Mabel Oliver Rae (1868 – 1956)
Queens’ Bridge, Cambridge
Etching
13 x 9 cm
Titled lower left and signed lower right in plate, and again in pencil outside plate.
The college’s famed Mathematical Bridge, which reflects in the ruffled waters of the River Cam.
Kate Hillman of the Cambridge University Engineering Department notes that: “One of the most recognisable structures on the Cam, Queens’ College bridge was originally built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger. Since then it has been rebuilt twice to the original design of William Etheridge, once in 1866 and again in 1905. In 1866 the bridge deck was changed from a stepped design to the current sloped deck. In 1905 a complete rebuild of the bridge was required due to weathering of the original oak structure. stories have suggested that a group of students (or professors, depending on the storyteller) disassembled the bridge to discover how it stood up and then couldn’t put it back together. The bridge was supposedly then rebuilt using rather prominent bolts.” It seems more likely that the bolts were put in to prevent these notional students from repeating their trick.
Mabel Oliver Rae was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, and trained at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1888 and 1890. Rae is known for her skilled etchings of various rural scenes and townscapes, particularly those of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. She signed works with the pseudonym ‘M.Oliver Rae’, a ruse to conceal the fact she was a female artist, so as not to reduce her chances with commercial dealers and agents.
Condition: very good; fractional toning to paper.
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