The University of Queensland

[1.] [Aerial view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge] Lithograph, 1932

It was January, 1928. English-born artist Robert Emerson Curtis was returning to Australia after 6 years studying in America, with his wife and young daughter. They sailed into Sydney Harbour, where the boat docked at Darling Harbour in the midst of a summer rain squall. The family disembarked and, as Curtis later recounted:

"As a genial Customs officer checked our baggage, he mentioned that Sydney was getting on with the bridge. ‘What Bridge?’ we asked. He seemed stunned by our ignorance. Hadn’t we heard that Sydney was building the greatest arch-bridge in the world? Not much to be seen yet, he added, but they were well ahead with the approaches. It was stirring news — a harbour bridge at last. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to get involved with the story of its construction, to record a grand and important event". ¹

Curtis was to get his wish. In May 1928, after settling with his family into a house at Watson’s Bay, he approached Dr J J C Bradfield, chief engineer for the New South Wales State Government on the bridge project, and gained access to the worksite.

Over the next four years, Curtis would visit and re-visit the site, documenting the many stages of construction and the activities of various workers.

One of the outcomes of that work was the publication of Building the bridge: twelve lithographs with introduction and supplement in 1933. 1000 copies were printed, 600 in portfolio and 400 in book form. Despite the title, the book contained 14 lithographs, one of which is displayed here.

Lithography was in its infancy in Australia at that time. Curtis made his first lithograph in 1930, on a zinc plate. When lithography was first developed in 1796, the name of the process was derived from the ancient Greek lithos, meaning stone, and grapho, ‘to write’, as limestone blocks were used in the process. Lithography involves applying fat or oil based mediums to some sections of the stone or metal plate, and gum arabic to other areas. Ink is then applied, which sticks to the oily areas and is repelled by the other areas, and a press is then used to transfer the image to the paper. Lithography can be used to produce both monotone and colour prints — well-known examples of the latter are the colourful posters by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

[2.] Joining the Arch. Lithograph, 1930

[3.] Medusa’s Locks. Lithograph, ca.1930

[4.] Yesterday and Today. Lithograph, ca. 1932

Of the 14 lithographs in the Building the Bridge, 13 were in black and white and one in colour.

The book represents only a small portion of Curtis’ artistic output depicting the bridge’s construction.

It was re-issued in 1982 as Building the bridge: fourteen lithographs celebrating the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in which the colour plate was replaced by an additional black and white lithograph.

Curtis also published The Bridge in 1981, which was a personal account based on his memories of the bridge’s construction, illustrated with many more of the artworks he completed between 1928 and 1932.

Fryer Library holds copies of all three titles.

1.

Curtis, Robert Emerson, The Bridge, Milsons Point, NSW: Currawong Press, 1981, p.7

Penny Whiteway, Fryer Library