NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)
Mont Ventoux (1,911 m - 6,
270 ft )
France (Provence)
In Carte de vœux illustrée from a colored lithograph printed by Fequet et Baudier.
Feuillet , 21 x 16, 5 cm. Private collection
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022
This is the 1525th mountain paintings published in this blogs since 2011
Many thanks to have followed us trought all these years.
About this work
No certitude about what represent that drawing made for a postcard but it could possibly be a view of the Mont Ventoux (the upper line in grey) from the Luberon (in blue) a place in Provence Nicolas de Staël Lived many years, particularly in Menerbes where he had a house. It could be as well a woman breast...
The painter
Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. Nicolas de Staël was born Nikolai Vladimirovich Stael von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн) in Saint Petersbourg (Russia), into the family of a Baron Vladimir Stael von Holstein, the last Commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. De Staël's family was forced to emigrate to Poland in 1919 because of the Russian Revolution ; both his father and stepmother died in Poland and the orphaned Nicolas de Staël was sent with his older sister Marina to Brussels to live with a Russian family (1922)...
- More about Nicolas de Stael biography
The mountain
Mont Ventoux (Ventor in Latin) is located in the French department of
Vaucluse (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). Culminating at 1,911 meters - 6,
270 ft, it is about 25 kilometers long on an east-west for 15 kilometers
wide on a north-south axis. Nicknamed the Giant of Provence, it
is the culmination of the Monts du Vaucluse, the ultimate link of the
Southern Alps and the highest peak of Vaucluse. Its geographical
isolation makes it visible over great distances.
Mont Ventoux is as well the linguistic border between the north and south-Occitan.
Its mainly calcareous nature is responsible, in its top part, its deep
white color in every season and intense karstification due to erosion by
water, with the presence of numerous scree on the south face.
Precipitation is particularly abundant in spring and fall. Rainwater
seeps into galleries and reflects the level of the variable flow
resurgences such as Fontaine de Vaucluse or Source du Groseau.
Mont Ventoux is subject to a Mediterranean dominant weather, sometimes
causing scorching temperatures during summer, the altitude offering a
wide variety of climates, to the top (continental influence of mountain
type), through a temperate climate (mid-slopes). In addition, the north
wind can be very violent and the Mistral blows almost half part of the
year.
This particular geomorphology and climate make it a rich and fragile
environmental site consisting of many levels of vegetation. It is s a
biosphere reserve by UNESCO and Natura 2000 site.
If human settlements are found in the foothills in prehistoric times,
the first ascent to the summit would work on 26 April 1336, the poet
Petrarch from Malaucène on the northern slope. It opens the way later in
numerous scientific studies.
Thereafter, for nearly six centuries, Mont Ventoux has been intensely
deforested to provide the shipbuilding in Toulon, charcoal manufacturers
and sheep farmers. During World War II, the mountain is home to the
Ventoux maquis, the french Resistance against Nazis.
Since 1966, the summit is topped with an observation tower over forty meters high topped by a TV and satellite antenna.
While sheep farming has almost disappeared, beekeeping, gardening
(especially cherries), viticulture, harvesting of mushrooms including
truffles and, to a lesser extent, lavender, are still practiced.
Mont Ventoux is an important symbolic figure of Provence that fed oral
or literary works and artistic performances or pictorial map.
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by Francis Rousseau
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