The Pont du Gard

Roman arches rise in three stacked tiers above the Gardon river, the old aqueduct bridge painted by Winston Churchill in The Pont du Gard. Honeyed stone dominates every plane of the composition. Shallow water runs pale beneath the lowest arcade, carrying reflections of the piers in broken strokes of cream and grey. The masonry blocks are built up in warm ochre and umber, each course of the ancient engineering laid down with a few confident dabs. Scrub and cypress cling to the banks in dusty green, and the sky above the great arches thins to a wash of chalky blue. Churchill painted the monument as a traveler and a painter, not a topographer, and the brushwork keeps the rough tactility of a study made on the spot. Suited to a study, library reading nook, or an entryway hung alone on a plaster wall.