Born in the Netherlands, Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) visited Paris for the first time in 1846. At this occasion he worked on several paintings on the Seine shores, which show his interest for the landscape and the lighting effects on the sky and the water. His oils on canvas were realized in a workshop, after several watercolors made on site.

His paintings often favor broad horizons shrouded in high quality light, inherited from Dutch landscape painters from the 17^th century. The artist also admires Corot and the Barbizon school which influenced the light depiction of his work. He likes to represent the everyday life and describes a Paris modern and realistic. In the New Bridge, the painting composition is mainly built by the sky and the diagonal of the river.

Monet, who met Jongkind in 1860, admitted the influence of his predecessor on “the definitive education of his perception”. The painter considerably impacted the Impressionists: even though… they see him as one of their precursors.  The art critic Louis de Fourcaud talks of Jongkind as being “between Corot and Monet, a link between two eras”.