BARONESS HELGA VON CRAMM (1840-1919)
Mount Tabor (575 m -1,886 ft)
Israel (Galilee)
In Happy New Year from Mont Tabor, New year chromolithographic card.
The mountain
Mount Tabor (575 m - 1,886 ft), (not to be confused with Mount Thabor int he French Alps ) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Sea of Galilee. Mount Tabor is a Inselberg : an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic.
In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.
In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Mount Tabor is shaped almost like half a sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and dominating the town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor. At the top of the mountain are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is easily visible from afar.
At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli. A hiking tracks starts from the Bedouin village Shibli and is about five kilometers long. It is part of the Israel National Trail.
The artist
Baroness Helga von Cramm was a German and Swiss water-colourist and graphic artist. She made her quite famous with her in chromolithograh Christmas cards. Helga von Cramm lived in Britain, Switzerland (St. Moritz), Germany and Italy, and Florence.
Helga was the eldest child of Wolf Frederick Adolf Freiherr von Cramm-Burchard Helga's father, having been brought up in the Court at Brunswick, educated at the court of knights, served in the Brunswick Cuirassiers , was an equerry and an hereditary Chamberlain and Lord of the Kings Bedchamber (that of William VIII of Braunschweig). Later he retired to his estate at Rhode. Her brother Aschwin Thedel Adelbert Freiherr v. Sierstorpff-Cramm, is one of the four great-grandfathers of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, now Princess Beatrix, and mother of the present king, Willem-Alexander. Helga was thus a great-great aunt of the former Dutch Queen.
In the United Kingdom, from 1877, she exhibited at the : Society of Women Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Dudley Gallery, Fine Art Society, Glasgow Institute,Grosvenor Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts ,Royal Society of British Artists and at a few other places...
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau