The Genius of Turner: Painting The Industrial Revolution

Take a closer look at J.M.W. Turner’s remarkable work The Pass of St. Gotthard, near Faido with Jennifer Tonkovich, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints, as she shares its unique connections to art criticism. Turner executed this drawing in 1843 on commission from John Ruskin, who became his most ardent patron. The subject is the mountain pass at St. Gotthard, in the Swiss alps between Lucerne and Lugano. Every spring the ice melts at St. Gotthard’s Pass near Faido and turns the

JMW Turner

J. M. W. Turner's watercolours were made using pigments such as Gamboge, umbers and siennas, Viridian and Cobalt Blue. He used watercolours in a block form, and there is also evidence he made some, if not all of them, himself. Turner followed pigment development closely and used new pigments as they appeared, such as Cobalt Blue instead of smalt. He also used the toxic Scheele's Green, which he later replaced with Emerald Green and Viridian. Turner used some pigments that faded, as he was passio