MACDONNELL RANGES PAINTED BY ALBERT NAMATJIRA

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959) 

Mount Zeil or Urlatherrke (1,531 m - 5,023 ft) 

Australia 

In  The Grandeur, MacDonnell Range, watercolour, 1957 

The mountain
Mount Zeil (1,531m - 5,023ft) Urlatherrke in aboriginal naming, is a mountain situated in the western MacDonnell Ranges in Australia's Northern Territory, often poainted by Albert Namatjira. It is the highest peak in the Northern Territory, and the highest peak on the Australian mainland west of the Great Dividing Range. The others peaks of MacDonnell Ranges are : Mount Liebig (1,524m - 5,000 ft), Mount Edward (1,423m - 4,669 ft), Mount Giles (1,389m - 4,557 ft) and Mount Sonder (1,380m - 4,530 ft).
It is believed that Mount Zeil was named during or following Ernest Giles' 1872 expedition, probably after Count Zeil, who had recently distinguished himself with geographic explorations in Spitzbergen; a footnote in Giles' published journal implies that the naming was instigated by his benefactor, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller.
The MacDonnell Ranges, a mountain range and an interim Australian bioregion, is located in the Northern Territory, comprising 3,929,444 hectares (9,709,870 acres). The range is a 644 km (400 mi) long series of mountains located in the centre of Australia, and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs. The mountain range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of aboriginal significance. The ranges were named after Sir Richard MacDonnell (the Governor of South Australia at the time) by John McDouall Stuart, whose 1860 expedition reached them in April of that year. The Horn Expedition investigated the ranges as part of the scientific expedition into central Australia. Other explorers of the range included David Lindsay and John Ross.The headwaters of the Todd, Finke and Sandover rivers form in the MacDonnell Ranges. The range is crossed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and the Stuart Highway. Part of the Central Ranges xeric scrub ecoregion of dry scrubby grassland the ranges are home to a large number of endemic species including the Centralian Tree Frog. This is mostly due to the micro climates that are found around the cold rock pools.
The MacDonnell Ranges were often depicted in the paintings of Albert Namatjira.

The Painter
Albert Namatjira born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.
Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australia—indeed, reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nation—and he was publicly regarded as a model Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.
Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style, Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Ghost gums with luminous white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school. Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on the banks of the Finke River, west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Namatjira learnt watercolour technique from the artist, Rex Battarbee.
Initially thought of as having succumbed to European pictorial idioms – and for that reason, to ideas of European privilege over the land – Namatjira’s landscapes have since been re-evaluated as coded expressions on traditional sites and sacred knowledge. Ownership of country is hereditary, but detailed knowledge of what it ‘contains’ is learnt in successive stages through ceremony, song, anecdote and contact. Namatjira’s father’s country lay towards Mount Sonder and Glen Helen Gorge, in the MacDonnell Ranges, and his mother’s country was in the region of Palm Valley in Central Australia. In Namatjira’s paintings, the totemic connections to his country are so indelible that, for example, Palm Valley the place and Palm Valley, c.1940s, the painting seem to intersect, detailing Namatjira’s artistic, cultural and proprietorial claim on the land.
One of his first landscapes from 1936, Central Australian Landscape, shows a land of rolling green hills. Another early work, Ajantzi Waterhole (1937), shows a close up view of a small waterhole, with Namatjira capturing the reflection in the water. The landscape becomes one of contrasting colours, a device that is often used by Western painters, with red hills and green trees in Red Bluff (1938). Central Australian Gorge (1940) shows detailed rendering of rocks and reflections in the water. In Flowering Shrubs Namatjira contrasts the blossoming flowers in the foreground with the more barren desert and cliffs in the background. Namatjira's love of trees was often described so that his paintings of trees were more portraits than landscapes, which is shown in the portrait of the often depicted ghost gum in Ghost Gum Glen Helen (c.1945-49). Namatjira's skills at colouring trees can be clearly seen in this portrait. Namatjira was fully aware of his own talent, as was shown when he was describing another landscape painter to William Dargie: "He does not know how to make the side of a tree which is in the light look the same colour as the side of the tree in shadow...I know how to do better."
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MITRE PEAK / RAHOTU PAINTED BY JOHN GULLY

JOHN GULLY (1819 -1888)

Mitre Peak / Rahotu (1,683m - 5,522 ft) 

New Zealand (South Island)

In Milford Sound , watercolour, Museum of New Zealand Te-papa

The mountain 

Mitre Peak/ Rahotu (1,683m -  5,522 ft) is an iconic mountain in the South Island of New Zealand, located on the shore of Milford Sound. It is one of the most photographed peaks in the country. The distinctive shape of the peak in southern New Zealand gives the mountain its name, after the mitre headwear of Christian bishops. It was named by Captain John Lort Stokes of the HMS Acheron. 

Part of the reason for its iconic status is its location. Close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park in the southwestern South Island, it is a stunning sight.  The mountain rises near vertically from the water of Milford Sound, which technically is a fjord.

The peak is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks, with Mitre Peak not even the tallest one, however from most easily accessible viewpoints, Mitre Peak appears as a single point.

 Milford Sound is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site as declared by UNESCO.

The only road access to Milford Sound is via State Highway 94, in itself one of the most scenic roads in New Zealand.

The artist
John Gully (1819 -1888) was a New Zealand landscape painter born in United Kingdom.

Gully's formal education finished when he was apprenticed to Stothert's foundry aged around 13. He worked in the designing and drafting department. He received some training in painting from a Bristol watercolourist, W. J. Muller.
In 1852 Jane and John decided to emigrate with their family of three children to New Zealand.

On 31 July 1860, Gully and his family left New Plymouth on the Airedale for the city of Nelson, where he spent the rest of his life.
He was encouraged by the geologist Julius von Haast, who commissioned him to complete 12 watercolours of Canterbury mountains and glaciers to illustrate a lecture given by Haast at the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1864.
 Eventually in 1863, with assistance of his friend, politician and amateur painter James Crowe Richmond (whom he had met while in New Plymouth), Gully was appointed as a full-time draughtsman at the Nelson provincial survey office. James Crowe Richmond was a lifelong friend of Gully's and his companion in many painting expeditions. He continued to paint in his spare time until 1878 when he was able to resign his position to paint full-time. He was a popular artist during his lifetime and is now regarded as one of New Zealand's foremost landscape painters.
Painting almost entirely in watercolour, Gully often went on sketching trips and filled sketch-books with careful pencil studies and numerous quick-wash drawings both in colour and sepia.
Gully's large watercolours became immensely popular at Art Society shows. He sold all of the watercolours he submitted to the 'New Zealand Exhibition' in Dunedin in 1865 before the exhibition even opened and won a silver medal. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871 and in 1873 sent 9 paintings to the New Zealand court at the International Industrial Exhibition in Vienna. 

In 1886, he exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London and the 'Intercolonial Exhibition' in Melbourne. He also exhibited works with the Society of British Watercolour Artists in London.
Gully died on 1 November 1888 at the age of sixty-nine after a long and painful illness.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

STELLENBOSCH MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY NITA SPILHAUS

 

NITA SPILHAUS (1878-1967) 

Stellenbosch mountain (1,156 m - 3,792 ft)

South Africa

The mountain
The peak of Stellenbosch Mountain (1,156 m- 3,792 ft) also called Stellenbosberg or Die Groteberg is a mountain forming a prominent landmark, par of The Hottentots Holland Mountains, overlooking the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape Province (South Africa). The mountain forms part of the Coetsenburg Estate, the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, the Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve and the larger Hottentots-Holland Mountains Catchment Area.
The source of the Blaauwklippen River is near the peak. The range is primarily composed of Table Mountain Sandstone. The climate is typically Mediterranean; warm and temperate. However, it is generally much cooler and more verdant than other areas in the Western Cape. Snow is not unusual on the peak during winter. The surrounding lowlands have rich alluvial soils supporting viticulture and other deciduous fruit farms.

The painter
Nita Spilhaus born Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina Spilhaus was a Portuguese-born South African painter, working in oil, watercolour and pastel. She is best known for her landscapes, paintings and etchings of trees, her portrayals of the Cape mountains, and depictions of the Malay Quarter.
Nita was raised by her grandfather in Lübeck, and her first training in drawing and etching took place at the Lübeck School of Art, then in Munich, where she attended a private art school run by Friedrich Fehr, the Dachau art colony just outside Munich under Adolf Hölzel, and copper engraving under Heinrich Wolff.
She moved to South Africa in 1907 because of the death of her grandfather in 1906, joining her brother Karl, and the family of her uncle Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus.
She joined the 'South African Society of Artists' soon after her arrival. The Cape Times acknowledged her talent as a graphic artist by publishing a modest booklet of 12 etchings portraying scenes in and around Cape Town.

Working from a studio in Keerom Street in Cape Town she gradually became a leading member of Cape Town's art community. When Hugo Naudé visited Munich in 1913 she took over his art classes in Worcester.
Her oil paintings were Impressionist in style, her landscapes rich in atmosphere, while her flower studies are notable for their vivid colours. She had a particular affinity with trees and her striking images of the Stone Pines around Cape Town are a recurring theme in her work.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

LALLA KHEDIDJA PAINTED BY MARIUS DE BUZON

MARIUS DE BUZON (1879-1958) 

Lalla Khedidja (2,308 m -7,572 ft)

Algeria ( Kabylie)

In Grande Kabylie. Oil on Isorel panel, private collection 

The mountain
Lalla Khedidja (2,308 m -7,572 ft) in the Jurjura Range is the highest summit of the Tell Atlas, a mountain chain over 1,500 km (932 mi) in length, belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching from Morocco, to Tunisia through Algeria. The ranges of this system have average elevations of about 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and form a natural barrier between the Mediterranean and the Sahara. Several large cities such as the Algerian capital, Algiers and Oran lie at the base of the Tell Atlas. The Algerian city Constantine lies 80 km inland and directly in the mountains at 650 meters in elevation. A number of smaller towns and villages are situated within the Tell; for example, Chiffa is nestled within the Chiffa gorge.
The Tell Atlas runs parallel to the Mediterranean coast. Together with the Saharan Atlas to the south it forms the northernmost of two more or less parallel ranges which approach one another towards the east, remaining quite distinct from one another in Western Algeria and merging in Eastern Algeria. At the western end, it ends at the Rif and Middle Atlas ranges in Morocco. The Tell Atlas are also a distinct physiographic section of the larger Atlas Mountains province, which in turn is part of the larger African Alpine System physiographic division. The Tell Atlas and the Saharan Atlas form two natural barriers, the first against the Mediterranean and the second against the Sahara. Between them lies the valley of the Chelif and various lesser rivers.

The painter
Frederic Marius de Buzon  is a French painter of the school of Algiers of Spanish ancestry, descendant of  Francisco de Goya.
In 1939, the well known french journalist and writer Max-Pol Fouchet said about him in Algeria : "The praise of M. de Buzon seems to me useless to do. We know the serious and powerful art of this painter, but he also knows how to release on his canvases a Corotian tenderness before such a French landscape. He moves only more."  While according to Victor Barrucand, "he highlighted the essential lines of the landscapes, sculpting large swathes of the Kabyles valleys " .

He is knighted by the Legion of Honor.
He is considered, and quoted, as the "cantor of Kabylie" and one of the founders of the School of Algiers (following Maxime Noiré, and with Léon Carré, Léon Cauvy, Paul Jouve). He also paints landscapes and types of the region of Bougie, the Mzab (where he is one of the first painters to enter, after Étienne Dinet, with Maurice Bouviolle), Touggourt where he regularly stays after 1945 (L'Heure Blonde,  1950), Témacine (1953), and Sidi Bou Saïd, or Spain and Morocco, Casablanca, Rabat or Fez. His works are highly sought after by collectors as representing scenes of Kabyle life, landscapes, pastoral scenes; "He substitutes for the notion of ethnic identification, that infinitely more poetic allegory  "wrote Élisabeth Cazenave, while in 1930 Pierre Angel : "Marius de Buzon continued on these African shores the ancient dreams of the pagan mysticism. "

Marius de Buzon died at the end of November 1958 in Algiers; his son Jean and grandson Jean-Frédéric were murdered in 1962 while trying to move and save the workshop of their father and grandfather.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT BOVE / DARWIN RANGE PAINTED BY ROCKWELL KENT

ROCKWELL KENT (1882-1971)

Mount Bove (2,300m - 7,646 ft)

Chile (Tierra del Fuego) 

In  Calm Tierra del Fuego,  oil on board, Private collection 

The mountain 
Mount Bove (2,300m - 7,646 ft) is a mountain in southern Chile located in the eastern part of the Darwin range (Darwin Cordillera or Western Fuego Cordillera). It is a mountain range located in Chile, on a peninsula west of the great island of Tierra del Fuego. Darwin Cordillera represents the southernmost mountainous cord of the Andean cordillera. Until 2011, Darwin Mountain Range was one of the last terrae incognitae on the planet.
The Darwin range was named in 1832 by its discoverer, Robert FitzRoy, the captain of the ship HMS Beagle, in honor of the naturalist Charles Darwin who stayed on board. It is a strip of land 60 kilometers wide and 170 kilometers long, mainly occupied by an ice field of more than 2,300 km2, which is about the same area as all the glaciers in the Alps. Its highest point is Mount Shipton, whose altitude is 2,469 m. It is surrounded by sea: along the Almirantazgo Canal - connected to the Strait of Magellan - to the south by the Beagle Channel, it ends at west through the Cockburn Canal and the Pacific Ocean. Only its eastern part is connected to the land, close to the border with Argentina. The nearest cities are Ushuaia, Argentina as well as Puerto Williams and Porvenir, Chile. However, it is impossible to travel to the mountains from this city by land because of particularly difficult terrain and border problems. Ships and sailboats are the most suitable for its access. The Darwin mountain range is part of the Alberto de Agostini National Park.

About the artist
Rockwell Kent spent much of his life in New York City, studying painting under influential artists including William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri before venturing in 1903 to New Hampshire to apprentice with Abbott Handerson Thayer. Kent’s personal stylistic formation was influenced by modernism, grounded in realism, and wedded to his mystical beliefs about the power of nature and man’s insignificance in face of it. In 1905 Kent moved to Monhegan Island in Maine, the first of a series of trips to remote locations that included Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, and Tierra del Fuego.  Kent attended Socialist meetings in Pittsfield, MA in 1909, and his politics became increasingly controversial after WWII. By the 1930s he was associated with the Communist Party. During the Cold War, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was denied a passport in 1957. He eventually gave eighty works of art to the Soviet Union.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT TACOMA / MOUNT RAINIER BY ELIZA BARCHUS

ELIZA BARCHUS (1857-1959)

Mount Tacoma / Mont Rainier (4,392 m -14,411 ft) 

United States of America (Washington)

The mountain
Mount Rainier, Mount Tacoma, or Mount Tahoma (4,392 m-14,411 ft) is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a large active stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) south-southeast of Seattle. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
Mount Rainier was first known by the Native Americans as Talol, or Tacoma or Tahoma.
The current name was given by George Vancouver, who named it in honor of his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. The map of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 refers to it as "Mt. Regniere".
Mount Rainier is ranked third of the 128 ultra-prominent mountain peaks of the United States. Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,210 ft (4,026 m), which is greater than that of K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, at 13,189 ft (4,020 m). On days of exceptional clarity, it can also be seen from as far away as Corvallis, Oregon (at Marys Peak) and Victoria, British Columbia.
With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq mi (93 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft (300 m) in diameter, with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters, with nearly 2 mi (3.2 km) of passages. 

The Carbon, Puyallup, Mowich, Nisqually, and Cowlitz Rivers begin at eponymous glaciers of Mount Rainier. 

The sources of the White River are Winthrop, Emmons, and Fryingpan Glaciers. The White, Carbon, and Mowich join the Puyallup River, which discharges into Commencement Bay at Tacoma; the Nisqually empties into Puget Sound east of Lacey; and the Cowlitz joins the Columbia River between Kelso and Longview.

The painter
Eliza Barchus was an American landscape painter who lived in Portland for most of her life.
After taking art lessons from another landscape painter, Will S. Parrott, Barchus sold her first painting in 1885. Between then and 1935, she produced thousands of oil paintings and reproductions of subjects such as Mount Hood, Yellowstone Falls, Muir Glacier, and San Francisco Bay.
Barchus, who had won medals at Mechanics Fairs in Portland in the late 1880s, drew national attention in 1890, when one of her large canvases of Mount Hood was displayed at the National Academy of Design exhibition in New York City. In 1901, several of her works were shown at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and in 1905 she won a gold medal at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland for oil paintings of Pacific coast scenery.
Widowed in 1899, Barchus supported herself and her family for decades largely by selling or trading her art. Several years after her death at age 102, the Oregon Legislative Assembly named her "The Oregon Artist". Many art collections in Portland and elsewhere include examples of her work.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT PILATUS BY J.M.W. TURNER

J.M.W. TURNER (1775-1851),

Pilatus or Tomlishorn (2,128 m - 6,982 ft)

Switzerland

In Mount Pilatus from across Lake Lucerne,1842, Watercolour and scratching out on paper 

(21,7 cm x 26,8cm, Private collection UK 

The mountain
Mount Pilatus (2,128 m - 6,982 ft), overlooking Lucerne in central Switzerland, is composed of several summits of which the highest is named Tomlishorn. Another summit named Esel (2,119 m) lies just over the railway station. Jurisdiction over the massif is divided between the cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, and Lucerne. The main peaks are right on the border between Obwalden and Nidwalden.
A few different local legends about the origin of the name exist. One claims that Mount Pilatus was named so because Pontius Pilate was buried there; a similar legend is told of Monte Vettore in Italy. Another is that the mountain looks like the belly of a large man, Pilate, lying on his back and was thus named for him. The name may also be derived from "pileatus," meaning "cloud-topped."
A medieval legend had dragons with healing powers living on the mountain. A chronicle from 1619 reads: 'as I was contemplating the serene sky by night, I saw a very bright dragon with flapping wings go from a cave in a great rock in the mount called Pilatus toward another cave, known as Flue, on the opposite side of the lake'.
Nowadays, dragon has been replaced by fortified radar (part of the Swiss FLORAKO system) and weather stations on the Oberhaupt summit, not open to the public view and used all year round.
The top can be reached with the Pilatus railway, the world's steepest cogwheel railway, from Alpnachstad, operating from May to November (depending on snow conditions), and the whole year with the aerial panorama gondolas and aerial cableways from Kriens. Both summits of Tomlishorn and Esel can be reached with a trail. Mount Pilatus has the longest summer toboggan track in Switzerland (0.88 miles or 1,350 m) and the biggest suspension rope park in Central Switzerland.
During the summer, the "Golden Round Trip" — a popular route for tourists — involves taking a boat from Lucerne across Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, going up on the cogwheel railway, coming down on the aerial cableways and panorama gondolas, and taking a bus back to Lucerne.
Numbered amongst those who have reached its summit are Conrad Gessner, Theodore Roosevelt, Arthur Schopenhauer (1804), Queen Victoria and Julia Ward Howe (1867).

The painter
The english painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence in the history of painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.
In his thirties, Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to Venice. Turner's talent was recognized early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." Turner was recognized as an artistic genius: influential English art critic John Ruskin described him as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature."
Turner's major venture into printmaking was the Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies), seventy prints that he worked on from 1806 to 1819. The Liber Studiorum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. The idea was loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth), where Lorrain had recorded his completed paintings; a series of print copies of these drawings, by then at Devonshire House, had been a huge publishing success. Turner's plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorized the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a museum is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglas Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints.
Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking or working or walking in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God – a theme that romanticist artists and poets were exploring in this period. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.
Turner used pigments like carmine in his paintings, knowing that they were not long-lasting, despite the advice of contemporary experts to use more durable pigments. As a result, many of his colours have now faded greatly.
John Ruskin says in his "Notes" on Turner in March 1878 : "His true master was Dr Monro; to the practical teaching of that first patron and the wise simplicity of method of watercolour study, in which he was disciplined by him and companioned by Girtin, the healthy and constant development of the greater power is primarily to be attributed; the greatness of the power itself, it is impossible to over-estimate. "

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE WEISSHORN PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918),

Weisshorn (4,506 m  - 14,783 ft)

Switzerland

In Weisshorn of Montana,  oil on canvas, 1915

The mountain 
The Weisshorn  (4,506 m  - 14,783 ft), meaning the white peak, is a major peak of the Swiss Alps,  part of the Pennine Alps and  located between the valleys of Anniviers and Zermatt in the canton of Valais. In the latter valley, the Weisshorn is one of the many 4000ers surrounding Zermatt, with Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn.
It is the culminating point on the north-south orientated chain separating the Val d'Anniviers to the west and the Mattertal to the east and enclosing the Turtmanntal to the north, the tripoint between these valleys being located just north of its main summit. The Weisshorn faces the slightly higher Dom across the Mattertal, with the village of Randa 3100 metres below these two summits. After the Dom, the Weisshorn is the second-highest Alpine summit situated completely out the main chain and fully within Switzerland. On both sides of the Weisshorn range, the water end up in the Rhone, through the Navissence (west) and the Vispa (east). The Weisshorn and the Dom are only two of the many 4000-metre peaks surrounding the region of Zermatt, along with the Zinalrothorn, the Dent Blanche, the Dent d'Hérens, the Matterhorn and, second highest in the Alps, Monte Rosa.
The Weisshorn has a pyramidal shape and its faces are separated by three ridges descending steeply from the summit. Two of these are nearly in a straight line, one running approximately north and the other south. The third ridge is nearly at right angles to these two, running almost due east. In the compartment between the northern and eastern spurs lies the Bis Glacier (Bisgletscher). It is connected with the summit by long and extremely steep slopes of snow. In the compartment between the eastern and southern spurs lies the Schali Glacier (Schaligletscher). Ranges of steep rocks rise round the whole basin of this glacier, except in one or two places where they are interrupted by couloirs of snow. Finally, on the western side the mountain presents one gigantic face of rocky precipice. This face rises above the Weisshorn Glacier (Glacier du Weisshorn) and the Moming Glacier. The northern spur forks out at a considerable distance below the summit into two branches enclosing the Turtmann Glacier. The eastern branch connects the mountain with the Bishorn (4,153 m), across the Weisshornjoch.
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.


The painter
Ferdinand Hodler was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the 19th century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called Parallelism.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death. Hodler developed a style he called "Parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One, groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggestive of ritual or dance.
Hodler painted number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes. In 1897 he accepted a commission to paint a series of large frescoes for the Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich. The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.
Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MONT AIGUILLE PAINTED BY WILHELM STEINFIELD

WILHELM STEINFIELD (1816-1854)

Mont Aiguille  (2, 087m -9,209ft) 

France ( Dauphiné) 

In Gebirgslandschaft - Gebirgslandschaft im französischen Dauphiné. Im Zentrum der Mont Aiguille, 1839, Oil on panel,  52 x 41cm, 

The mountain 
Mount Aiguille (2, 087m -9,209ft) , located in the town of Chichilianne, is an advanced tooth of the eastern cliff of the Vercors massif, on the edge of Trièves, south of the department of Isere (France). It is one of the seven wonders of Dauphiné area.
From a geomorphological point of view, it is a structure left by the erosion around it, of the plateau of which it was originally part. Mount Aiguille owes its particular shape to this: a block of cliffs and a summit meadow, similar to the pastures of the entire Vercors plateau.
Mount Aiguille is a limestone scale previously attached to the rest of the Vercors massif. The base consists of a set of soft limestone and marl surmounted by a wall itself composed of a thick series of limestone more rigid. Its morphology results from the difference in the behavior of the layers in the face of erosion.
During the formation of the Alps, the layers of limestone, then lining the bottom of the Tethys, were raised, folded and fractured. The latter favored runoff, which caused significant erosion of the base of the needle (where the layers are softer), while whole sections of the wall collapsed as a result of the undermining of the base. base and by karstification of limestone layers. The countless active faults between Mount Aiguille and the Vercors Massif followed by the planing of the eastern flank of the Vercors massif by glaciers during the different glaciations of the Quaternary era have allowed its current isolation.

The painter
Wilhelm Steinfeld was an Austrian 19th century painter most known during his life for his landscape and mountains paintings. Strangely enough no informations are available about him except he was the son of Franz Steinfeld (1787-1868), very famous himself for his historical paintings.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 BY WADA EISAKU / 和田 英作

WADA EISAKU / 和田 英作 (1874-1959) 

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft) 

Japan

In Fuji in winter, oil on canvas, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art

The mountain
Mount Fuji (3,776.24 m -12,389 ft) or Fujiyama (富士山) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan . Several names are attributed to it: "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Usually Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san". The other Japanese names for Mount Fuji, have become obsolete or poetic like: Fuji-no-Yama (ふじの山 - The Mountain of Fuji), Fuji-no-Takane (ふじの高嶺- The High Peak of Fuji), Fuyō-hō (芙蓉峰 - The Lotus Peak), and Fugaku (富岳／富嶽), created by combining the first character of 富士, Fuji, and 岳, mountain.
Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.
Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
Mount Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains (三霊山) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.
It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Shrine and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove; while on the low alps of Mount Fuji lies the Taisekiji temple complex, where the central base headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is located.

The painter
Wada Eisaku (和田 英作) was a yôga painter of the Meiji through Shôwa periods, and director of the Tokyo bijutsu gakkô ("Tokyo Art School," today the Tokyo University of the Arts). Born in Kagoshima prefecture in 1874, he began studying under Kuroda Seiki in 1894, at the age of 20. By age 29, in 1903, he was working as a teacher at the Tokyo Art School. Wada became head of the school in 1932, at the age of 58. In 1943, he was awarded the Order of Culture.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT DULANG-DULANG BY FERNANDO AMORSOLO

FERNANDO AMORSOLO (1892-1972)

Mount Dulang- dulang  ( 2,941 m - 9,649 ft) 

Philippines (Mindanao)

In Rice Harvest, Oil on canvas, The Fernando Amorsolo foundation 

The mountain
Mount Dulang-dulang (2,941 m - 9,649 ft)  is the highest elevation peak in the Kitanglad Mountain Range, located in the north central portion of the province of Bukidnon in the island of Mindanao. It is the second highest mountain of the Philippines, second only to Mount Apo of Davao at (2,956 m- 9,698 ft) and slightly higher than Mount Pulag of Luzon, (2,922 m (9,587 ft).
The mountain is regarded by the Talaandig tribe of Lantapan as a sacred place. It is also within the ancestral domain of the tribe.
Mount Dulang-dulang, similar to other peaks located in the Kitanglad Mountain Range, is covered by lofty forests and is a home to a variety of fauna and flora.

The painter
Fernando Cueto Amorsolo was one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines.Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. After graduating from the Univeajor influences on his work. Amorsolo set up his own studio upon his return to Manila and painted prodigiously during the 1920s and the 1930s. His Rice Planting (1922), which appeared on posters and tourist brochures, became one of the most popular images of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Beginning in the 1930s, Amorsolo's work was exhibited widely both in the Philippines and abroad. His bright,optimistic, pastoral images set the tone for Philippine painting before World War II . Except for his darker World War II-era paintings, Amorsolo painted quiet and peaceful scenes throughout his career.
Amorsolo was sought after by influential Filipinos including Luis Araneta, Antonio Araneta and Jorge B. Vargas. Amorsolo also became the favourite Philippine artist of United States officials and visitors to the country. Due to his popularity, Amorsolo had to resort to photographing his works and pasted and mounted them in an album. Prospective patrons could then choose from this catalog of his works. Amorsolo did not create exact replicas of his trademark themes; he recreated the paintings by varying some elements.
His works later appeared on the cover and pages of children textbooks, in novels, in commercial designs, in cartoons and illustrations for the Philippine publications such The Independent, Philippine Magazine, Telembang, El Renacimiento Filipino, and Excelsior. He was the director of the University of the Philippine's College of Fine Arts from 1938 to 1952.
During the 1950s until his death in 1972, Amorsolo averaged to finishing 10 paintings a month. However, during his later years, diabetes, cataracts, arthritis, headaches, dizziness and the death of two sons affected the execution of his works. Amorsolo underwent a cataract operation when he was 70 years old, a surgery that did not impede him from drawing and painting.
After being confined at the St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City for two months, Amorsolo died at the age of 79 on April 24, 1972. The volume of paintings, sketches and studies of Amorsolo is believed to have reached more than 10,000 pieces. Amorsolo was an important influence on contemporary Filipino art and artists, even beyond the so-called "Amorsolo school." Amorsolo's influence can be seen in many landscape paintings by Filipino artists, including early landscape paintings by abstract painter Federico Aguilar Alcuaz.
In 2003, Amorsolo's children founded the Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving Fernando Amorsolo's legacy, promoting his style and vision, and preserving a national heritage through the conservation and promotion of his works.

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CHOMOLUNGA / MOUNT EVEREST BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947),

Mount Everest or Sagarmatha or Chomolunga (8,848 m - 29,029ft) 

China (Tibet) / Nepal 

In Everest or Chomolunga oil on canvas, 1936 Nicolas Roerich Museum NY

The mountain
Mount Everest (8,848 m - 29,029ft), also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma, is Earth's highest mountain. It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range in Nepal and Tibet. The international border between China (Tibet Autonomous Region) and Nepal runs across Everest's precise summit point. Its massif includes neighbouring peaks Lhotse (8,516 m -27,940 ft); Nuptse (7,855 m -25,771 ft) and Changtse (7,580 m -24,870 ft).
Mount Everest is one of the Seven Summit, which includes the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass.
The 7 summits (which are obviously 8 !)... are :
Mount Everest (8,848 m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194 m), Kilimandjaro (5,895 m), Mt Elbrus (5,642 m), Vinson Massif (4,892 m), Mt Blanc (4,807 m) and Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 m) in Australia.

Full Wandering vertexes entry =>


The painter
Nicholas Roerich known also as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих) is quite an important figure of mountain paintings in the early 20th century. He was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as an enlightener, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth was he was quite influenced by a movement in Russian society around the occult and was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices. His paintings are said to have hypnotic expression.

Full Wandering vertexes entry =>

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2019- Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

KHUMBU YU-LHA BY ISABELLE SCHEIBLI

ISABELLE SCHEIBLI (bn.1949), 

Mount Khumbila / Khumbu Yul-Lha (5,761 m- 18, 901ft) 

Nepal 

In Kumbu Nepal, watercolor on paper, 2018

The mountain
Mount Khumbila or Khumbu Yul-Lha (5,761 m- 18, 901ft) roughly translated as "God of Khumbu" is one of the high Himalayan peaks in the Khumbu region of Eastern Nepal within the boundaries of Sagarmatha National Park. Considered too sacred to be climbed by most local Sherpa people, the mountain is considered home to the patron God of the local area. The mountain overlooks the famous southern approaches to its larger neighbours including Ama Dablam and Mount Everest.
Khumbila has never been climbed; one attempt prior to the 1980s ended when climbers were killed in an avalanche, and there have been no subsequent attempts.
Khumbila is said to be a god, and an old one. The prayers for Khumbila are believed to date back to the time when the ancestors of the Sherpas were still in Tibet (more than 500 years ago). Khumbila is said to have been subdued and converted to Buddhism by Guru Rimpoche, the 8th-century saint who spread Buddhism throughout the Himalaya . In fact, Guru Rimpoche is said to have spent some time meditating in a cave above Khunde, perhaps on the mountain Khumbila itself.
Local buildings often have prayer flags on bamboo wands to honour Khumbila.

The artist 
Isabelle Scheibli (bn. 1949) is a french journalist, screenwriter, essayist and watercolorist, passionate about mountains. She is the author of the novel "Gaspard de la Meije" published in 1984. As a journalist she worked for several mountains magazines such as "Vertical" or "Montagne Magazine". She wrote several films scenarii related to the mountain such as "Le passe montagne" (1996), "Jours Blancs" (1990) or "Gaspard de la Meije" (1984) based on her novel, winner of a prize in the Festivals of Trent and of Les Diablerets, and also recompensed by the La Fondation de France. As a watercolorist, she illustrated three albums from the Carrés de France collection for Editions Equinox, about the Haute Savoie (2002), the Savoie (2003), the Drôme Provençale (2008).
Isabelle Scheibli made several voyages to Patagonia and Antarctica, which are her favorite places on earth. She doesn’t always paint in situ, due to the extreme conditions in these lands, especially speaking about watercolors! She often paints watertcolors in her studio from her drawings or photos, she realised herself in the Antarctic.  About those voyages she wrote :
 «Painting the glacial world is a long-term process. To accompany close alpinists and Himalayists in their expeditions, I have often been in the mountains, in the Alps, in Nepal and in Tibet. The peaks have become a privileged motive. In 2014, I had the opportunity to go to Patagonia, to follow the coast of the Beagle Channel on a sailboat and to go to the foot of the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego. It was a very violent aesthetic shock.  Here the conditions did not always allow me  to paint as I wished. When I returned I undertook a work in my atelier from the many drawings, watercolors and photos that I had brought back. The dimension of immensity quickly led me to paint in a large format, which I had never done before. In 2016, I set out on a sailboat to approach the absolute quintessence of the glacier, an entire continent of ice, Antarctica. I had somewhat underestimated the navigation part of this trip but the discovery of this icy pole was a glare. Once again I brought back watercolors stolen between two gusts, many drawings and photos. And I got to work on the way back, immersing myself completely »

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE WATZMANN BY WILHELM STEINFIELD

WILHELM  STEINFIELD (1816-1854)
The Watzmann  (2, 713m - 8, 901ft) 

Germany 

In  Watzmann-Mittelspitze - Motiv aus Unterstein im Bayrischen, oil on canvas 

The mountain
The Watzmann (2,713m - 8,901ft) is a mountain in the Bavarian Alps south of the village of Berchtesgaden. It is the third highest in Germany, and the highest located entirely on German territory. Three main peaks array on a N-S axis along a ridge on the mountain's taller western half: Hocheck (2,651 m), Mittelspitze (Middle Peak, 2,713 m) and Sьdspitze (South Peak, 2,712 m).
The Watzmann massif also includes the 2,307 m Watzmannfrau (Watzmann Wife, also known as Kleiner Watzmann or Small Watzmann), and the Watzmannkinder (Watzmann Children), five lower peaks in the recess between the main peaks and the Watzmannfrau.
The entire massif lies inside Berchtesgaden National Park.
The Watzmann Glacier is located below the famous east face of the Watzmann in the Watzmann cirque and is surrounded by the Watzmanngrat arête, the Watzmannkindern and the Kleiner Watzmann. The size of the glacier reduced from around 30 hectares (74 acres) in 1820 until it split into a few fields of firn, but between 1965 and 1980 it advanced significantly again and now has an area of 10.1 hectares (25 acres). Above and to the west of the icefield lie the remains of a transport-bomber that crashed in October 1940.
Amongst the other permanent snow and icefields the Eiskapelle ("Ice Chapel") is the best known due to its easy accessibility from St. Bartholomä. The Eiskapelle may well be the lowest lying permanent snowfield in the Alps. Its lower end is only 930 metres high in the upper Eisbach valley and is about an hour's walk from St. Bartholomä on the Königssee. The Eiskapelle is fed by mighty avalanches that slide down from the east face of the Watzmann in spring and accumulate in the angle of the rock face. Sometimes a gate-shaped vault forms in the ice at the point where the Eisbach emerges from the Eiskapelle. Before entering there is an urgent warning sign that others have been killed by falling ice.
In the east face itself is another icefield in the so-called Schöllhorn cirque, called the Schöllhorneis, which is crossed by the Kederbach Way (Kederbacher-Weg). The cirque and icefield are named after the Munich citizen, Christian Schöllhorn, who was the first victim on the east face. On 26 May 1890 he fell at the upper end of the icefield into the randkluft and was fatally injured. Another small nameless snowfield is located several hundred metres below the Mittelspitze also in the east face.

The painter
Wilhelm Steinfeld was an Austrian 19th century painter most known during his life for his landscape and mountains paintings. Strangely enough no informations are available about him except he was the son of Franz Steinfeld (1787-1868), very famous himself for his historical paintings.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

TATRA MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY JAN STANISLAWSKI

JAN STANISLAWSKI (1860-1907) 

Mount Osobita  (1,687m- 5,535ft)

Slovakia - Poland border 

 In Pejzaz Tatra landscape, 1903,  oil on canvas, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie 

The mountain

Osobitá  (1,687m- 5,535ft)  as its name tells ("the lonely one") is a lonely top in the northern part of the Western Slovak Tatra Mountains, about 17 km from Zakopane (Poland). It is not very high, but very distinct and far from the main Tatra ridge. Osobitá constitutes a distinct geomorphological unit which represents just by itself 12% of the surface of the Slovak Western Tatras. This moutain was mentioned as early as 1615 when Polish highlanders described the Polish Tatras (wider during this time) as extending "From Osobita to Hawran".

There are the three distinct but close tops with heights of 1,617, 1,521 and 1,587 m (the last two are separated by the pass "sedlo pod Osobitou". There many caves in this karst zone, not all yet been investigated. In 1997, the most famous are Bezdenna and Okolik. Here also, as in many other places in the Tatra Mountains, was a mining activity for iron. Now, from these times remain only few tunnels reaching dozens of meters deep. 

In the past, the mountain was an important pastoral center, with five wide meadows. In the seventeenth century it could host up to 1500 head of sheep and cows. Later it decreased. 

Osobitá separates 3 valleys: Zuberska Dolina, Blatna Dolina and Oravicka Sucha Dolina. No other summit of the Orava region is as clearly visible, and very early the mountain attracted a lot of visitors. The first recorded visit was made by Titus Chałubiński in 1870, the first recorded winter one by Mariusz Zaruski with companions in 1906. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was even a mountain hut at Mala Osobitá (1,583 m). Since 1989, the top is no longer available for tourists, since this one is included in the nature reserve (458 hectares).  There are two ways to reach Osobitá, from Slovakia and from Poland. Both are very easy and without difficulty, but the first one is as short as the second is very long.

Nowadays, it is impossible the reach the real top of Osobitá, which is located in the Natura 2000 zone, in order to protect fragile fauna such as eagles. Hence, strictly forbidden as mentionned previously. Including with a guide, or holding an UIAA licence !

The painter 

Jan Stanisławski was a Polish modernist painter, art educator, founder and member of various innovative art groups and literary societies. He began to learn painting at the art studio in Warsaw which later gave rise to the School of Fine Arts, under Wojciech Gerson.  In 1885, he continued his studies in Paris under Charles Emile Auguste Durand. While based in Paris, he travelled much, visiting Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and eastern Galicia.
His early works were exhibited at the inauguration of the Salon du Champ-de-Mars in Paris in 1890 and at the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts in 1892. In the 1890s, he travelled extensively and his sketchbooks filled up with drawings from Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Kraków, and various places in Ukraine.  In 1897, he initiated and helped organise the Separate Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at Kraków’s Cloth Hall. That year, he became a teacher of landscape painting at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, and in 1906 – after the school was upgraded to an academy in 1900 – was granted full professorship and also taught at Teodor Axentowicz’s Private School of Painting and Drawing for Women and at Teofila Certowicz’s Art School for Women in Kraków.
He co-founded the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka" ("Art") in Kraków in 1897.  In 1898, he became a member of the Viennese Secession, and his works were exhibited among theirs in 1901, 1902 and 1905. In 1901, he became a founding member of the Polish Applied Arts Society. He worked in the Wawel Castle Reconstruction Committee and was involved in the activities of the Green Balloon (Zielony Balonik) Cabaret. After his death, two exhibitions were opened at the Palace of Art by the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts in November 1907, one to show 154 of his oil paintings, as well as drawings and watercolours, and the other to present the works of his numerous outstanding students.
_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE HEUKUPPE PAINTED BY KOLOMAN MOSER

KOLOMAN MOSER (1868–1918) 

Heukuppe (2,007m - 6,585 ft) 

Austria 

In View of the Rax from the Villa Mautner , c. 1913, Oil on canvas, 36 x 48,9 cm.  Private Collection


The mountain
The Heukuppe (2,007m - 6,585 ft) is (together with the nearby Schneeberg) the highest peak in the Rax, a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps on the border of the Austrian federal provinces of Lower Austria and Styria.  They are a traditional mountaineering and mountain walking area, and are called the Wiener Hausberge (Vienna's local mountains). They are separated by the deep Höllental ("Hell Valley").
A cable car, the Raxseilbahn, starting at Hirschwang at the north-eastern foot of the mountains and the first in Austria (construction began in 1925), takes visitors to the extensive, high plateau of the Rax at a height of about 1,500 m. This area is a particular favourite with hikers from Lower Austria and Vienna. The steep sides of the plateau offer climbing tours of various difficulty. These steige (mountain trails) and the hütten, alpine huts offering basic accommodation, were built and are maintained kept by various Austrian Alpine Clubs. They were erected in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The artist
Koloman Moser  was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.
In 1905, together with the Klimt group, he separated from the Vienna Secession.

Moser designed a wide array of art works, including books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture.
Koloman was one of the designers for Austria's leading art journal Ver Sacrum. This art journal paid great attention to design and was designed mainly by Moser, Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann. His design for the cover of one edition of the art journal was later plagiarized by well known street artist and designer, Shepard Fairey.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

LANDER'S PEAK PAINTED BY GEORGE-CALEB BINGHAM

GEORGE-CALEB BINGHAM (1811-1879)

Lander's Peak (3,187 m - 10,456 feet)

United States of America (Wyoming)

In Rocky Mountains , c. 1872. Oil on canvas, 14 x 18 inches. Private collection

About the painting
Fewer than half the recorded landscapes in E. Maurice Bloch’s catalogue raisonné of the paintings of George Caleb Bingham have been located, making the discovery of the unrecorded painting in Figure 1 especially noteworthy. The painting is in excellent condition, evidently having never been removed from its original frame while in the possession of descendants of a sibling of Bingham’s second wife, Eliza K. Thomas, until about 1992.
The composition reflects Bingham’s long established approach to landscape painting, derived from European sources and practices that were commonly employed by nineteenth-century American landscape painters. “Even in his mountainous landscapes, the cliffs and peaks emerge from the plane of the specta­tor and grow up structurally before his eyes. Bingham does not look down on his mountains or valleys, nor does he have them tower above the spectator in awesome grandeur.”
Rocky Mountains also employs techniques adopted by Bingham as a result of his stays in Düsseldorf in the late 1850s-clearer light, sharper edges, and more attention to detail than seen in his earlier landscapes with their vaporous passages.
The work dates to about 1872, when Bingham returned to landscape painting after abandoning the genre for most of the previous decade. His revived interest may have accompanied treatment for his chronic respiratory problems in Colorado from August through October of 1872, where the Rocky Mountains provided an opportunity to paint pan­oramic landscapes in the manner of such artists as Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt. The timing was especially attractive given the public’s fascination with the American West fueled by the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
The relatively small painting, previously untitled, has been named Rocky Mountains to reflect its evocative connection to Bierstadt’s monumental Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak in the Metro­politan Museum of Art. Bierstadt’s painting was well known through widely distributed steel engravings , and it is reasonable to assume that Bingham himself owned a copy, since he used prints for study and the development of compo­sitional techniques throughout his career.

The mountain
Lander's Peak, is a mountain with a summit of (3,187 m - 10,456 feet) in the Wyoming Range in modern-day Wyoming. The peak was named after Frederick W. Lander on Bierstadt's initiative, after Lander's death in the Civil War. In one description of the painting, it is described as : "Sharply pointed granite peaks and fantastically illuminated clouds float above a tranquil, wooded genre scene." There are not a lot of informations about this peak, which is only the second highest peak of the Wyoming range, but was made quite famous buy Bierstadt painting.
The Wyoming Range is a mountain range located in west-central Wyoming. It is a range of the Rocky Mountains that runs north-south near the western edge of the state. Its highest peak is Wyoming Peak, which stands at (3,470 m - 11,383 feet) above sea-level. The range is sometimes referred to as The Wyomings.
The vast majority of the range is public land administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and is a popular destination for hiking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, snowmobiling, hunting, and other activities. The range contains numerous lakes and developed campgrounds, in addition to many wild and primitive areas. The closest towns to the range include Big Piney, Marbleton, La Barge, and Kemmerer.
A branch of the Oregon Trail known as the Lander Road traverses the mountain range. The cutoff offered emigrants a shorter travel option. Numerous grave sites and historical markers can be found relating to the trail.
The range is not to be confused with the Salt River Range, which runs closely parallel to the Wyoming Range on its western side. The two ranges are separated by Grey's River.
The United States House of Representatives voted March 25, 2009, to grant wilderness status to two million acres (8,000 km²) of public land in nine states. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which had already been passed by the Senate, was approved in the House by a 285-to-140 vote. It was signed into law March 30 by President Barack Obama. The legislation included the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which shields 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km2) of the Wyoming Range from future oil and gas leasing. Leases that were issued in the 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km2) withdrawal area prior to passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act were not affected by the legislation.

The artist

George Caleb Bingham was an American artist whose paintings of American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style. Left to languish in obscurity, Bingham's work was rediscovered in the 1930s. By the time of his bicentennial in 2011, he was considered one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. That year the George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement Of Paintings & Drawings—directed and edited by Bingham scholar Fred R. Kline—announced the authentication of ten recently discovered paintings by Bingham. As of June 2015, a total of twenty-three  newly discovered paintings by Bingham have been authenticated and are listed with the GCBCRS. George Caleb Bingham is not famous for his mountain paintings  but mainly for a series of three paintings called The Election Series Louis and for his Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, painted circa 1845  and owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT MANSFIELD PAINTED BY JEROME B. THOMPSON

JEROME B. THOMPSON (1814-1886)

Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft) 

United States of America (Vermont) - Canada border  

  In The Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain, Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 160.3 cm, 1858 

  On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 759

About the painting 
Thompson earned a reputation for combining the breadth of Hudson River School landscape painting with the anecdotal appeal of contemporary genre painting. This work is one of several in which he used Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, as a foil for domestic recreation. As half the party of day trippers admire the summit and the vista toward Lake Champlain, another young man holds his watch aloft, warning of the lateness of the hour and the need to descend. But, as people their age are wont to do, the three youths watching the sunset ignore him, enraptured by the beauty of nature.

The mountain
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft) is the highest mountain in Vermont. The summit is located within the town of Underhill in Chittenden County; the ridgeline, including some secondary peaks, extends into the town of Stowe in Lamoille County, and the mountain's flanks also reach into the town of Cambridge. When viewed from the east or west, this mountain has the appearance of a (quite elongated) human profile, with distinct forehead, nose, lips, chin, and Adam's apple. These features are most distinct when viewed from the east; unlike most human faces, the chin is the highest point
Mount Mansfield is one of three spots in Vermont where true alpine tundra survives from the Ice Ages. A few acres exist on Camel's Hump and Mount Abraham nearby and to the south, but Mount Mansfield's summit still holds about 200 acres (81 ha). In 1980, Mount Mansfield Natural Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
Located in Mount Mansfield State Forest, the mountain is used for various recreational and commercial purposes. "The Nose" is home to transmitter towers for a number of regional radio and TV stations. [There are many hiking trails, including the Long Trail, which traverses the main ridgeline. In addition, the east flank of the mountain is used by the Stowe Mountain Resort for winter skiing. A popular tourist activity is to take the toll road (about 4 miles (6.4 km), steep, mostly unpaved, with several hairpin turns) from the Stowe Base Lodge to "The Nose" and hike along the ridge to "The Chin."

The painter
Jerome Thompson was an American painter, member of the National Academy of Design. He was born in the family of portrait painter Kefas Thompson, who initially did not want to educate his son as a painter,  wanting him to become a farmer !  Interest in art, however, prevailed.Young Thompson was initially involved in painting portraits (at the time portraying, among others, Abraham Quary, the last living member of the Nantucket Indian tribe). At the age of 17, he founded a studio in Barnstable, Massachusetts, which he moved to New York in 1835.

At the beginning of the 1850s, he became interested in the landscape , in which the good reception of Pic Nick, Camden, Maine  exhibited at the National Academy of Design played a large role. 

In the years 1852-54 he studied in England. After returning to the United States, he worked, among others at Mineola on Long Island and Glen Gardner  New Jersey. He achieved significant artistic and financial success, including thanks to the popularity of lithographs made based on his work.
The artist is mainly known for genre scenes  most often of rustic themes, and pic nicks in which the landscape is of paramount importance. His light-saturated works resemble paintings by Hudson River School painters, are rich in light effects and tonal subtleties. The main genre scenes are usually small and usually complement the exposed landscape in the background.
Thompson's largest collections include the Brooklyn Museum , Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

HOWSER SPIRE PAINTED BY ROBERT GENN

ROBERT GENN (1936-2014)

Howser Spire (3,412 m - 11,194 ft) 

Canada (British Columbia) 

In Alpenglow in the Bugaboos, private collection 

The mountain 

Howser Spire (3,412 m-11,194 ft) or Howser Spire Massif, is a group of three distinct granite peaks, and the highest mountain of the Canadian Bugaboo Spires. The mountain is located at the southwest corner of the Vowell Glacier, within the Bugaboo mountain range in the Purcell Mountains, a subrange of British Columbia's Columbia Mountains, The highest of the three spires is the North Tower at (3,412 m -11,194 ft), the Central Tower the lowest, and the South Tower being slightly lower than the North at 3,292 m (10,801 ft).
Howser Spire is named after the town of Howser on Duncan Lake and Howser Creek.
The first ascent of the North Tower was made in August, 1916 by Conrad Kain, Albert MacCarthy, E. MacCarthy, J. Vincent and Henry Frind.[
The Beckey-Chouinard / West Buttress route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.

The painter
Robert Douglas Genn was a Canadian artist, who has gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Genn has often been compared with members of the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven. In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." Genn said this was "valuable advice", which enabled him "to control the gradation, and work up into the trees in a more abstract manner."
His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank Of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, Glenbow Museum and Government of Belgium.
He ran the Painter's Keys website, a worldwide artists' community, with his staff and volunteers. The web site sends out an erudite free twice-weekly newsletter, which is sent to 135,000 artists in over 100 countries, and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted.
In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website, arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally, without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the African embassy in Ottawa, Genn used his web site to enlist subscribers' support to email objections to the arch-world, resulting within days in over 1,000 online complaints from artists, dealers and politicians to the company and governments. This stimulated a diplomatic protest letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Trading and Law Department from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Genn credited the campaign with the subsequent removal of images by 800 Canadian artists from arch-world, although many works were reinstated on arch-world soon after.
Genn has been a member of the Board of Directors at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau