Friday, June 7, 2019

THE STOCKHORN PAINTED BY CUNO AMIET



 CUNO AMIET (1868-1961),
The Stockhorn (2,190 m - 7, 185ft) 
Switzerland

In Stockhornette, 1931 oil on cardboard, Private collection

The mountain
The Stockhorn (2,190 m - 7, 185ft) is the highest peak in the Stockhorn range., in the Bernese Oberland (Switzerland). The striking Stockhorn summit is immediately noticeable when you drive through the Gürbetal or the Aare valley towards the Bernese Oberland. Since it consists of an almost vertical rock plate, it appears wide or pointed depending on the angle.
The Voralpenkette is about 13 km long and separates the Simmental in the south of the Stockental in the north in OSO / NNW direction. It begins at Reutigen , where the Simme leaves their valley and separates the described chain from the Burgfluh, respectively from the sneeze. The first striking peak is the Simmenfluh (1,422 m), which shapes the region with its massive appearance. After the Simmenfluh, the ridge drops slightly again and soon turns into a broad ridge, the Alp Heiti. From Stockental a second ridge climbs up, overlooking the previous ridge and the Alp. The Nüschleten (1,987 m), the Lasenberg (2,019 m) and the Solhorn (2,017 m) are the three highest elevations on this ridge section to the Stockhorn, which then expires in the Straitligrat. To the north of the Stockhorn is the broad Walalpgrat (1,920 m), the beginning of the last ridge section of the Stockhorn chain.This is followed by the Möntschelenspitz (2,020 m ), the Hohmad (2,075 m), the Stubenfluh (2,004 m) and the Chrummenfadenfluh (2,074 m ). The latter is actually already part of the Gantrisch group , which is adjacent to the Stockhorn chain in the NNW.
In the Stockhorn area there are several climbing gardens for sport climbers. 120 routes in 12 sectors offer difficulty levels from 2 to 7 in compact limestone rocks around the summit and at the intermediate station.
In 1974, an extensive cave system was discovered in the area around the Oberstocken Alp.

The painter
Cuno Amiet was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor. As the first Swiss painter to give precedence to colour in composition, he was a pioneer of modern art in Switzerland.
After studies with the painter Frank Buchser, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1886–88, where he befriended Giovanni Giacometti. In 1888-92, Giacometti and Amiet continued their studies in Paris, where Amiet studied at the Académie Julian under Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury and Gabriel Ferrier.
Amiet created more than 4,000 paintings, of which more than 1,000 are self-portraits. The great scope of his work of 70 years, and Amiet's predilection for experimentation, make his œuvre appear disparate at first – a constant, though, is the primacy of colour. His numerous landscape paintings depict many winter scenes, gardens and fruit harvests. Ferdinand Hodler remained a constant point of reference, although Amiet's artistic intentions diverged ever further from those of Hodler, whom Amiet could and would not match in his mastery of monumental scale and form.
While Amiet took up themes of expressionism, his works retain a sense of harmony of colour grounded in the French tradition. He continued to pursue mainly decorative intentions at the beginning of the 20th century, but his late work of the 1940s and 50s is focused on more abstract concepts of space and light, characterised by dots of colour and a pastel brilliance.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau