David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Bomberg's productive second visit to Spain resulted in such rich and successful canvases that he proposed to travel from Cuenca, Santander and Santillana in the north, to Ronda in the south. In June 1934, Bomberg first enlisted the support of the dealer Alfred Willey who the artist hoped could make further sales to the collectors in England who had admired his earlier Spanish landscapes of Toledo, and eventually he advanced the sum of £50 (made up of £25 each from Asa Lingard and Arthur Crossland, the Bradford merchants) to make the journey possible.

The Bomberg family had settled in Ronda by the end of 1934, and stayed on until the following June, during which time his daughter Diana was born. The family had a harsh existence, living hand to mouth, as more money from England proved not to be forthcoming. This austerity brought about a productivity and a desire to work quickly, which resulted in bold landscapes that celebrated the majesty of the scenery, often painted at dusk or at night by candlelight. The dramatic landscape of the city, 750 metres above sea level and split by the Guadalevin river and a dramatic gorge, rendered it, in Bomberg's view: `the most interesting of the towns of Southern Spain', with its `extraordinary view of the amphitheatre of mountains by which it is surrounded', with a `gorge - a stupendous rent 250-300 ft wide & 400 ft deep' (D. Bomberg, quoted in R. Cork, op. cit., p. 207).

The present work depicts the Moor's Bridge, or Puente Romano, over the Tajo Gorge, one of three bridges which link the town. The other two are the Old Bridge or the Puente Viejo, and the New Bridge, Puente Nuevo, which was completed in the eighteenth century (see R. Cork, op. cit., pp. 204-213).