Thursday, December 13, 2018

THE WEISSHORN BY BLANCHE BERTHOUD


 BLANCHE BERTHOUD (1864 -1938)
Das Weisshorn  (4, 506m - 14, 783ft)
Switzerland (Valais) 

 In  Das Weisshorn im Abendlicht, oil on canvas.


The mountain 
The Weisshorn (4, 506m - 14, 783ft) meaning white peak  in German, is a major peak of the Swiss Alps. It is part of the Pennine Alps and is located between the valleys of Anniviers and Zermatt in the canton of Valais.  The Weisshorn was first climbed in 1861 from Randa by the Irish physicist John Tyndall, accompanied by the guides J.J. Bennen and Ulrich Wenger. Nowadays, the Weisshorn Hut is used on the normal route. The Weisshorn is considered by many mountaineers to be the most beautiful mountain in the Alps and Switzerland for its pyramidal shape and pure white slopes.
In April and May 1991, two consecutive rockslides took place from a cliff above the town of Randa on the east side of the massif, below the Bis Glacier.

The painter 
Blanche Berthoud was a Swiss painter from the region Neufchatel (Switzerland) who was very active throughout the first half of the 20th century. She was part of the  Société romande des femmes peintres  (Romande Society of Women Painter) founded  by the painter Jeanne Lombard (1865-1945) who defended very fiercely mountain women painters, a world often reserved for men. She made several paintings and watercolors of the Breithorn, one of which was acquired by the Museum of Art and History of Neufchatel.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau