Drawn and etched by Turner. Engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner. Dated 1808 and published in Part 4 of the Liber Studiorum ( Finberg 19). Category: Mountainous. (See Forrester, p.67.)
In his Notes on the Turner Gallery (1856) Ruskin includes this plate in a list of the 'best of the series' ( Works, 13.96). In The Elements of Drawing (1857), he recommends study of it as one of the 'most desirable' Liber Studiorum subjects ( Works, 15.98). Ruskin's explanation of the name of the bridge was published in the Pall Mall Gazette, Dec 10th 1887. Referring to the skeleton of a sheep in the foreground, he explains that 'The sheep caught in a storm has leaped from a higher ledge across the foaming torrent to a lower: a very Devil's leap, for the lower ledge is on an island; there is no possibility of escape, and the sheep has been starved to death' ( Works, 34.725).