Untitled (Golden Gate Bridge and bay)

Hubert Buel

A familiar site in the San Francisco Bay, the south end of the Golden Gate bridge arcs towards the viewer, the imposing Fort Point at its base elevated by a late afternoon sun in Buel’s striking watercolor. It seems the odds were in Buel’s favor on the day he captured this scene, as a rare bright sun casts the scene in stark shadow and light. Seen from beneath the span, the Marin Headlands, still green with spring growth, rolls along the horizon as the viewer looks out across the flat, calm bay - an ever-changing surface whose color moods change as quickly as the coastal weather, and which in this case is the luminescent turquoise of the sky it reflects.