View in the St. Gotthard Pass, Switzerland

J.M.W. Turners View in the St. Gotthard Pass, Switzerland from 1842 is a watercolor with pen and ink that captures the sublime grandeur of the Alpine pass that connects northern and southern Europe, a subject that had fascinated artists and travelers since the 18th century. The St. Gotthard Pass, which had been made accessible by a road built by Napoleon in the early 19th century, provided Turner with a subject that combined the topographic particularity of a specific location with the atmospheric generality that distinguishes his most ambitious watercolors. The watercolor and ink medium, with its combination of transparent washes and sharp Linear accents, allows Turner to suggest the vast scale of the Alpine landscape, the dramatic contrast between rock and sky, and the atmospheric effects of cloud and mist that transform the solid forms of the mountains into shimmering apparitions at the edge of visibility. The year 1842 places this watercolor in the period of Turners final trips to Switzerland, when he was producing some of his most daring and abstract works in both watercolor and oil, and the St. Gotthard view exemplifies the degree to which he was willing to dissolve topographic detail into pure atmosphere in his late work.

Turners Swiss watercolors are among the most revolutionary works in the history of landscape painting, pushing the medium of watercolor toward an abstraction that would not be seen again until the 20th century. The St. Gotthard Pass view influenced the development of Alpine landscape painting and the broader tradition of the sublime in art.

A 1842 watercolor with pen and ink by Turner of the St. Gotthard Pass in Switzerland, combining topographic particularity with atmospheric dissolution in the Alpine sublime that characterizes his most daring late watercolors.