J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This vignette appears as the head-piece to the fifth section in Rogers’s Italy, entitled ‘The Descent.’1 It was engraved by Edward Goodall, who was one of the most prolific and skilled interpreters of Turner’s designs. This scene is based upon a story told by Rogers’s mountain guide, who reported having seen Napoleon and his army crossing the Great St Bernard Pass in 1800:

Napoleon made this famous three-day crossing accompanied by some 40,000 troops.2 Within a month they had scored a crucial victory against the Austrians at Marengo (hence the vignette’s title) and won full control of Italy.3 In the foreground of this vignette, Turner has included a stone inscribed with the words ‘Battle of Marengo’ and ‘Lodi.’ This second name refers to the site of an earlier battle that Napoleon fought in Lombardy in 1796 and which, like Marengo, became central to Napoleonic myth. In the published engraving of this design, mention of this second engagement was removed.

Turner’s representation of Napoleon borrows directly from Jacques-Louis David’s famous equestrian portrait Napoleon crossing the Alps at the Great St Bernard Pass, circa 1800 (Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil Malamison, France). Turner would have seen the painting when he visited David’s Paris studio in 1802 and he may have seen it again when it was exhibited in London in 1815.4 Here, Turner has reproduced not only Napoleon’s rearing horse and dramatic gesture, but also the idea of inscribing the landscape with significant names. In David’s painting, rocks in the foreground bear the names of Napoleon and the Carthaginian leader, Hannibal, a figure who also makes an appearance in Rogers’s Italy (see Tate D27666; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 149). For the most part, a strict separation between figure scenes and landscape subjects was respected throughout Rogers’s Italy, with Thomas Stothard invariably producing the former and Turner the latter. Marengo marks a rare exception to this rule and Adele Holcomb has suggested that Rogers may have encouraged Turner to borrow from David’s picture in order to avoid ‘embarrassment.’5 However, it seems more likely that Turner’s quotation of this well-known visual source was primarily intended to ensure that the vignette’s subject would be immediately recognised by its audience.

In Modern Painters, John Ruskin praises Marengo for its fine representation of the Alpine landscape, which he said conveyed ‘the instant conviction that Turner is as much of a geologist as he is of a painter.’6 Ruskin’s comment may seem surprising given the sketchy quality of the mountain range in this watercolour drawing. However, it is more easily justified when linked to the engraved version, which is in fact what Ruskin was referring to when he penned these words.7 Although, it was common for Turner to provide only the vaguest indication of sky and background scenery in his watercolour drawings for Italy, his many annotations on his engravers’ trial proofs indicate that he nonetheless dictated the appearance of these details in the published versions of the vignettes.8

Contrary to the impression given by the verses quoted above, Rogers did not actually cross into Italy via the Great St Bernard Pass. He instead used the considerably less arduous Simplon Pass, which was conceived and commissioned by Napoleon in the early nineteenth century. There were two clear advantages to a narrative that described a journey across the Great St Bernard Pass. Firstly (and perhaps most importantly given Rogers’s fondness for historical musings), it allowed him to reflect upon the famous crossings of two great conquerors, Napoleon and Hannibal. Secondly, since Rogers first published Italy anonymously, it allowed him to ‘cover his tracks’, thereby throwing off readers who might have otherwise recognised him as the author.9

Verso:

Inscribed by unknown hands in pencil ‘2 b’ and ‘[?6]’ upper centre and ‘CCLXXX.146’ bottom centre
Stamped ‘CCLXXX 146’ lower centre