{"id":2378,"date":"2010-11-18T03:14:39","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T08:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2010-11-18T03:14:39","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T08:14:39","slug":"landslides-in-art-part-8-goldau-by-jmw-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2010\/11\/18\/landslides-in-art-part-8-goldau-by-jmw-turner\/","title":{"rendered":"Landslides in Art Part 8: Goldau by JMW Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>One of the greatest of all British artists was Joseph Mallord William (JMW)\u00a0Turner, often credited as\u00a0the painter who laid the foundation for Impressionism.\u00a0 Turner, who\u00a0was born in London in 1775, is best known for his landscape paintings, and in particular those in which he he used light to dramatic effect.\u00a0 He had a particular interest in natural disasters – volcanic eruptions, storms at sea and avalanches were all the subject of paintings during his long and prolific career.\u00a0 It is also interesting to note that there is some evidence that the glorious sunsets that he painted may have been at least in part the result of the 1815 Tambora volcanic eruption in Indonesia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Turner frequently travelled to the Alps to paint, and in the 1840s he visited the village of Goldau in Switzerland, which in 1806 had been destroyed by a catastrophic landslide.\u00a0 This slide, which was triggered by heavy rain, had an estimated volume of 120 million cubic metres, covering an area of about 20 square kilometres.\u00a0 The landslide, and the tsunami it created on Lake Lauerz, destroyed 111 houses, 220 farm buildings and\u00a0two churches, resulting in the deaths of\u00a0457 people.\u00a0 The Goldau landslide is very well described by Thuro et al.<\/em> (2005)<\/a>, and in fact was depicted in\u00a0the painting to the left, Der Bergsturz von Goldau am 2. Sept. 1806 am Rossberg, Kanton Schwyz, Switzerland<\/em>by\u00a0Gemalde von Keller (sourced from Thuro et al.<\/em> 2005).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turner created a painting of Goldau in 1843 in his characteristic style, blending dramatic use of light with forbidding representation of the landscape to dramatic effect:<\/p>\n

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The dramatic red sky is widely considered to be symbolic of the destruction of the village.\u00a0 Note also the large boulders, presumably deposited by the landslide, populated by a small group of people (survivors?).\u00a0The large church\u00a0surrounded by a small number of houses on the upslope side is also probably symbolic.\u00a0 From a landslide perspective, perhaps the most interesting element is the mass directly behind the church, which appears to have been displaced – there even appears to be a landslide scarp on the left (uphill)\u00a0side.<\/p>\n

Previous editions of landslides in art can be found here:<\/p>\n