Fotoreproductie van een tekening, voorstellende een brug te Granada before 1896

This is a photogravure reproduction of a drawing of a bridge in Granada by Herbert Denison. It is printed on a page in a book of unknown date. Denison’s image captures a moment in a place imbued with centuries of cultural and political history. Granada, as the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, is a place where histories of religious and ethnic identity intersect. This drawing invites us to consider the complex relationship between artistic representation and the layered identities of a place. While Denison’s intentions remain somewhat opaque to us, we can consider the position of a British artist depicting a Spanish city with such a rich and complex past. What aspects of Granada did he choose to highlight, and what might that tell us about the prevailing attitudes of the time? Consider the choices that Denison made in this depiction of Granada, and how they resonate with the broader themes of cultural identity, representation, and the gaze.