FRANCIS CARIFFA (1890-1975)
The Mont Granier (1,933 m 6,342 ft)
France (Savoie)
In Le Mont Granier vu des abîmes de Myans, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts Chambery.
Mont Granier (1,933 m 6,342 ft) is a limestone mountain located between the départements of Savoie and Isère in France. It lies in the Chartreuse Mountains range of the French Prealps between the towns of Chapareillan and Entremont-le-Vieux. Its east face overlooks the valley of Grésivaudan and Combe de Savoie, and the north face overlooks Chambéry. At 900 meters tall, Mont Granier has one of the highest cliffs in France.
In the year 1248, between November 24–25, a mass of limestone resting on marls slid into the valley, causing a massive landslide that destroyed many villages and caused over a thousand casualties, although the numbers are still debated. This event created the sheer 700 m north face of the mountain.
In the night of between January 8-9, 2016, a part of the northwest pillar crumbled towards Entremont-le-Vieux, where residents woke up at 5 in the morning. The collapse was of about 70,000 cubic meters of rock. The last debris were stopped by trees within 300 m of the closest houses, lying in the hamlets of Brancaz and Tencovaz.
The artist
Francis Cariffa is a French painter (1890 -1975) best known for his mountain paintings.
He first intended for the theater but eventually turned to painting after the Great War, during which he was a test pilot and returned with the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre. He is also decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1939. He lives for a while in Montmartre, then settles in Challes-les-Eaux.
First influenced by Joseph-Victor Communal, he quickly found his own style. He paints with a knife and is a recognized master of the use of colors.
His first exhibition took place at the Janin Gallery in Chambery in 1924; then he exhibited in Grenoble, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice, Cannes, Menton, Metz, Paris (galleries Simonson, Charpentier, Georges Petit, Bernheim) and also in Belgium, Morocco and Canada.
Author of many paintings, he especially represented the mountain and the high-mountain, but also the landscapes of Provence and Morocco. He is thus classified as an Orientalist painter for his paintings made in Morocco, Marrakech in particular. His paintings were bought by the State and the city of Paris and are exposed to the Museum of Fine Arts Chambery.
His painting Mont-Blanc, painted in 1935, was exhibited in the lounge of the tourists of the liner Normandy.
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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
