Vermont Covered Bridge

Emile Gruppe did not name this bridge or add a label with its location, but that does not mean it is not a specific bridge in Vermont. The two square openings in the side are possible clues that it might be one of the covered bridges near Gruppe’s winter home in Jeffersonville, a village in the town of Cambridge—it could possibly be the one known as the Grist Mill Bridge, built about 1872 (although that date is disputed). The half-frozen waterway in Gruppe’s painting would be the Brewster River in that case.

Gruppe spent his summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he painted, lectured, and taught at his art school, and it is not entirely a surprise that he painted winter scenes of Vermont in his “off” season. It is one thing to paint the rise and fall of sea and surf, but it is another kind of art altogether to paint snow. Taking a long, slow look at this painting, we see that Gruppe has painted drifted snowbanks, snow on the roof of the covered bridge, and a snow-packed dirt road using almost every color on his palette except black and pure white. His winter home and studio were in Jeffersonville, Vermont.