MOUNT MARCY (2) PAINTED BY ROCKWELL KENT

 

ROCKWELL KENT (1882-1971)

Mount Marcy (1,629m - 5,343ft) 

United States of America 

In  Moonlight in the Adirondacks, 1960, oil on panel

The mountain
Mount Marcy (1,629m - 5,343ft) in Mohawk langage Tewawe’estha is the highest point in New York State, USA. It is located in the Town of Keene in Essex County. The mountain is in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks Region of the High Peaks Wilderness Area. Its stature and expansive views make it a popular destination for hikers, who crowd its summit in the summer months.
Lake Tear of the Clouds, at the col between Mt. Marcy and Mt. Skylight, is often cited as the highest source of the Hudson River, via Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River, even though the main stem of the Opalescent River has as its source a higher point two miles north of Lake of the Clouds, and that stem is a mile longer than Feldspar Brook.
The mountain is named after Gov. William L. Marcy, the 19th-century Governor of New York, who authorized the environmental survey that explored the area. Its first recorded ascent was on August 5, 1837, by a large party led by Ebenezer Emmons looking for the source of the East Fork of the Hudson River.[6] Today the summit may be reached by multiple trails; though long by any route, a round-trip may be made in a day.

The painter
Rockwell Kent, artist, author, and political activist, had a long and varied career. During his lifetime, he worked as an architectural draftsman, illustrator, printmaker, painter, lobsterman, ship's carpenter, and dairy farmer. Born in Tarrytown Heights, New York, he lived in Maine, Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, and the Adirondacks and explored the waters around Tierra del Fuego in a small boat. Kent's paintings, lithographs, and woodcuts often portrayed the bleak and rugged aspects of nature; a reflection of his life in harsh climates.His experience as a carpenter and builder and his familiarity with tools served him well when he took up the graphic process. His blocks were marvels of beautiful cutting, every line deliberate and under perfect control. The tones and lines in his lithography were solidly built up, subtle, and full of color. He usually made preliminary studies- old-mater style- for composition or detail before starting on a print. Nothing was vague or accidental about his work; his expression was clear and deliberate. Neither misty tonalities nor suggestiveness were to his taste. He was a highly objectified art - clean, athletic, sometimes almost austere and cold. He either recorded adventures concretely, or dealt in ideas. His studio was a model of the efficient workshop: neat, orderly, with everything in its place. His handwriting, the fruit of his architectural training, was beautiful and precise.
Among the many notes of increasing awareness of Kent's contributions to American culture is the reproduction of one of Kent's pen-and-ink drawings from Moby Dick on a U.S. postage stamp, part of the 2001 commemorative panel celebrating such American illustrators as Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, and Norman Rockwell.

_________________________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

CRIMSON CLIFFS GREENLAND BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH  (1776-1859) 

Crimson Cliffs (300 m- 984 ft) 

Danemark- Greenland

  In  Red Snow along cliffs in Greenland - Watercolour from  Views of Polar region, Yale Center for British arts- Connectitcut, USA

The Cliffs
Crimson Cliffs ( 300m) are a cape on the northwestern coast of Greenland, in northern Baffin Bay.Crimson Cliffs are located west of Cape York, an important geographical landmark that delimits the northwestern end of Melville Bay, with the other end commonly defined as Wilcox Head, the western promontory on Kiatassuaq Island.
Red snow or blood snow  also called or watermelon snow, pink snow or snow algae is a phenomenon caused by Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of green algae containing a secondary red carotenoid pigment (astaxanthin) in addition to chlorophyll. Unlike most species of fresh-water algae, it is cryophilic (cold-loving) and thrives in freezing water.
This type of snow is common during the summer in alpine and coastal polar regions worldwide, such as the Sierra Nevada of California. Here, at altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000 feet (3,000–3,600 m), the temperature is cold throughout the year, and so the snow has lingered from winter storms. Compressing the snow by stepping on it or making snowballs leaves it looking red. Walking on watermelon snow often results in getting bright red soles and pinkish trouser cuffs.
 "By August first he had reached a point near the Petowik glacier which lies just northward of the "Crimson Cliffs" of Sir John Ross. This is so called from the fact that on the snow-clad cliffs and glacier surfaces at this point Sir John Ross, in 1818, discovered a red deposit which had fallen about and mixed with the snow, giving it a reddish color which was pretty widely distributed. What was it? For a long time this was a mystery, but it was at last proven to be of vegetable origin: now, the point--to be taken up in detail later is simply this: where could any vegetable matter, either a pollen from larger plants or a very humble sort of red mossy or spore like growth, come from? There is no other case in the whole realm of botany that would justify us in assuming that a plant can grow on ice-bergs or on snow. A plant requires certain elements and certain temperatures. Evidently, somewhere those factors must be in existence. Where, we shall see later."
Excerpt form "Three Years of Arctic Service", by General A. W. Greely, 1881

The artist
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of the Yale Center From British Art. Among them :
- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors),
- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82 watercolors), Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74 watercolors),
- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68watercolors) , Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78) watercolors),
- Views of Polar Regions (75 watercolors) (see above)
- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors), But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms. He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.
As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles.
He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and The Natural history of dogs.
Quite a productive fellow !

___________________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT BAKER / KULSHAN PAINTED BY ALBERT BIERSTADT

 

ALBERT BIERSTADT (1830-1902)

Mount Baker / Kulshan ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft

United States of America

In Mount Baker from the Frazier River, c. 1890, oil on canvas, Brooklyn Museum

The mountain
Mount Baker ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount Saint Helens. About 30 miles (48 km)[due east of the city of Bellingham, Whatcom County, Mount Baker is the youngest volcano in the Mount Baker volcanic field. While volcanism has persisted here for some 1.5 million years, the current glaciated cone is likely no more than 140,000 years old, and possibly no older than 80–90,000 years. Older volcanic edifices have mostly eroded away due to glaciation.
After Mount Rainier, Mount Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker, 0.43 cu mi (1.79 km3) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. It is also one of the snowiest places in the world; in 1999, Mount Baker Ski Area, located 9 mi (14.5 km) to the northeast, set the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season—1,140 in (29 m; 95 ft).
Mt. Baker is the third-highest mountain in Washington and the fifth-highest in the Cascade Range, if Little Tahoma Peak, a subpeak of Mount Rainier, and Shastina, a subpeak of Mount Shasta, are not counted.[Located in the Mount Baker Wilderness, it is visible from much of Greater Victoria, Nanaimo, and Greater Vancouver in British Columbia, and to the south, from Seattle (and on clear days Tacoma) in Washington.
Indigenous peoples have known the mountain for thousands of years, but the first written record of the mountain is from Spanish explorer Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, who mapped it in 1790 as Gran Montaña del Carmelo, "Great Mount Carmel". The explorer George Vancouver renamed the mountain for 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker of HMS Discovery, who saw it on April 30, 1792.

The painter
Albert Bierstadt was a German-born American painter. He was brought to the United States at the age of one by his parents. He later returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. At an early age Bierstadt developed a taste for art and made clever crayon sketches in his youth.
In 1851, he began to paint in oils. He became part of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along this scenic river. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School....
Full Wandering Vertextes entry =>


___________________________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

HALF DOME PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 THOMAS HILL (1829-1908),

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)

United States of America (California)

In Royal Arches And Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, Private collection

The mountain
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.
Today, Half Dome may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from the valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of granite stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted braided steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919.
Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face. Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free soloed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder.

The painter
Thomas Hill was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature. For Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley and the White Mountains of New Hampshire were his sources of inspiration to begin painting and captured his direct response to nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works. In plein air means to “paint outdoors and directly from the landscape”,[ which Hill incorporated into many of his paintings. Hill’s landscape paintings demonstrate how he combined his powers of observation with powerful motifs in each painting.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000. Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

___________________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

ASHOKAN HIGH POINT PAINTED BY ASHER BROWN DURAND

  

 ASHER BROWN DURAND (1796-1886)

Ashokan High Point (933 m - 3,061 ft)

United States of America ( New York State) 

In Shandaken Mountains, oil on canvas, 1853, (121,9 x 83,2 cm), The MET

About the painting
This work, first shown at the National Academy of Design’s annual exhibition in New York City in 1853, depicts a scene near the town of Olive, New York, where Durand spent the summers of 1853 and 1855. During those months, he repeated sketches he had made of a nearby mountain, High Point (also known as Ashokan High Point), on an earlier visit to the region in 1847. In this painting, in contrast to his large “historical landscapes,” the artist focused on depicting light and shade in the type of bucolic setting popular with an increasingly urban American public—represented here by the couple fishing on the bank of the stream, enjoying the bounty of nature.
Extract from the MET notice 

The mountain 
Ashokan High Point (933 m - 3,061 ft) is a  summit in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The trail that leads up to it is very old.
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park, a 700,000-acre (2,800 km2) forest preserve forever protected from many forms of development under New York state law.
The Catskills are well known in American culture, both as the setting for films and works of art, including many 19th-century Hudson River School paintings, as well as for being a favored destination for vacationers from New York City in the mid-20th century. The region's many large resorts gave countless young stand-up comedians an opportunity to hone their craft. In addition, the Catskills have long been a haven for artists, musicians, and writers, especially in and around the towns of Phoenicia and Woodstock.

The painter
Asher Brown Durand was an American painter of the Hudson River School. His main interest changed from engraving to oil painting about 1830 with the encouragement of his patron, Luman Reed. During 1837, he accompanied his friend Thomas Cole on a sketching expedition to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks Mountains and soon after he began to concentrate on landscape painting. He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School.
Durand is remembered particularly for his detailed portrayals of trees, rocks, and foliage. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth."
Like other Hudson River School artists, Durand also believed that nature was an ineffable manifestation of God. He expressed this sentiment and his general opinions on art in his essay "Letters on Landscape Painting" in The Crayon, a mid-19th century New York art periodical.


__________________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT NIBLOCK, MOUNT TEMPLE, MOUNT WHYTE BY ALBERT BIERSTADT

 

ALBERT BIERSTADT (1830-1902)
Mount Niblock (2,976 m - 9,764 ft)
Mount Temple (3,544 m -11,627 ft) 
Mount Whyte (2,983 m -9,787 ft) 
Canada ( Alberta)

In Canadian Rockies (Lake Louise), ca. 1889, oil on paper mounted to board, 37.5 x 53.3cm, The MET, not on view 

About the painting
During his travels in the American and Canadian West, Bierstadt made oil sketches such as this one, which he used, back in his New York studio, for reference in concocting the huge, carefully detailed panoramic scenes that brought him critical acclaim during the 1860s and 1870s. By the end of the century, American viewers had come to appreciate the more modest landscape observations of Barbizon and Impressionist painters, and Bierstadt’s sketches were themselves valued as fresh, direct records of the places he had visited.
Extract of the Notice of the MET museum

The mountains 
Mount Niblock (2,976 m (9,764 ft) (first on left in the painting  above)  is a mountain in Banff National Park near Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. The mountain was named in 1904 after John Niblock, a superintendent with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Niblock was an early promoter of tourism in the Rockies and influenced the naming of some of the CPR stops in Western Canada.
Mount Temple (3,544 m - 11,627 ft)  (in the middle of the painting above) is located in the Bow River Valley between Paradise Creek and Moraine Creek and is the highest peak in the Lake Louisea rea. The peak dominates the western landscape along the Trans-Canada Highway from Castle Junction to Lake Louise. The mountain was named by George Mercer Dawson in 1884 after Sir Richard Temple who visited the Canadian Rockies that same year. Mt. Temple was the first 11,000-foot (3,400 m) peak to be climbed in the Canadian segment of the Rocky Mountains. First Ascent of a peak above 11,000 feet (3,353 m) in the Canadian Rockieso was made  August 17, 1894 by Walter D. Wilcox, Samuel E. S. Allen and Lewis Frissell .
Mount Whyte (2,983 m -9,787 ft)  (at the background of the painting above) is a mountain in Alberta, Canada located in Banff National Park, near Lake Louise. The mountain can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway, and offers views of the Valley of the Ten Peaks, including the Chateau Lake Louise. The mountain was named in 1898 by Sir William Methuen after William Whyte, a representative of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mount.Whyte is usually combined with  Mount Niblock when done as a scramble. However, while Mt. Niblock is rated a moderate scramble, Mt. Whyte is much more difficult due to additional exposure and loose rock. The scramble should not be attempted in snowy conditions due to considerable fall distance which would likely prove fatal.

The painter
Albert Bierstadt was a German-born American painter. He was brought to the United States at the age of one by his parents. He later returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. At an early age Bierstadt developed a taste for art and made clever crayon sketches in his youth.
In 1851, he began to paint in oils. He became part of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along this scenic river. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.
Full Wandering Vertextes entry =>__

____________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNTAINS OF YOSEMITE VALLEY PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 

THOMAS HILL (1829-1908)  

Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m - 6,648 ft)

El Capitan (2,309 m - 7,573 ft)

Sentinel Dome (2,477 m - 8,127 ft)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844  ft)

United States of America (California)

In View of Yosemite Valley oil on canvas, 1885, (92.1 x 137.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (not on view)



Mountains of Yosemite Valley
The Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m- 6,648 ft)  (on right in the painting above with the cascades) is a prominent rock face on the south side of Yosemite Valley, California.
El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) (on left in the painting above) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers. The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when it explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah". It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In modern times, the formation's name is often contracted to "El Cap", especially among rock climbers and BASE jumpers.
Sentinel Dome (2,477m - 8,127ft) (behind Cathedral rock in the painting above) is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, United States. It lies on the south wall of Yosemite Valley, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Glacier Point and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of Profile Cliff. Sentinel Dome is known for a Jeffrey Pine that grew from its peak (see photograph above). The pine was photographed as early as 1867 by Carleton Watkins, and was the subject of the well-known photograph by Ansel Adams. The pine died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003. The original Native American name of Sentinel Dome, in the Southern Sierra Miwok language, was "Sakkaduch". The Bunnell survey named it "South Dome", but the Whitney survey renamed it Sentinel Dome (from its likeness to a watch-tower). The view from the top offers a 360 degree view of Yosemite Valley and surroundings. One can see Half Dome,Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, North Dome, Basket Dome, and much more.
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) (behind Sentinel Dome in the painting above) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.


The painter
Thomas Hill produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000. Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

_____________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TUCUPIT POINT BY THOMAS MORAN

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Tucupit Point (2,346 m - 7,698 ft)

United States of America  (Utah)

In Colburn's Butte, South Utah, watercolor, 1873, 35,2 x 24cm,  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 About the painting
The journey that resulted in the first painting of the Grand Canyon also yielded this watercolor by the same artist, Thomas Moran. In late July 1873, Moran was en route from Salt Lake City to the north rim of the Grand Canyon to join the expedition of John Wesley Powell. Near Kanarraville, Utah, he recorded in his sketchbook two Navajo sandstone pinnacles that offered a preview of the magnificent Zion Canyon to the south, which he visited days later. With Moran was Justin Colburn, a correspondent for the New York Times, to whom he eventually gave the watercolor he made from the sketch and whose name he gave to its principal feature.
Colburn's Butte, today called Tucupit Point, is in the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park. In Moran's watercolor, it is distinguished by the white cloud swirling down to silhouette its peak. The spontaneous-looking passage sets off a zigzag pattern of hill and grass that continues to the bottom of the sheet. Such celestial-terrestrial dynamics were a hallmark of the work of the English-born Moran, an admirer of the turbulent landscapes of J. M. W. Turner. From the watercolor Moran designed an engraving that was published in the art magazine The Aldine in 1874.  

From the MET museum  notice

 The mountain

Tucupit Point (2,346 m - 7,698 ft ) is a prominent sandstone pinnacle in the Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park. The formation lays off of Taylor Creek Trail. The pinnacle - visible from U.S. Route 40 to the west - has been the subject of numerous photographs. ans paintings. The pinnacle was then named "Colburn's Butte" after Justin Colburn, a correspondent for the New York Times travelling with Thomas Moran; it would later be renamed Tucupit Point, "Tucupit" being the Paiute word for wildcat.

The painter
Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection with The Three Tetons painted in 1895.
_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE MINARETS BY PETER ESSICK

PETER ESSICK

The Minarets (3,740 m - 12,270 ft)

United States of America (California)

For National Geographic

The mountains
The Minarets (3,740 m - 12,270 ft) are a series of jagged peaks located in the Ritter Range, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the state of California. They are easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. Collectively, they form an arête, and are a prominent feature in the Ansel Adams Wilderness which was known as the Minaret Wilderness until it was renamed in honor of Ansel Adams in 1984.The peaks were named in 1868 by the California Geographical Survey, which reported: "To the south of Mount Ritter are some grand pinnacles of granite, very lofty and apparently inaccessible, to which we gave the name of 'the Minarets.'" Seventeen of the Minarets have been given unofficial names, including Michael Minaret, Adams Minaret, Leonard Minaret, and Clyde Minaret. Clyde Minaret, named after Norman Clyde, is the tallest of the spires. The Southeast Face Route of Clyde Minaret is a technical rock climb featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.

The photographer
Peter Essick is a photographer, author, speaker, instructor, and drone pilot who specializes in nature and environmental themes. Named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography MagazineUK, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond mere documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land. Essick is the author of two books of his photographs, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, and Our Beautiful, Fragile World. He has had solo exhibitions of his work at the Booth Western Art Museum, Yoho National Park: A Canadian Gem, and at Lumière Gallery, Compositions in Nature.Essick has photographed stories for National Geographicon many environmental issues including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. Other work has been published in international magazines. Essick's photographs are in public and private collections. He is represented by Lumière Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia and Cavan Images, New York, New York.
Currently, Essick is working on a book of his photographs about Fernbank Forest, an urban old-growth forest in Atlanta, and will be published by Fall Line Press in the October 2019.

_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes..
by Francis Rousseau

THE TEN PEAKS PAINTED BY CHARLES PARTRIDGE ADAMS

CHARLES PARTRIDGE ADAMS (1858 -1942)
The Ten peaks ( (3,424m- 11,234ft)
Canada (Alberta)

In Moraine Lake and Peaks, oil on canvas

The mountains
Valley of the Ten Peaks (Vallée des Dix Pics) is a valley in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, which is crowned by ten notable peaks and also includes Moraine Lake. The valley can be reached by following the Moraine Lake road near Lake Louise. The ten peaks were originally named by Samuel Allen, an early explorer of the region, who simply referred to them by using the numerals from one to ten in the Stoney First Nations Language. He may have learned the terms from his Native American guides, who helped him with the horses. The Nakoda–also known as the Stoney Indians–is a tribe whose culture and dialect are closely related to that of the Assiniboine First Nation, from whom they are believed to have separated in the mid-1700s, and who roamed large parts of the prairies and mountains of western Alberta well into British Columbia. The secluded Valley of the Ten Peaks was part of their original homeland. Gradually, though, all but three of the mountains were renamed in honour of noteworthy individuals, including Allen himself.
Mount Hungabee was not included in the original peak list by Allen, even though it is higher than Wenkchemna Peak, the latter of which is really an extension of Hungabee.
The ten peaks, in order of how they are numbered from east to west, are:
Mount Fay /Heejee (3,235m-10,613ft); Mount Little /Num (3,088m- 10,131ft); Mount Bowlen / Yamnee (3,072m- 10,079ft); Tonsa (3,057m/ 10,030ft); Mount Perren / Sapta (3,051m- 10,010ft); Mount Allen / Shappee 3,310m- 10,860ft); Mount Tuzo / Shagowa (3,246m- 10,650ft); Deltaform Mountain/ Shakhnowa (3,424m- 11,234ft); Neptuak Mountain (3,233m- 10,607ft); Wenkchemna Peak (3,170m-10,401 ft)

The painter
Charles Partridge Adams was a largely self-taught American landscape artist who painted primarily in Colorado, and secondarily in California. Some paintings were also made in other Rocky Mountain states, the Pacific Northwest and Canada, and a few in Louisiana, the East Coast and Europe.
Adams is widely considered to have been Colorado’s finest landscape artist. He is best known for his stunning views of snowy mountain peaks in early morning or sunset light, or wreathed in storm clouds, and for his luminous sunset and twilight paintings of the river bottoms near Denver. His works show an intensely personal and poetic response to the Colorado mountains and plains, with unusual sensitivity to the changing effects of light, atmosphere and season.
More about the painter =>

_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes..
by Francis Rousseau

CATHEDRAL ROCK, EL CAPITAN, SENTINEL DOME AND HALF DOME BY DAVID HOCKNEY

 

DAVID HOCKNEY (bn. 1937)

Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m - 6,648 ft)

El Capitan (2,309 m - 7,573 ft)

Sentinel Dome (2,477 m - 8,127 ft)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844  ft)

United States of America (California)

In Yosemite I, October 16, 2011, 

iPad drawing printed on four sheets of paper, mounted on four sheets of Dibond, Private collection

Mountains of Yosemite Valley
The Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m- 6,648 ft)  (on right in the painting above with the cascades) is a prominent rock face on the south side of Yosemite Valley, California.
El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) (on left in the painting above) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers. The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when it explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah". It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In modern times, the formation's name is often contracted to "El Cap", especially among rock climbers and BASE jumpers. 
Sentinel Dome (2,477m - 8,127ft)  (behind Cathedral rock in the painting above) is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, United States. It lies on the south wall of Yosemite Valley, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Glacier Point and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of Profile Cliff. Sentinel Dome is known for a Jeffrey Pine that grew from its peak (see photograph above). The pine was photographed as early as 1867 by Carleton Watkins, and was the subject of the well-known photograph by Ansel Adams. The pine died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003. The original Native American name of Sentinel Dome, in the Southern Sierra Miwok language, was "Sakkaduch". The Bunnell survey named it "South Dome", but the Whitney survey renamed it Sentinel Dome (from its likeness to a watch-tower). The view from the top offers a 360 degree view of Yosemite Valley and surroundings. One can see Half Dome,Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, North Dome, Basket Dome, and much more.
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) (behind Sentienl Dome in the painting above) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half.  The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.

The artist
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. An important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.
At the Royal College of Art, Hockney featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries—alongside Peter Blake—that announced the arrival of British Pop art. He was associated with the movement, but his early works display expressionist elements, similar to some works by Francis Bacon. When the RCA said it would not let him graduate in 1962, Hockney drew the sketch The Diploma in protest. He had refused to write an essay required for the final examination, saying he should be assessed solely on his artworks. Recognising his talent and growing reputation, the RCA changed its regulations and awarded the diploma. After leaving the RCA, he taught at Maidstone College of Art for a short time. A visit to California, where he subsequently lived for many years, inspired him to make a series of paintings of swimming pools in the comparatively new acrylic medium rendered in a highly realistic style using vibrant colours. The artist moved to Los Angeles in 1964, returned to London in 1968, and from 1973 to 1975 lived in Paris.
Hockney has a home and studio in Kensington, London and two residences in California, where he has lived on and off for over 30 years: one in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, and an office and archives on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California.
_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY FRANCIS CROPSEY

 

JASPER FRANCIS CROPSEY (1823-1900)

Sugar Loaf mountain (347 meters - 1,138 ft)

United States of America  (New York State)

 In Autumn Landscape, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Orange County, New York,  ca. 1870–75,

 oil on canvas  90,2x72,4 cm)  The MET Museum (not on view)

About this painting and the mountain Extract from an article by  Kenneth W. Maddox, Art Historian, The Newington-Cropsey Foundation
Jasper F. Cropsey's paintings of Sugar Loaf Mountain are among the most problematic of his
works. The subject of many of these paintings has often been incorrectly identified because the geographic area is unfamiliar to both art historians and dealers; only three paintings with "Sugar Loaf' in the title are documented through exhibition or auction records.'An even more important factor, however, is that the artist took great liberties with his subject. Cropsey's portrayals of the mountain appear much more similar to one another than to the actual topography of the site: certainly, in terms of scale and contour, the prominent peak in his works does not closely resemble the one that rises in the Warwick Valley, Orange County, New York. Small wonder, then, that the title and subject of Cropsey's fall scene in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known as Autumn Landscape, Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire, has not been challenged since the Museum acquired he painting in 1961(...)
In his paintings of Sugar Loaf (above), Cropsey transformed a mountain of fairly modest proportions and shape into a monumental form, which, like Mount Chocorua, majestically rises above the surrounding errain. It is a profound transformation-one that does not occur to this degree in any of the painter's other works-from the physical realities of the landscape to the mental creation of the artist. One may well ask, as with Cezanne's views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, what personal meaning the peak might have had for the artist. Although it is not mentioned in any of Cropsey's extant writings, this was a motif to which he was repeatedly drawn. Ironically, because of the liberties
Cropsey took in his portrayals of the mountain, Sugar Loaf has gone unrecognized-until now-as
the subject of numerous paintings.

 The painter
Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School. Trained as an architect, he set up his own office in 1843. Cropsey studied watercolor and life drawing at the National Academy of Design under the instruction of Edward Maury and first exhibited there in 1844. A year later he was elected an associate member and turned exclusively to landscape painting; shortly after he was featured in an exhibition entitled "Italian Compositions".
Cropsey traveled in Europe from 1847–1849, visiting England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. He was elected a full member of the Academy in 1851. Cropsey was a personal friend of Henry Tappan, the president of the University of Michigan from 1852 to 1863. At Tappan's invitation, he traveled to Ann Arbor in 1855 and produced two paintings, one of the Detroit Observatory, and a landscape of the campus.  He went abroad again in 1856, and resided seven years in London, sending his pictures to the Royal Academy and to the International exhibition of 1862.
Returning home, he opened a studio in New York and specialized in autumnal landscape paintings of the northeastern United States, often idealized and with vivid colors. Cropsey co-founded, with ten fellow artists, the American Society of Painters in Water Colors in 1866.
Cropsey's interest in architecture continued throughout his life and was a strong influence in his painting, most evident in his precise arrangement and outline of forms. But Cropsey was best known for his lavish use of color and, as a first-generation member from the Hudson River School, painted autumn landscapes that startled viewers with their boldness and brilliance. As an artist, he believed landscapes were the highest art form and that nature was a direct manifestation of God. He also felt a patriotic affiliation with nature and saw his paintings as depicting the rugged and unspoiled qualities of America.

______________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

POPOCATÉPETL AND IZTACCÍHUATL (5) PAINTED BY JOSÉ MARIA VELASCO (1840-1912),

 

JOSE MARIA VELASCO (1840-1912)
Popocatépetl (5, 426 m -17, 802 ft) on left)
Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) (on right)
Mexico

In Popocatepetl and Iztacchihuatl from the back, 1895, oil on canvas, The   José María Velasco Museum, Mexico

The volcanoes
Popocatépetl (5,426 m - 17,802 ft), on right in this painting, is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. The name Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words Popōca (It smokes) and Tepētl (mountain), meaning Smoking Mountain. It is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) at 5,636 m (18,491 ft).
It is linked to the Iztaccihuatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cortés.
Popocatépetl is 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, from where it can be seen regularly, depending on atmospheric conditions. Until recently, the volcano was one of three tall peaks in Mexico to contain glaciers, the others being Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba.
Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) is dormant volcanic mountain in Mexico located on the border between the State of Mexico and Puebla. It is the nation's third highest, after Pico de Orizaba 5,636 m (18,491 ft) and Popocatépetl 5,426 m (17,802 ft). The name "Iztaccíhuatl" is Nahuatl for "White woman", reflecting the four individual snow-capped peaks which depict the head, chest, knees and feet of a sleeping female when seen from east or west.The peak is sometimes nicknamed La Mujer Dormida (The Sleeping Woman.) Iztaccíhuatl is to the north of Popocatépetl, to which it is connected by the high altitude Paso de Cortés. Depending on atmospheric conditions Iztaccíhuatl is also visible much of the year from Mexico City some 70 km (43 mi) to the northwest.
The first recorded ascent was made in 1889, though archaeological evidence suggests the Aztecs and previous cultures climbed it previously. It is the lowest peak containing permanent snow and glaciers in Mexico.
In Aztec mythology : Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, Popocatépetl. The emperor sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca, promising him Iztaccíhuatl as his wife when he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl's father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was falsely told that Popocatépetl had died in battle, and believing the news, she died of grief. When Popocatépetl returned to find his love dead, he took her body to a spot outside Tenochtitlan and kneeled by her grave. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains.
Popocatépetl became an active volcano, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.

The painter
José Maria Tranquilino Francisco de Jesus Velasco Gomez Obregуn, generally known as José Marнa Velasco, was a 19th-century Mexican polymath, most famous as a painter who made Mexican geography a symbol of national identity through his paintings. He was both one of the most popular artists of the time and internationally renowned. He received many distinctions such as the gold medal of the Mexican National Expositions of Bellas Artes in 1874 and 1876; the gold medal of the Philadelphia International Exposition in 1876, on the centenary of U.S. independence; and the medal of the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889, on the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution. His painting El valle de Mexico is considered Velasco's masterpiece, of which he created seven different renditions. Of all the nineteenth-century painters, Velasco was the "first to be elevated in the post-Revolutionary period as an exemplar of nationalism."
Velasco's long career elevated Mexican landscape painting to international standing. One of his landscapes of the Valley of Mexico is in the Vatican Museum, a gift to Pope Leo XIII. His scenes of the Mexican landscape are a visual source for environmental historians, since they show the Valley of Mexico before its degradation in the twentieth century, with air pollution and urban sprawl. His landscape art has a wide appeal, since it is more accessible than history paintings that require the viewer to understand a particular event.
Today the Government of the State of Mexico, where Velasco was from, presents an award for artistic merit in his name to painters born in that state. Among the most outstanding winners are Luis Nishizawa, Leopoldo Flores, Ignacio Barrios and Héctor Cruz.
The José María Velasco Museum was opened in 1992 in Toluca City with the task of preserving and promoting his paintings.

_______________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau  

MOUNT TACOMA / MOUNT RAINIER BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859)

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

United States of America (Washington)

In Mount Rainier from the South Part of Admiralty Inlet, Watercolor and graphite from Views of Polar region, Yale Center for British arts, Connectitcut USA.

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.
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 artist
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of the Yale Center From British Art. Among them :
- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors),
- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82 watercolors), Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74 watercolors),
- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68watercolors) , Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78) watercolors),
- Views of Polar Regions (75 watercolors) (see above)
- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors), But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms. He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.
As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles.
He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and TheNatural history of dogs.
Quite a productive fellow !

___________________________________________ 

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT CAUBVICK/ MONT D'IBERVILLE PAINTED BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN

 

 

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

Mount Caubvick / Mont D'Iberville (1,652 m -5,420 ft) 

Canada (Labrador /Quebec border) 

In Mountains South of Nakvak, Labrador; oil on canvas, 1910, Private collection

The mountain 
Mount Caubvick / Mont D'Iberville (1,652 m -5,420 ft)  is a mountain located in Canada on the border between Labrador and Quebec in the Selamiut Range of the Torngat Mountains. Mount Caubvick is the highest point in mainland Canada east of the Rockies. The mountain contains a massive peak that rises sharply from nearby sea level. Craggy ridges, steep cirques and glaciers are prominent features of the peak.
The alp was named Mont d'Iberville by the Quebec government in 1971. It remained nameless on the Labrador side for several years; it became known unofficially as L1, L for Labrador and 1 for highest. In 1981, at the suggestion of Dr. Peter Neary, the provincial government named the mountain after Caubvick, one of the five Inuit who accompanied George Cartwright to England in 1772.
Mount Caubvick also hosts the highest point in both the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, although the summit itself lies about 10 metres (33 ft) northeast of the Quebec provincial border and is entirely within Labrador.

The painter
Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and... one of Canada’s most beloved scientist.
Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.
Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work. He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America. He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown.
"Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park are named in his honor.
He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

_______________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT MANSFIELD (2) BY SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD

 

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft)
United States of America (Vermont) - Canada border

In A Sketch of Mansfield Mountain, 1858,  Private collection 

About the painting 
One can be amused by the similarities betwee the painting above and the one painted by an other fmous Husdon  River School painter, Jerome B. Thompson,  made the same year, at the same season and at exactly the same place. One can suspects Sanford R.Gifford is depiected in the Jerome B. Thompson 's painting and  Jerome B. Thompson in the Sanford R. Gifford 's one ! 

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
Sanford Robinson Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York and spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, the son of an iron foundry owner. He attended Brown University 1842-44, before leaving to study art in New York City in 1845. He studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the direction of the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John Rubens Smith. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical college and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. By 1847 he was sufficiently skilled at painting to exhibit his first landscape at the National Academy and was elected an associate in 1851, an academician in 1854. Thereafter Gifford devoted himself to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the early Hudson River School.
More about the painter  

__________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT OF HOLY CROSS PAINTED BY THOMAS MORAN

 

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Mount of the Holy Cross (4,270 m - 14, 011 ft)
 United States of America  (Colorado)

In  Mountain of  the Holy Cross, oil on canvas, 1875, Museum of the American West, Los Angeles.

The mountain 
Mount of the Holy Cross  (4,270 m - 14, 011 ft) is a high and prominent mountain summit in the northern Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. It was named for the distinctive cross-shaped snowfield on its northeast face. Under USDA Forest Service administration, the mountain was proclaimed "Holy Cross National Monument" by Herbert Hoover on May 11, 1929. The monument was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.  In 1950, it was returned to the Forest Service and lost its National Monument status. This mountain has been the subject of painters, photographers and even a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Cross of Snow. The first publicly available photograph was published in National Geographic magazine. It is still much photographed but it is not as well known today as it was in the past.
Nearby features include Bowl of Tears Lake, directly under the east face of the peak, Tuhare Lakes, in a cirque that lies south of a significant subpeak, and several other lakes. Notable locations within 35 mi (56 km) include the Dotsero volcano (near Interstate 70),  abd the famous resort of Vail and  Aspen.  The first recorded ascent of Holy Cross was in 1873, by F. V. Hayden and photographer W. H. Jackson during one of Hayden's geographical surveys. However, the peak may well have been ascended previously by miners or American Indians.

The painter
Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection with The Three Tetons painted in 1895.

_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT BAKER / KULSHAN PAINTED BY JONAS LIE

 

JONAS LIE  (1880-1940)

Mount Baker / Kulshan ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft

United States of America

In Mount Baker, 1925, oil on canvas, Courtesy Saranac Lake Free Library

The mountain
Mount Baker ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount Saint Helens. About 30 miles (48 km)[due east of the city of Bellingham, Whatcom County, Mount Baker is the youngest volcano in the Mount Baker volcanic field. While volcanism has persisted here for some 1.5 million years, the current glaciated cone is likely no more than 140,000 years old, and possibly no older than 80–90,000 years. Older volcanic edifices have mostly eroded away due to glaciation.
After Mount Rainier, Mount Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker, 0.43 cu mi (1.79 km3) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. It is also one of the snowiest places in the world; in 1999, Mount Baker Ski Area, located 9 mi (14.5 km) to the northeast, set the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season—1,140 in (29 m; 95 ft).
Mt. Baker is the third-highest mountain in Washington and the fifth-highest in the Cascade Range, if Little Tahoma Peak, a subpeak of Mount Rainier, and Shastina, a subpeak of Mount Shasta, are not counted.[Located in the Mount Baker Wilderness, it is visible from much of Greater Victoria, Nanaimo, and Greater Vancouver in British Columbia, and to the south, from Seattle (and on clear days Tacoma) in Washington.
Indigenous peoples have known the mountain for thousands of years, but the first written record of the mountain is from Spanish explorer Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, who mapped it in 1790 as Gran Montaña del Carmelo, "Great Mount Carmel". The explorer George Vancouver renamed the mountain for 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker of HMS Discovery, who saw it on April 30, 1792.

The painter
Jonas Lie was a Norwegian-born American painter. He is best known for colorful paintings of coastlines of New England and city scenes of New York City.
Between 1901 and the memorial exhibition in 1940 his work was shown all over America. In 1905 Lie exhibited 34 pictures in the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Between 1905 and 1938 Lie had 57 one-man shows, each including from 12 to 45 paintings. He participated in important annual and biennial exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington as well as most of the world fairs. While living in Panama in 1913, he painted scenes of the construction of Panama Canal which were later donated to U.S. Military Academy at West Point in memory of the West Pointer who, as chief engineer, was most potent in channeling the isthmus, General George W. Goethals. In 1932, Jonas Lie was awarded the Knight of Order of St. Olav by the King of Norway.
Jonas Lie often depicted the sea, channels, and ships with dramatic perspective and powerful use of color. He became known for colorful impressionistic scenes of harbors & coves, painted during the many summers he spent on the coasts of New England & Canada. Throughout his prolific career he painted brilliantly colored images of the rocky coves and harbors that identify the region's dramatic shoreline.

___________________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau