PEDER MONSTED (1859-1941)
Mont Agel (1,148m - 3,766ft)
France (Région Sud)
In Cap Martin french Riviera, oil on canvas, 1907, private collection
The mountain
Mount Agel (1,148m - 3,766ft) ) is a summit of the Alps located in the French town of Peille, in the Prealps of Nice and is the culmination of the Monegasque watershed in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region recently renamed Région Sud. It dominates the Principality of Monaco and has held a strategic position since ancient times; it still houses today military installations of airforce detection.
It can be seen from some parts of the town of Nice as well as from the Italian Riviera.
The history of Mount Agel begins with the Celtic-Ligurian tribes who occupied the site and some of whose members engaged in the boarding and looting of boats engaged in cabotage. They are submitted from 23 to 13 BC. by the Romans who restore the old coastal road through the flanks of Mount Agel to connect Ventimiglia to Narbonne Gaul by the Via Aurelia.
From the 14th century, Mount Agel is closely linked to the history of the former autonomous city of Peille. In 1860, the annexation of the county of Nice to France changed the boundaries of the region, with many peaks and passes remaining Italian. Mount Agel takes on a great strategic importance which is reinforced by the French defeat of 1870-1871. Mount Agel now houses a large artillery structure equipped with turrets, interconnected by deeply buried galleries. During the fighting of June 1940, his shots participated in the defense of Menton and supported the outpost of Pont-Saint-Louis and Cap-Martin.
The painter
Peder Mønsted was a Danish realist painter, best known for his landscape paintings.
In 1882, he spent some time in Rome and Capri . In 1883, he worked in the studios of William Adolphe Bouguereau in Paris. In 1889, he went to Algeria. Three years later, he travelled to Greece, where he was a guest of King George I, who was Danish. While there, he also did portraits of the Royal Family. After that, he visited Egypt and Spain.
His travels produced numerous sketches that became paintings he presented at several international exhibitions. Most of his landscapes were, however, devoted to Scandinavia. He was especially popular in Germany, where he held several shows at the Glaspalast in Munich. During his later years, he spent a great deal of time in Switzerland and travelling throughout the Mediterranean. Most of his works are in private collections. In 1995, a major retrospective, called "Light of the North", was held in Frankfurt am Main.
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