Joseph Mallord William Turner The Schöllenen Gorge from the Devil's Bridge, Pass of St Gotthard 1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
The Schöllenen Gorge from the Devil's Bridge, Pass of St Gotthard
1802
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Schöllenen Gorge from the Devil’s Bridge, Pass of St Gotthard 1802
D04625
Turner Bequest LXXV 33
Turner Bequest LXXV 33
Pencil, watercolour and gouache with scratching out on white wove paper prepared with grey wash, 470 x 314 mm
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 33’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXV 33’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1878
National Gallery, London, various dates, 1878–1904 (320, as ‘The Old Road. Pass of St. Gothard’).
1934
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, March 1934–? (no catalogue; frame 10).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (6).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (8).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (12).
1976
Turner und die Schweiz, Kunsthaus, Zürich, October 1976–January 1977 (13, as ‘The Pass of St Gothard’).
1977
Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, International Exhibitions Foundation tour, Cleveland Museum of Art, September–November 1977, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 1977–February 1978, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March–April 1978 (6).
1978
Turner 1775–1851, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, December 1978–February 1979 (7).
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).
1987
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, April–October 1987 (no catalogue).
1989
Summer Miscellany: Watercolours from the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, London, July–September 1989 (no catalogue).
1993
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, September–November 1993, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación ”la Caixa”, Madrid, November 1993–January 1994 (20).
1994
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, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, September–December 1994 (33).
1998
Turner in the Alps 1802, Tate Gallery, London, November 1998–February 1999, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, March–June 1999 (69).
2006
Turner and the Natural World, Clore Gallery, Tate Britain, London, April–October 2006 (no catalogue).
References
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.38: MW 15.
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 Road, Pass of St. Gothard’.
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, 624.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.I, p.202, LXXV 33.
1912
Alex[ander] J. Finberg, Turner’s Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, London 1912, p.23.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis’, risunok, akvarel’, exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, p.10.
1976
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, p. 29 reproduced.
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, pp.13 reproduced, 49.
1976
John Russell and Andrew Wilton, Turner in Switzerland, Zurich 1976, pp.61, 62 reproduced in colour, 135.
1977
Andrew Wilton, Turner Watercolors: An Exhibition of Works Loaned by The Trustees of the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Cleveland Museum of Art 1977, pp.17, 25 reproduced.
1978
John Sillevis, Nini Jonker and Hripsimé Visser, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 1978, pp.23, 50, 120.
1979
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.341.
1980
Andrew Wilton, Turner and the Sublime, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto 1980, p.116 note 2.
1983
Andrew Wilton, in John Gage, Jerrold Ziff, Nicholas Alfrey and others, J.M.W. Turner, à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du British Council, exhibition catalogue, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 1983, p.180.
1984
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.111.
1987
Jonathan Wordsworth, Michael C. Jaye, Robert Woof and others, William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, exhibition catalogue, New York Public Library 1987, p.235.
1992
David Hill, Turner in the Alps: The Journey through France & Switzerland in 1802, London 1992, pp.65, 140 reproduced in colour, 168.
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, pp.86, 87 reproduced in colour.
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, pp.88–9 reproduced in colour.
1996
Gillian Forrester, Turner’s ‘Drawing Book’: The Liber Studiorum, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1996, pp.55–6 note 1.
1998
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Alps 1802, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1998, pp.188–9 reproduced in colour.
1999
David Blayney Brown, Turner et les Alpes 1802, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1999, pp.188–9 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.
2001
Andrew Wilton, Inge Bodesohn-Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, p.295.
2002
David Blayney Brown, Turner in the Tate Collection, London 2002 and subsequent editions, p.64 reproduced in colour.
2007
David Blayney Brown, Turner Watercolours, London 2007, p.37 reproduced in colour.
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. In this watercolour, Turner looks down the Schöllenen Gorge and the Reuss Valley from the centre of the Devil’s Bridge; for his view in the opposite direction, back towards the bridge, from this sketchbook see D04626; Turner Bequest LXXV 34.
This watercolour served as the basis of the large, finished version, The Passage of Mount St Gothard, Taken from the Centre of the Teufels Broch (Devil’s Bridge), Switzerland, made for Walter Fawkes and shown at the opening exhibition at Turner’s Gallery in 1804 (Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal).1 This work must be the ‘Gt. Devils Bridge causeway’ given in a list of projects in the Academies sketchbook (Tate D05244; Turner Bequest LXXIV 69). In 1803 or 1804, Turner also made a painting (City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham),2 and another from D04626, apparently for the wine merchant John Allnutt, who may well have ordered them direct from the drawings. The Birmingham oil reproduces the present composition almost exactly but adds a wayside cross near the kneeling figure at the most precarious point in the road. The Kendal watercolour is the most evolved treatment of the subject, giving an even greater sense of the dizzying height and depth of the gorge and adding mules to the road on the left.
Verso:
Blank
David Blayney Brown
October 2011
How to cite
David Blayney Brown, ‘The Schöllenen Gorge from the Devil’s Bridge, Pass of St Gotthard 1802 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2014, https://www