FRIEDRICH GEORG WEITSCH (1758-1828)
Chimborazo (6,263.47m - 20,549.4 ft)
Ecuador
In Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland at the foot of the volcano Chimborazo during their American Expedition, 1806, oil on canvas.
Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Germany.
The mountain
Chimborazo (6,263 m -20,548 ft) is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes ans the highest mountain in Ecuador and the Andes north of Peru ; it is higher than any more northerly summit in the Americas. Chimborazo is not the highest mountain by elevation above sea level, but its location along the equatorial bulge makes its summit the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center.
Chimborazo is at the main end of the Ecuadorian Volcanic Arc, north west of the town of Riobamba. Chimborazo is in la Avenida de los Volcanes (the Avenue of Volcanoes) west of the Sanancajas mountain chain. Carihuairazo, Tungurahua, Tulabug, and El Altar are all mountains that neighbor Chimborazo. The closest mountain peak, Carihuairazo, is 5.8 mi (9.3 km) from Chimborazo. There are many microclimates near Chimborazo, varying from desert in the Arenal to the humid mountains in the Abraspungo valley. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around A.D. 550.
Until the beginning of the19th century, it was thought that Chimborazo was the highest mountain on Earth (measured from sea level), and such reputation led to many attempts on its summit during the 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1746, the volcano was explored by French academicians from the French Geodesic Mission. Their mission was to determine the sphericity of the Earth. Their work along with another team in Lapland established that the Earth was an oblate spheroid rather than a true sphere. They did not reach the summit of Chimborazo.
In 1802, during his expedition to South America, Baron Alexander von Humboldt (on left in the painting above) accompanied by Aimé Bonpland (on right in the painting above) and the Ecuadorian Carlos Montufar (on left with Humboldt in the painting above), tried to reach the summit. From his description of the mountain, it seems that before he and his companions had to return suffering from altitude sickness they reached a point at 5,875 m, higher than previously attained by any European in recorded history. (Incas had reached much higher altitudes previously). In 1831, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Colonel Hall reached a new "highest point", estimated to be 6,006 m.
The painter
Friedrich Georg Weitsch was a German painter and etcher. Weitsch began his artistic training with his father, "Pascha" Johann Friedrich Weitsch (1723–1803). He attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. After traveling to Amsterdam and Italy between 1784 and 1787, he returned home and became court painter to Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. In 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Art and became its director in 1798 (succeeding Bernhard Rode). His work included landscapes, history and religious painting, and portraits of royal and civil authorities—the latter showing the influence of Anton Graff. Some are held at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, the Städtisches Museum, and the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, all in Braunschweig. He painted the very famous painting of the Chimborazo (above) featuring the portrait of Alexander von Humboldt with landscape he imagined as well as the portrait ofAimé Bonpland and Carlos Montufarin Ecuador, he never saw.