By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Engraved by Wallis after Turner. ( Rogers's Italy, p.9. Rawlinson 350. Wilton 1154.)
Ruskin discussed this vignette extensively elsewhere. In The Elements of Drawing (1857) he recommended study of its 'rolling clouds and running river' ( Works, 15.77), and again in Modern Painters V he refers the reader to Turner 's depiction of the 'broken, quiet cumulus' clouds in its sky ( Works, 7.168). In 1878 he pointed out that the river (the Rhone) is depicted as running the wrong way:
The facts are that, from the beginning to the end of his life, Turner's object was never to give literal or geographical account of anything, but to perpetuate the mental impression he had himself received from it. That impression at St. Maurice had depended on the aspect of the bridge seen from this side, and on the rapidity of the massy river that rushed beneath it, but not in the least on the quarter of the compass to which its current was directed. He felt himself unable to express its power in looking downstream, and chose therefore to represent the bridge behind it and the river in front. I do not Justify this, but if Turner had always done right, his country and the world would long ago have known that he did, and there would have been no occasion for any author of Modern Painters.' (Works, 21.212)
For other examples of Turner 's willingness to modify geographical and astronomical facts where necessary, see Davis, Ruskin, Turner and the Crescent Moon.
J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851
St. Maurice c.1827
Pencil and watercolour, 16.5x22cm
Engraving:
Engraved by R. Wallis, 1830
Steel engraving, 6.4x8.9cm
Engraved for Rogers's 'Italy', 1830
Collection: British Museum, London (Trustees)