dodd before studying briefly under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art in 1921.
He was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1917, the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1921, the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1922, and the Royal Academy in 1936. In 1940 he was again appointed an official war artist until 1945. In 1949, he was elected Keeper of the Royal Academy and Head of the Royal Academy Schools, a post he held until 1964. He was knighted in the same year.
The greatest influence on Rushbury's work was Muirhead Bone. He produced consistently technically excellent works, using diamond-point, burin and burr, of carefully observed and studied architecture, a genre made famous by Bone and to a lesser extent Dodd. With a few minute grooves and flecks cut in the surface of a copper plate, Rushbury could conjure extraordinary effects of mood and atmosphere.
Rushbury was particularly fond of featuring bridges which dominate his compositions but also create genuine interest as to where they lead from and to. Bridges often span water and Rushbury was masterly in conveying reflections. Both these characteristics are evident in this drypoint, depicting the late 16th century Ponte delle Guglie in the less touristy northern Venetian district of Cannaregio. This is the only bridge in Venice adorned with spires, from which it takes its name. Rushbury has taken certain liberties, such as filling in the balustrade. The nearby tower is part of the 15th century church of San Giobbe (St Job), built after an onset of plague.
See:
Wikipedia, 'Henry Rushbury', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Rushbury
---- 'Pontelle delle Guglie', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_delle_Guglie
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2018