Rhinoceros
on the Bridge was partly inspired by the delightful little painting by Pietro Longhi in
the National Gallery. The dear little Rhino in his painting is minus his horn
and is in what looks to be a sandy enclosure where people dressed for Carnival
are admiring him so I decided that I should give the rhinoceros his freedom and
his horn back and make him slightly larger. Thus the musicians in the gondola
and other canal-farers are wearing costumes and masks. Also a painting I hold
with affection as our son Nathan won an essay prize from the National Gallery
when he chose it to write about as a boy. There is a bear peering out of a
window at the rhinoceros; the bear relates to a set of paintings I recently
created imagining Byron’s Bear & Menagerie.