Whipping bridge over a forest stream, 1790 – 1800

About the Work

The park at Elswout Manor near Haarlem had been laid out in the late eighteenth century as an English landscape garden. The “Swiss Bridge” assembled from coarsely hewn trunks and branches was one of the sights intended to represent primeval – and at the same time aesthetically pleasing – naturalness. With his handling of the light, Milatz – a pupil of Paulus van Liender – succeeded in staging this ostensible simplicity and natural purity to striking effect.