The Bridge

The strong lines, bold colours and simplified figures in The Bridge reflect Kowalska's naïve style of painting, disguising a more complex message in which a series of contrasting images are linked literally and symbolically by the bridge. As a happy couple in the foreground celebrate, the young woman behind them, signals across the water, apparently in distress. Beyond the bridge we glimpse an idyllic pastoral scene, but a horse-drawn cart swallowed up by the narrowing perspective suggests a narrowing of opportunities or a disappearing way of life.