Victoria Bridge over the River Wear

Painting, oil on canvas, Victoria Bridge over the River Wear by John Wilson Carmichael, 1838. Depicts the Victoria Viaduct on the Durham Junction Railway, seen from the banks of the River Wear. In the foreground men and women work and talk at the riverside, while a train crosses the viaduct, leaving a trail of white smoke. Caption on the frame reads "Victoria Bridge over the River Wear. Built by John Gibb & Son of Aberdeen for the Durham Junction Railway and completed on 28th June 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation, by John Wilson Carmichael". Framed and glazed, glass.

John Wilson Carmichael’s oil painting Victoria Bridge over the River Wear. The bridge was built by the Durham Junction Railway and completed on 28th June 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation.

The viaduct, near Washington in County Durham, sits confidently in its landscape, with none of the disruption and destruction occasioned by railway building and only a hint of smoke to betray the passing train.

At the water’s edge locals are at work, while two women stop for a conversation. Figures like these were characteristic of traditional landscape paintings, but they soon became typical of depictions of railways too, helping to show them comfortably assimilated in pastoral settings.

The bridge was based on the Roman era Alcantara bridge in Extramadura, Spain. The use of classical designs was a way of making railways seem a longstanding feature of the landscape.