Turner visited the St Gotthard Pass, an important route through the Alps between central Switzerland and northern Italy, on his first visit to the Continent in 1802, though he did not cross into Italy at this stage. The present view is from the Schöllenen Gorge, looking north along the valley of the Reuss above Goschenen.
1 Although a watercolour study in the
St Gothard [sic]
and Mont Blanc sketchbook (Tate
D04625; Turner Bequest LXXV 33) has been noted as a source on which the
Liber design was ‘loosely based’,
2 its direct inspiration has been identified as a pencil drawing in the
Lake Thun sketchbook (Tate
D04719; Turner Bequest LXXVI 62),
3 including indications of the tunnel and the light beyond it; in the present work he used this natural arch to frame a figure which was further emphasised in the finished print. He also introduced a packhorse or mule, perhaps to emphasise the arduous nature of the journey through the pass, ‘a symbol of the labour that built the road, and daily uses it.’
4 Others appear in another
Liber design of about the same date, the
Devil’s Bridge, Mt St Gothard, which was engraved but not published (for drawing see Tate
N03631). Another landmark on the St Gotthard route, the Little Devil’s Bridge, also featured in the series (Tate
D08123; Turner Bequest CXVI V). The three compositions appear successively in Turner’s MS list of ‘Mountainous’ subjects (see below).