Joseph Mallord William Turner The Devil's Bridge and Schöllenen Gorge 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
The Devil's Bridge and Schöllenen Gorge
1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Devil’s Bridge and Schöllenen Gorge 1802
D04626
Turner Bequest LXXV 34
Turner Bequest LXXV 34
Pencil, watercolour and gouache with scratching out on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 471 x 318 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 34’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 34’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1878
National Gallery, London, various dates, 1878–1904 (321, as ‘The Old Devil’s Bridge, St. Gothard’).
1934
Display of Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, March 1934–May 1937 (no catalogue; frame 1:15).
1955
A Selection of English Water-Colours (c. 1750 to c. 1820) on Loan from Public and Private Collections, Norwich Castle Museum, January–February 1955 (44).
1955
L’Aquarelle anglaise 1750–1850, British Council tour, Musée Rath, Geneva, October 1955–January 1956, Cabinet des Estampes de l’Ecole Polytehnique Fédérale, Zurich, January–March 1956 (116).
1958
Eight Centuries of Landscape and Natural History in European Water-colour 1180–1920, Department of prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, April 1958 (‘Bay’ 75–7).
1963
Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, September–October 1963, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Texas, November 1963, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1963–January 1964, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, January–March 1964, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, March–April 1964, Brooklyn Museum, New York, May 1964, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June–July 1964 (8).
1964
Loan of Turner Watercolours from the British Museum, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, December 1964–January 1965, University of Nottingham Art Gallery, January–March 1965 (no catalogue).
1966
Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, May–June 1966 (15).
1970
Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels, November 1970–January 1971 (4).
1975
Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (32).
1976
Turner und die Schweiz, Kunsthaus, Zürich, October 1976–January 1977 (12, as ‘The Devil’s Bridge, Pass of St Gothard’).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (8).
1979
Turner’s First Visit to the Continent: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest Loaned by the British Museum, Tate Gallery, London, July–December 1979 (no catalogue).
1980
Turner and the Sublime, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, November 1980–January 1981, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, February–April 1981, British Museum, London, May–September 1981 (19).
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).
1988
Summer Miscellany: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–October 1988 (no catalogue).
1998
Turner in the Alps 1802, Tate Gallery, London, November 1998–February 1999, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, March–June 1999 (68).
2007
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments [second hang], Tate Britain, London, November 2007–October 2008 (no catalogue).
2013
J.M.W. Turner: The Making of a Master, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, February–May 2013, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, June–September 2013 (21).
References
1879
Philip Gilbert Hamerton, The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A., London 1879, p.185, as ‘Old Devil’s Bridge’.
1899
John Ruskin, Catalogue of the Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. at Present Exhibited in the National Gallery: Revised, and Cast into Progressive Groups, with Explanatory Notes: Third Edition, Revised and Illustrated, London 1899, p.28, reproduced opposite.
1902
E.T. Cook (ed.), Ruskin on Pictures: A Collection of Criticisms by John Ruskin not heretofore Re-printed and now Re-edited and Re-arranged, vol.I, London 1902, p.169, as ‘The Old Devil’s Bridge, Pass of St. Gothard’.
1903
Charles Holme (ed.), Robert de la Sizeranne, Walter Shaw Sparrow and others, The Genius of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London, Paris and New York 1903, reproduced pl.39: MW 16.
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (eds.), Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, pp.371 reproduced pl.XIX, 624.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.202, LXXV 34.
1912
Alex[ander] J. Finberg, Turner’s Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, London 1912, p.23.
1963
Edward Croft-Murray, Turner Watercolors from The British Museum: A Loan Exhibition Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 1963, pp.9, 28 reproduced.
1964
Kenneth Clark, Elizabeth Davidson and John Gage, Ruskin and his Circle, exhibition catalogue, Arts Council Gallery, London 1964, p.34 under no.115.
1966
Francis W. Hawcroft, Exhibition of Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1966, pp.20–1.
1970
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Watercolours Lent by the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Musée Provisoire d’Art Moderne, Brussels 1970, pp.6, 10.
1975
Luke Herrmann, Turner: Paintings, Watercolours, Prints & Drawings, London 1975, pp.14, 87, 227–8 reproduced pl.36.
1975
Andrew Wilton, Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 1975, pp.34, 43 reproduced in colour.
1976
John Russell and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich 1976, pp.61, 63 reproduced in colour, 135, 137.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, pp.58, 83.
1980
Andrew Wilton, Turner and the Sublime, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 1980, pp.116, 117 reproduced, 122.
1981
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1981, p.112.
1981
William Gaunt and Robin Hamlyn, Turner, revised ed., Oxford 1981, p.38 reproduced Fig.19.
1992
David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, pp.137, 139 reproduced in colour, 168.
1990
David Blayney Brown, The Art of J.M.W. Turner, London 1990, pp.150, 151 reproduced.
1993
Mungo Campbell, A Complete Catalogue of Works by Turner in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 1993, p.79.
1993
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, exhibition catalogue, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona 1993, p.88.
1994
Ian Warrell, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, exhibition catalogue, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi 1994, p.88.
1994
William Gaunt and Robin Hamlyn, Turner, London 1994, p.38 reproduced Fig.19.
1995
Ian Warrell, Through Switzerland with Turner: Ruskin’s First Selection from the Turner Bequest, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.16.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’; The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, pp.67, 81 reproduced in colour pl.1, 142 note 4.
1997
Inge Herold, Turner on Tour, Munich and New York 1997, p.30.
1998
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Alps 1802, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.186–7 reproduced in colour.
1999
David Blayney Brown, Turner et les Alpes 1802, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1999, pp.186–7 reproduced in colour.
2001
Andrew Wilton ‘St. Gotthard’, in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann eds., The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, p.278.
2002
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Tate Collection, London 2002 and subsequent editions, p.64 reproduced in colour.
2002
Lawrence Gowing, ‘Turner’s First Continental Tour in 1802’, Turner Society News, no.91, August 2002, pp.10, 12 note 37.
2004
Olivier Meslay, Turner: L’Incendie de la Peinture, Paris 2004, p.68 reproduced in colour.
2005
Olivier Meslay, J.M.W. Turner: The Man Who Set Painting on Fire, trans. Ruth Sharman, London 2005, p.68 reproduced in colour.
2013
Nicola Moorby, in Ian Warrell (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: The Making of a Master, Adelaide 2013, pp.103, 108, 109 reproduced in colour, 249.
For Turner’s visit to the St Gotthard Pass and Reuss gorge in 1802 see Introduction to the sketchbook and notes to D04628; Turner Bequest LXXV 36. Here, the Devil’s Bridge is seen looking up the Schöllenen Gorge and the Reuss Valley, with the Reuss Falls beyond. In 1803 or 1804, Turner made a painting (private collection)1 from this drawing, together with another2 based on the drawing also from this sketchbook taken from the centre of the bridge (D04625; Turner Bequest LXXV 33). Both were apparently commissioned by the wine merchant John Allnutt, who may well have ordered them direct from the drawings.
The Devil’s Bridge was destroyed during fighting between the French and Russians in 1799 and had just been rebuilt when Turner saw it in 1802. In his painting of this subject he added soldiers and pack-mules on the tracks on either side of the bridge. The soldiers’ white uniforms suggest they are Russian. In the drawing only a few figures appear but one on the left is touched with red; in the picture the soldiers’ baggage is also red.
Turner developed this drawing in landscape format as a plate for the Liber Studiorum, via an intermediate study (Tate N03631). The subject was evidently a pendant to Little Devil’s Bridge representing the Pfaffensprung or ‘Priest’s Leap’, a bridge encountered on an earlier stretch of the St Gotthard road towards the Italian border; for Turner’s drawing from of it from this sketchbook see D04628; Turner Bequest LXXV 36.
In manuscript notes made in 1880, John Ruskin, unaccountably, described the present drawing as ‘curiously bad’.3
Verso:
Blank
David Blayney Brown
August 2013
How to cite
David Blayney Brown, ‘The Devil’s Bridge and Schöllenen Gorge 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www