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Madeline Belmont, and the Durgin Covered Bridge, North Sandwich Village, NH


Belmont, a Geneva, NY, artist, yielded signature bold strokes with a strong emotion, creating an evocative landscape in her painting of the "Durgin Bridge". Using a loose painterly style, the trees are exuberantly colorful as she mixes bright yellow with black to create different shades of green. The shadows are shades of blue, which provides shocking electric clarity of the New Hampshire summer sun. The bridge is historically brown where she demonstrates her artistic impulses right on the canvas. 

Belmont creates the composition with an on-the-spot response to the scene. There is spontaneity as she records the 1869 covered brown bridge. Each brush stroke comes live as her palette is limited to just about five colors each mixed with black. She uses the mixed colors right on the canvas board that push the composition more and more to emotion response. We might have never visited the Durgin Bridge near Sandwich, NH, but we know scene. The bridge is old, the dirt road is dusty, the "Cold River" below is filled with cool snow melt, and we remember back to a day when we saw a similar scene. The painting was completed in just one sitting, and most likely right on site.


Durgin Bridge Over the Cold River

Near North Sandwich Village, NH
Oil on Canvas Board - 1961
Signed: M. Belmont

The historic Durgin Bridge was built in 1869, about one and one-half miles north of N.H. Route 113, and two miles east of North Sandwich Village on Durgin Road, spanning the Cold River. The existing bridge was built by Jacob Berry of North Conway. Berry claimed that the bridge was so strong that it could be filled with wood without causing it to fail. There is no evidence that anyone ever attempted to prove his theory. The bridge is named for James Holmes Durgin who ran the grist mill nearby. The bridge was also a link in the underground slave railroad from Sandwich to North Conway. Milton Graton and his son Arnold repaired and strengthened the structure in 1967-1968. It was rehabilitated in 1983 at a cost of $48,000. The Durgin Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge has its own Wikipedia page.

While little is known of Madeline Belmont, it was clear that she was a plein-air painter. The Geneva Times lists Ms. Belmont was part of the Geneva, NY Country Club jet set. She lived within walking distance of both the Country Club and the Belhurst Castle and Winery. 

The Geneva Times (July 30, 1968) reported about a special exhibit at the Cayuga Museum, Auburn, NY. Ms. Belmont was listed for the “Fairfax Award,” a purchased award for the city of Geneva. The painting was titled: “The Blacksmith Shop.” Also The Rochester Newspaper (May 7th, 1963) photographed Ms. Belmont with two other artists holding examples of their work.



       Signature in Lower Left - M. Belmont












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