Mont Saint Gothard c. 19th century

Curator: Charles Turner's "Mont Saint Gothard" captures a powerful mountain pass, a symbolic gateway. Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by the earthiness of it. The sepia tones emphasize the geological processes at play. The labor of the aquatint process itself echoes the mountain’s own formation. Curator: Consider this, the pass itself, historically, served as a crucial link, enabling cultural and economic exchange, but also representing the challenge of crossing boundaries. It's a place where man confronts nature’s grandeur. Editor: And those figures, almost obscured, remind us of the human labor invested in carving routes through such landscapes. The print itself is a product of labor, from the copperplate to the ink. Curator: The mountain as a symbol has long carried cultural weight—of the sublime, of spiritual aspiration. It reflects our enduring fascination with the monumental. Editor: Absolutely, and I think the printmaking process, with its multiple stages, mirrors that sense of endurance, of something built over time through a material transformation. Curator: Indeed, layers of meaning reflected in layers of process. Editor: A fitting encapsulation.