Brooklyn Bridge Late Afternoon 1916

Rachael Robinson Elmer created this print, Brooklyn Bridge Late Afternoon, using woodcut with color around the turn of the century. The image is dominated by a two-tone palette of muted blues and yellows, conveying a tranquil, dusky atmosphere. The simplified forms and flat planes owe a debt to Japanese woodblock prints. The bridge and city skyline, rendered in silhouette, create a sense of depth and distance. Note how the water is depicted with horizontal bands of yellow, suggesting the play of light on the water's surface. These flat planes are a conscious rejection of traditional perspective, leading to a modern interpretation of space and form. The very structure of the print, with its bold outlines and non-naturalistic color choices, emphasizes artifice over imitation. The woodcut medium, with its inherent texture and graphic quality, further reinforces this sense of constructed reality. It reminds us that art is not a mirror reflecting the world but a lens through which we interpret it.