ANDREW HARTMANN (1868-1953)
Superstition mountain (1,910 m - 6,266 ft)
United States of America (Arizona)
In Superstition Mountains near Superior , 1949, oil on canvas, San Diego Museum of Art
In Superstition Mountains near Superior , 1949, oil on canvas, San Diego Museum of Art
The mountain
Superstition Mountain (1,910 m - 6,266 ft) is part of the Supertistions Mountains Range popularly called "The Superstitions", also called Wikchsawa in Yavapai langage and Sierra de la Espuma Spanish. It is located in Arizona, east of Phoenix. The mountain range is in the federally designated Superstition Wilderness Area, and includes a variety of natural features in addition to its namesake mountain.
- Weavers Needle, a prominent landmark and rock climbing destination set behind and to the east of Superstition Mountain, is a tall eroded volcanic remnant that plays a significant role in the legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. According to this legend, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz discovered a mother lode of gold in the Superstition Wilderness and revealed its location on his deathbed in Phoenix in 1891 to Julia Thomas, a boarding-house owner who had taken care of him for many years.
- Peralta Canyon, on the northeast side of Superstition Mountain, contains a popular trail that leads up to Fremont Saddle, which provides a very picturesque view of Weavers Needle. Some Apaches believe that the hole leading down into the lower world, or hell, is located in the Superstition Mountains. Winds blowing from the hole is supposed to be the cause of severe dust storms in the metropolitan region.
- Miner's Needle is another prominent formation in the wilderness and a popular hiking destination.
The Superstition Mountains have a desert climate, with high summer temperatures and a handful of perennial sources of water. Numerous hiking trails cross the mountains from multiple access points, including the Peralta Trailhead, the most popular. The Lost Dutchman State Park, located on the west side of Superstition Mountain, includes several short walking trails.
The Superstition Mountains are bounded roughly by U.S. Route 60 on the south, State Route 88 on the northwest, and State Route 188 on the northeast.
The painter
Andrew Hartmann was a Swiss-born painter who came to America as a youth and painted widely across the United States. He supported himself throughout the first half of the 1900s primarily by house painting and decorative painting. He painted hundreds of oil and water color paintings in a post-Bierstadt, American impressionist style. Taken as a whole, his work presents a pageant of America in the first half of the 20th century.
Andrew Hartmann painted occasional plein air oils as possible preliminary sketches for later studio oil paintings. Together with pencil drawings, his sketchbooks also contain many beautifully finished watercolors made on site. As a decorator and housepainter he was a very good colorist and he was known for his ability to mix up a color match to a given wall or room, and “get it right” the first time. This ability is especially apparent in his landscape paintings. The earlier oils show a relatively precise German landscape style with brushstrokes held back in order to create a greater degree of realism. This was typical of artistic training in Europe in the mid-1800s, and was the style that was already loosening, as a result of the French impressionists’ attempts to capture effects of light in the open air.
