THE JUNGFRAU BY EDGARD BOUILLETTE

EDGARD BOUILLETTE (1872-1960)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m-13,642 ft)

Switzerland

The mountain 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m-13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german)  is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.
Full  Wandering Vertexes entry =>

The artist 
Alphonse Henri Edgard Bouillette is a French painter best known for his mountain painting.
Born in Paris, he spent  his childhood there. Brilliant subject, he studied law and also passed a doctorate of science and a doctorate of letters. He began a legal career as a trainee lawyer at the Paris Court d'Appel but will quickly abandon it for an artistic career that will lead parallel to an intense activity of mountaineer.
He stayed for a long time in Chamonix, where he had a chalet built, from where he often went on errands with the great guide Joseph Ravanel "Le Rouge". It also frequents the massifs of Oisans and Pyrenees. He is mobilized for the Great War and fights in the trenches of the Yser.
After giving up his early career as a lawyer, he trained as a painter with Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911), Jean-André Rixens (1846-1924) and Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1911). He was admitted to the Society of Mountain Painters in 1904, became general secretary in 1938, vice-president in 1949 and president from 1955 to 1962. He is also a member of the Independents, the French Artists and the Salon d'hiver.
He becomes one of the first members of the French Alpine Club and is vice-president of the Chamonix section. He leads many collective races in the mountains.
He died in Chamonix at the age of 89.
Edgard Bouillette has dedicated his artistic career to the representation of the mountain, especially the peaks of the Chamonix valley (Mont Blanc, Les Drus, the Bossons glacier, etc.)
He is well known for his etchings but also made oil paintings and watercolors.
Some of his works are visible in the Alpine Museum of Chamonix, the mountain museum of Les Houches and the Museum of Annecy (France)

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

LES DIABLERETS BY DIRK FILARSKI

DIRK FILARSKI (1885-1964) 

Les Diablerets (3, 210m - 10, 531ft)

Switzerland

The mountain 
Les Diablerets (3, 210m - 10, 531ft) are a mountain range of the Bernese Alps, located on the borders of the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Bern. From west to east, it is composed of the following main summits: the Culan (2,789 m), the Tête Ronde  (3,037 m), the summit of Diablerets (3,210 m), the Sex Rouge (2,971 m), the  Ttoldenhorn or Becca d'Audon (3, 123 m), the Sanetschhore or Mount Brun (2 924 m), the Gstellihorn (2, 820 m), the Schluchhore (2, 579 m) and the Mittaghore (2, 334 m). The Oldenhorn, the Scex Rouge and the summit of the Diablerets seen from the north-west, from the peak Chaussy. It is possible to ski there, not only in winter but also in summer on the Tsanfleuron glacier, connected to the village of Diablerets by a cable car, inaugurated in 1964 on the occasion of the National Exhibition and replaced in 1999.

The painter 
Dirk Herman Willem Filarski  was a Dutch painter belonging to the Bergen School. In 1912, Filarski left for Switzerland . He lived in Clarens with the musician Nico Ebels, who was married to Lien Smorenberg, the sister of his friend. Dirk Smorenberg also stayed with the Ebels family. In the period 1912-1914 Filarski and Smorenberg painted mountain landscapes with striking color accents (purple, pink, lilac blue, light and dark green). With this use of color, Filarski belonged to the movement of the moderns (the 'Blauwen') within the Artists ' Association Sint Lucas .
Filarski stayed between 1912 and 1917 for longer periods in Switzerland and Italy (Lago Maggiore). In 1913 he returned to the Netherlands by the death of his mother. After her funeral, he worked for some time in Drenthe . In 1915 and 1916 he was working in Amsterdam, Bergen and Schoorldam. In 1917 he wandered through the Bernese Oberland and painted dozens of mountain landscapes in which dark colors (like above)  became more dominant compared to the works from the period 1912-1914.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

DER NIESEN BY JOHANN LUDWIG ABERLI

JOHANN LUDWIG ABERLI (1723-1786)

Der Niesen  (2, 362m - 7,749ft)

Switzerland

 In Vue du Chateau de Wimmis et du Niesen, engraving c.1783

The mountain 

The Niesen (2, 362m - 7,749ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It overlooks Lake Thun, in the Bernese Oberland region, and forms the northern end of a ridge that stretches north from the Albristhorn and Mannliflue, separating the Simmental and Kandertal valleys. The literal translation of the German word "Niesen" is  "sneeze", but the Niesen because of its shape, is often called The Swiss Pyramid. Administratively, the summit is shared between the municipalities of Reichenbach im Kandertal, to the south-east, and Wimmis, to the west and north. Both municipalities are in the canton of Bern. The summit of the mountain can be reached easily by using the Niesenbahn funicular from Mülenen (near Reichenbach). The construction of the funicular was completed in 1910. Alongside the path of the Niesenbahn is the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It is open only once a year to the public for a stair run. 

The literal translation of the German word Niesen is sneeze. Because of its shape, the Niesen is often called the Swiss Pyramid.  Since the 18th century, the Niesen was the subject of a number of paintings which will all be published in this blog, one by one. TheFerdinand Holder's paintings are the two first ones to have been published. The Niesen was also the subject of a number of paintings by Paul Klee, in which it was represented as a quasi-pyramid.

The painter 

Johann Ludwig Aberli  was a Swiss painter and etcher. Aberli was born in Winterthur. He is primarily known for his landscapes of Switzerland, first etched in contours then painted or colorized. This style is later to be known as the Aberli manner and found many imitators, such as Heinrich Rieter Senior, Franz Niklaus König or Johann Jakob Bidermann. He trained Samuel Hieronymus Grimm. and John Webber. He is said to have trained with J. Erim in Bern. He died in Bern, aged 53.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE WETTERHORN PAINTED BY THOMAS WORTHINGTON WHITTREDGE

THOMAS WORTHINGTON WHITTREDGE (1820-1910)

The Wetterhorn (3, 692m -12, 113ft)

 Switzerland

In Das Wetterhorn, 1858, oil on canvas, Newark Museum.

The mountain 

The Wetterhorn (3,692m-12,113ft) in the  Bernese Alps, towers above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits of a mountain named Wetterhorn sensu lato, or the "Wetterhцrner", the highest summit of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 m) and the most distant the Rosenhorn (3,689 m). The Mittelhorn and Rosenhorn are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald. The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn. The Wetterhorn summit was first reached on August 31, 1844, by the Grindelwald guides Hans Jaun and Melchior Bannholzer, three days after they had co-guided a large party organized by the geologist Edouard Desor to the first ascent of the Rosenhorn. The Mittelhorn was first summitted on 9 July 1845 by the same guides, this time accompanied by a third guide, Kaspar Abplanalp, and by Stanhope Templeman Speer. 

The painter 

Thomas Worthington Whittredge  was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. He traveled widely and excelled at landscape painting, many examples of which are now in major museums. He served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1874 to 1875 and was a member of the selection committees for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and the 1878 Paris Exposition, both important venues for artists of the day.

Whittredge journeyed across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains in 1865 with Sanford Gifford and John Frederick Kensett. The trip resulted in some of Whittredge's most important works—unusually oblong, sparse landscapes that captured the stark beauty and linear horizon of the Plains. Whittredge later wrote in his autobiography, "I had never seen the plains or anything like them. They impressed me deeply. I cared more for them than for the mountains... Whoever crossed the plains at that period, notwithstanding its herds of buffalo and flocks of antelope, its wild horses, deer and fleet rabbits, could hardly fail to be impressed with its vastness and silence and the appearance everywhere of an innocent, primitive existence."

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

Un blog de Francis Rousseau

THE JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER PAINTED BY AUGUST MACKE

AUGUST MACKE (1887-1914)  

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

 In Garten am Thuner See, oin on canvas  

The mountains 
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the  Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.


The Eiger (3,970 m- 13,020 ft) is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau, constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.

The painter 
August Macke was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. Like a true artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him.

THE JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER   (1853-1918) 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

Switzerland

In  The Jungfrau from Isenfluh, oil on canvas, 1902, Kunstmuseum Basel

The mountain 
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf  and Hieronymus Meyer, the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen,  reached the summit for the first time.

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.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

Un blog de Francis Rousseau

THE SCHILTHORN PAINTED BY CHARLES GIRON

CHARLES GIRON (1850–1914)

The Schilthorn  (2,970 m - 9,744 ft) 

Switzerland

In Le nuvole Valle di Lauterbrunnen, 1901, oil on canvas,  Musée Jenish, Vevey

The mountain
The Schilthorn  (2,970 m- 9,744 ft) is a peak in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland, near the alpine village of Mürren. Access to the village of Mürren and the summit of Schilthorn is impossible by road. To get there from the valley, take a series of cable cars, the first part of Stechelberg to join Gimmelwald, then Mürren. From Mürren a second cable car leads to Birg, from where a third joins the Schilthorn1. Another way to reach Mürren is to take the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp, then the train to Mürren.


The painter 
Charles Alexandre Giron is a painter and critic of Swiss art who took lessons with François Diday and Barthélemy Menn in Geneva. In 1872, he went to Paris and frequented the Swiss painters installed in the boarding house of the Hotel de Nice, No. 4 rue des Beaux-Arts before sharing until 1890 the successive workshops of the French painter Michel Maximilian Leenhardt. He thus becomes friends with Gustave Henri de Beaumont and Albert Bartholomew. He enters the studio of Alexandre Cabanel at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and officially begins at the Salon of 1876 with portraits and landscapes. As an art critic, he defends the painter Ferdinand Hodler. He worked in Paris and Cannes, then joined Switzerland in 1896. The city of Geneva gave its name to a street and a school.

THE LAUTERHORN BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF (1735-1783) 

 Lauterhorn (2,472 m-8,110 ft)

Switzerland  

In The Lauter-Aar Glacier with the Stone Table in front, oil on canvas 1776, Kunstmuseum Basel

The mountain 

The Lauberhorn (2,472 m-8,110 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, located between Wengen and Grindelwald, north of the Kleine Scheidegg. The mountain is best known for the Lauberhorn World Cup alpine ski races, held annually in mid-January above Wengen. The downhill course is currently (as of 2016) the longest in the world; its length of 4.48 km (2.78 mi) results in run times of two and a half minutes.The Lauberhorn ski races (downhill, slalom, and combined) are among the highest-attended winter sports events in the world, attracting around 30,000 spectators each year.

The painter 

Caspar Wolf  was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

1. In  L’Eiger, le Mönch et la Jungfrau au-dessus d'une mer de brumes, 1908, oil on canvas
2. In Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in Moonlight 1908, oil on canvas
3.  In L’Eiger, le Mönch et la Jungfrau au clair de lune, 1908, oil on canvas

The mountains

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft). The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

The Eiger (3,970m- 13,020 ft)  is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau at (4,158 m-13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. 

The north face, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition with Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vцrg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek. The Eiger has been highly-publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions.   In 1973 : first all female ascent of the face by Wanda Rutkiewicz, Danuta Gellner-Wach and Stefania Egierszdorff. All Polish.

In June 2006, François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger

Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall). Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mцnch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres.

The Eiger is mentioned in records dating back to the 13th century, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mцnch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed", but more commonly to the German eigen, meaning "own".

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

Climbing 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, having reached the summit for the first time.

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most of the accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau railway can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km. The final section of the climb is accomplished along one of the longest and sharpest arêtes of frozen snow to be found in the Alps, beyond which the eye plunges abruptly down a precipice 3,000 ft. in height into the depths of the Rottal, on the west of the Jungfrau. With perfect steadiness and first-rate guides there is no danger, unless too early in the season, or soon after a heavy fall of fresh snow. When it is necessary to cut steps all the way in hard frozen névé, the work is very laborious, and 3 hours may be consumed in ascending the 725 ft that separate the Sattel from the summit. Some rocks jut out close to the top, but the actual peak consists of a nearly level ridge of frozen snow falling away on either side like a house-top with an excessively steep roof. The view, on one side, commands the icy plains of the Aletsch Glacier, and the highest alpine peaks far and near; on the other overlooks populous valleys that lie at a depth of 2 miles below the spectator's feet.

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.

DER NIESEN PAINTED BY CUNO AMIET

CUNO AMIET (1868-1961)
Der Niesen  (2, 362m - 7,749ft)

Switzerland

 1. In  Thunersee mit Niesen, 1931 oil on canvas

2.  In Thunersee mit Niesen, 1932, watercolor

The mountain 

The Niesen (2, 362m - 7,749ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It overlooks Lake Thun, in the Bernese Oberland region, and forms the northern end of a ridge that stretches north from the Albristhorn and Mannliflue, separating the Simmental and Kandertal valleys. The literal translation of the German word "Niesen" is  "sneeze", but the Niesen because of its shape, is often called The Swiss Pyramid. Administratively, the summit is shared between the municipalities of Reichenbach im Kandertal, to the south-east, and Wimmis, to the west and north. Both municipalities are in the canton of Bern. The summit of the mountain can be reached easily by using the Niesenbahn funicular from Mülenen (near Reichenbach). The construction of the funicular was completed in 1910. Alongside the path of the Niesenbahn is the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It is open only once a year to the public for a stair run.
The literal translation of the German word Niesen is sneeze. Because of its shape, the Niesen is often called the Swiss Pyramid.  Since the 18th century, the Niesen was the subject of a number of paintings which will all be published in this blog, one by one. The Ferdinand Holder's paintings are the two first ones to have been published. The Niesen was also the subject of a number of paintings by Paul Klee, in which it was represented as a quasi-pyramid.

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.

GRINDELWALD VALLEY PAINTED BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF  (1735-1783)

Grindelwald Valley (1,034 m -3,392 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Grindelwald, vue du glacier inférieur sous l'orage, 1775, oil on canvas 

The spot 

Grindelwald (1,034 m 3,392 ft) designates a valley, a village and a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal. Three major swiss peaks overlooking Grindelwald: the Eiger (3,970 m - 13, 020ft), the Mettenberg (3,104m -10,184ft), the Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft). 

The Painter 

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

THE JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER SEEN BY EMIL NOLDE

EMIL NOLDE  (1867-1956)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

In Jungfrau, Mönch et Eiger, 1910

The mountains 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.
- More about the Jungfrau 

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft). The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

The Eiger (3,970 m- 13,020 ft) is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau, constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.
- More about the Eiger 


The painter 
Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke (The Bridge) of Dresden in 1906, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.
Nolde's intense preoccupation with the subject of flowers reflects his continuing interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.
From the early 1920s,  Nolde was a supporter of the Nazi party, having become a member of its Danish section. He expressed anti-semitic, negative opinions about Jewish artists, and considered "Expressionism to be a distinctively Germanic style". This view was shared by some other members of the Nazi party, notably Joseph Goebbels and Fritz Hippler.
However Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as "degenerate art", and the Nazi regime officially condemned Nolde's work. Until that time he had been held in great prestige in Germany. A total of 1,052 of his works were removed from museums, more than those of any other artist.  Some were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937, despite his protests, including (later) a personal appeal to Nazi gauleiter Baldur von Schirach in Vienna. He was not allowed to paint—even in private—after 1941. Nevertheless, during this period he created hundreds of watercolors, which he hid. He called them the "Unpainted Pictures".
In 1942 Nolde wrote: "There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every color holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colors are colors, tones tones...and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed."
After World War II, Nolde was once again honored, receiving the German Order of Merit, He died in Seebüll (now part of Neukirchen). The Schiefler Catalogue raisonné of his prints describes 231 etchings, 197 woodcuts, 83 lithographs, and 4 hectographs.

About this work 
The postcards series date from  pre-expressionist phase of Nolde’s career (though he was around 30 when he created them). After hiking in the Swiss Alps, Nolde did a painting, Mountain Giants, presenting the mountains in human form. Nolde wrote : “The picture went to the annual exhibition in Munich in 1896. [Ferdinand] Hodler’s picture “Night”  which established his fame, was also there. But my “Mountain Giants" was soon returned, rejected… In those days there was a general and stormy derision and ridicule about each of Hodler’s pictures. ‘And his colors are as ugly as can be possible!’ What help was my contradiction and my firm conviction that his sinuous, pushing, wry bodies are part of the character of the mountain folk, just as the firs on the mountain slopes are gnarled and grown oddly.” From then, he painted practically every Swiss Alps Summit in human form: the Cervin / Matterhorn, the Zugspitze, the Waxenstein, the Eiger, the Monch, the Jungfrau, the Grand Saint- Gothard, Piz Bernina, the Morteratch, the Ortler, the Finsteraarhorn... they will be posted one by one in this blog.

THE JUNGRAU PAINTED BY KARL MILLNER

KARL MILLNER (1825-1895)

The Jungfrau  (4,158m- 13, 642ft)

Switzerland

In Die Junfrau, 1867, oil on canvas, private collection 

The mountain 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m- 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with The Eiger and  the Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

- More about the Jungfrau

The painter  

Karl Millner was a German landscape painter. In 1850, Millner moved from Mindelheim (Allgäu) to Munich, Germany's cultural capital, in order to perfect his artistic abilities and to receive new stimuli. Influenced by Carl Rottmann (1797-1850) and Eduard Schleich (the older 1812-1874), Millner quickly made a name for himself as a good painter especially for alpine landscapes. From 1858 Millner also studied painting with Julius Lange. Characteristic of his style were the dramatic appearance of the high Alps. He painted with great meticulous mountain panoramas, which were characterized by fine details and skillfully used light and shadow contrasts. The connection to the art dealer Daniel Loffel in 1857 opened the possibility for Millner to work in a financially secure framework. It also created the prerequisite for letting many young artists of this time work in his studio.

GRINDELWALD VALLEY PANORAMA BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF (1735-1783) 

The Eiger (3,970 m - 13, 020ft)

The Mettenberg (3,104m -10,184ft)

The Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft) 

Grindelwald Valley (1,034 m (3,392 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Panorama of the Grindelwald valley with  the Eiger, the Mettenberg, the Wetterhorn, 

oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountains 

The Eiger (3,970 m - 13,020 ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau (4,158 m -13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps.
The Mettenberg  (3,104m -10,184ft) also spelled Mättenberg, is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland. It lies north of the Schreckhorn.

The Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft)  is a mountain in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits of a mountain named Wetterhorn sensu lato, or the "Wetterhцrner", the highest summit of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 m) and the most distant the Rosenhorn (3,689 m). The Mittelhorn and Rosenhorn are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald. The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn.

Grindelwald (1,034 m 3,392 ft) designates a valley, a village and a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal.

The Painter 

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

DER NIESEN PAINTED BY PAUL KLEE

PAUL KLEE (1879-1940) 

 Der Niesen  (2, 362m - 7,749ft)

Switzerland

1.  In Der Niesen, Egyptian Night, 1915, oil on canvas (see note)  

2. In The Niesen, Ad Parnassum, 1932, oil on canvas, Kunst Museum, Bern

Note about the first painting

Mount Niesen - Egyptian Night was exposed in Kunstmuseum Bern. In 1976, it was stolen from there, being deemed as lost since then.  It was only in the spring of 2001 that it reappeared in Basel.

 The mountain 

The Niesen (2, 362m - 7,749ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It overlooks Lake Thun, in the Bernese Oberland region, and forms the northern end of a ridge that stretches north from the Albristhorn and Mannliflue, separating the Simmental and Kandertal valleys. The literal translation of the German word "Niesen" is  "sneeze", but the Niesen because of its shape, is often called The Swiss Pyramid. Administratively, the summit is shared between the municipalities of Reichenbach im Kandertal, to the south-east, and Wimmis, to the west and north. Both municipalities are in the canton of Bern. The summit of the mountain can be reached easily by using the Niesenbahn funicular from Mülenen (near Reichenbach). The construction of the funicular was completed in 1910. Alongside the path of the Niesenbahn is the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It is open only once a year to the public for a stair run.
The literal translation of the German word Niesen is sneeze. Because of its shape, the Niesen is often called the Swiss Pyramid.  Since the 18th century, the Niesen was the subject of a number of paintings which will all be published in this blog, one by one. The Ferdinand Holder's paintings are the two first ones to have been published. The Niesen was also the subject of a number of paintings by Paul Klee, in which it was represented as a quasi-pyramid (above)

The painter 

Paul Klee was a Swiss-German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.
Klee has been variously associated with Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, and Abstraction, but his pictures are difficult to classify. He generally interpreted new art trends in his own way. He was inventive in his methods and technique. Klee worked in many different media—oil paint, watercolor, ink, pastel, etching, and others. He often combined them into one work. He used canvas, burlap, muslin, linen, gauze, cardboard, metal foils, fabric, wallpaper, and newsprint. Klee employed spray paint, knife application, stamping, glazing, and impasto, and mixed media such as oil with watercolor, watercolor with pen and India ink, and oil with tempera.
He was a natural draftsman, and through long experimentation developed a mastery of color and tonality. Many of his works combine these skills. He uses a great variety of color palettes from nearly monochromatic to highly polychromatic. His works often have a fragile childlike quality to them and are usually on a small scale. He often used geometric forms as well as letters, numbers, and arrows, and combined them with figures of animals and people. Some works were completely abstract. Many of his works and their titles reflect his dry humor and varying moods; some express political convictions. They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams and sometimes include words or musical notation. The later works are distinguished by spidery hieroglyph-like symbols. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about Klee in 1921, "Even if you hadn’t told me he plays the violin, I would have guessed that on many occasions his drawings were transcriptions of music."

THE NIEDERHORN PAINTED BY BALTHUS

BALTHUS (1908- 2001) 

Der Niederhorn (1,963m - 6,640ft)

Switzerland 

In The mountain, Suisse 1936-1937, oil on canvas, The MET

The mountain 

The Niederhorn (1,963m - 6,640ft) is a peak of the Emmental Alps in the Bernese Oberland near Beatenberg. It is the peak farthest west in the Güggis ridge. From its summit one can see Lake Thun and the entire Bernese Alps. An aerial cable car to the summit was completed in 1946 with a restaurant and children's playground at the top. Today the summit can be reached by the Seilbahnen Beatenberg-Niederhorn, a more modern gondola lift that runs from the village of Beatenberg, where it connects with the Thunersee–Beatenberg Bahn, a funicular with connections to the shipping services on Lake Thun.

Source:

- Niederhorn official website 

The painter 

Balthusz Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, was born 29 February 1908 in Paris. He is the second son of painter and art historian, Erich Klossowski (1875-1946), and Elizabeth Dorothea Spiro (1886-1969), called Baladine. His older brother is the writer and artist Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001). Involved in the artistic circles of Montparnasse at the beginning of the century, Erich and Dorothea associated with Pierre Bonnard, Julius Meier-Graefe, Wilhelm Uhde, and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, and he resisted any attempts made to build a biographical profile. A telegram sent to the Tate Gallery as it prepared for its 1968 retrospective of his works read: "NO BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. BEGIN: BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES. REGARDS. B."
Source:
- Fonds Balthus

The MET notice about the painting
Painting in his austere Paris studio, Balthus imagined and depicted in this monumental canvas an escape from the congested city to the open landscape of Niederhorn Mountain, near Beatenberg, Switzerland. A hiking party of seven explores the mountainous terrain together, yet the figures are strangely isolated from one another, a persistent characteristic of Balthus’s work. The figure’s disparate poses and activities—walking, stretching, kneeling, and sleeping—heighten their detachment and enhance the scale and remoteness of the landscape. Invoking life in summer, The Mountain is one in an abandoned series of four canvases meant to symbolize the seasons.
Source: 
The MET, New York 

DER NIESEN PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER  (1853-1918)

Der Niesen  (2, 362m - 7,749ft) 

Switzerland

1. In Der Niesen bei Regen von Heustrich aus, oil, 1910, Kunstmuseum Basel 

2.  In Der Niesen, 1910, Private Collection  

The mountain 

The Niesen (2, 362m - 7,749ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It overlooks Lake Thun, in the Bernese Oberland region, and forms the northern end of a ridge that stretches north from the Albristhorn and Mannliflue, separating the Simmental and Kandertal valleys. The literal translation of the German word "Niesen" is  "sneeze", but the Niesen because of its shape, is often called The Swiss Pyramid. Administratively, the summit is shared between the municipalities of Reichenbach im Kandertal, to the south-east, and Wimmis, to the west and north. Both municipalities are in the canton of Bern. The summit of the mountain can be reached easily by using the Niesenbahn funicular from Mülenen (near Reichenbach). The construction of the funicular was completed in 1910. Alongside the path of the Niesenbahn is the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It is open only once a year to the public for a stair run.
Since the 18th century, the Niesen was the subject of a number of paintings which will all be published in this blog, one by one. The Ferdinand Holder's paintings are the two first ones to be published.
Source : 
- Niesen official website 

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. Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly colored and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky...
- More about Ferdinand Hodler Biography 

JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY CHARLES WARREN EATON

CHARLES WARREN EATON (1857-1937) 

Jungfrau (4,158m- 13, 642ft)

Switzerland

In Jungfrau in 1890, Oil on canvas, The Cooley Gallery, Connecticut

The mountain 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m-13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german)  is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened.

The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

Climbing 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, having reached the summit for the first time.

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most of the accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau railway can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km. The final section of the climb is accomplished along one of the longest and sharpest arêtes of frozen snow to be found in the Alps, beyond which the eye plunges abruptly down a precipice 3,000 ft. in height into the depths of the Rottal, on the west of the Jungfrau. With perfect steadiness and first-rate guides there is no danger, unless too early in the season, or soon after a heavy fall of fresh snow. When it is necessary to cut steps all the way in hard frozen névé, the work is very laborious, and 3 hours may be consumed in ascending the 725 ft that separate the Sattel from the summit. Some rocks jut out close to the top, but the actual peak consists of a nearly level ridge of frozen snow falling away on either side like a house-top with an excessively steep roof. The view, on one side, commands the icy plains of the Aletsch Glacier, and the highest alpine peaks far and near; on the other overlooks populous valleys that lie at a depth of 2 miles below the spectator's feet.

Source: 

- Official Website of Interalken and Jungfrau.

The painter 
Charles Warren Eaton was an American artist best known for his tonalist landscapes. He earned the nickname "the pine tree painter" for his numerous depictions of Eastern White Pine trees. Eaton was born in Albany, New York to a family of limited means. He starting working at age nine, and worked at a dry goods store in Albany into his early adulthood. When Eaton was twenty-two, a friend's amateur painting sparked his interest in art. He moved to New York City in 1879 to work during the day and attend classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League at night. He also used his time off to practice sketching.
Eaton's entrance into the art world coincided with a profound change in the prevailing artistic style in America. In the late 1870s the highly realistic and detailed Hudson River School manner, which had dominated the American art scene for over forty years, was giving way to a much looser, moodier style that younger artists were bringing home from Europe. This new style, which would later come to be known as tonalism, emphasized low-key colors and tended to depict intimate settings rather than scenes of grandeur. Eaton adopted this new style in New York and became friends with two other tonalist artists, Leonard Ochtman and Ben Foster.
Eaton reached his maturity as an artist in the 1890s and 1900s with two distinctive landscape subjects. The first subject, tonalist in style, was a landscape typically containing pasture, trees and sometimes a small patch of water or stone fence. The overall mood in these paintings is one of intimacy. The second subject, more stately in manner, was a landscape with a grouping of tall pine trees, often backlit with the glow of a setting sun. He developed this second subject into some of his largest works, and was so successful with them he became known. Eaton almost never included human or animal figures in his landscapes.
Eaton worked primarily in oil and watercolor. He was a founding member of the American Watercolor Society. He exhibited at the well-known Macbeth Gallery in New York for over thirty years, in Paris via the famous dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, and at important international expositions. He also served on numerous exhibition juries. For reasons that are unclear but possibly political in nature, Eaton never gained full membership to the National Academy (though he was elected into the Academy as an Associate Academician in 1901) nor to the Society for American Artists.
Despite his success with tonalism, Eaton gradually discarded the shadowy tonalist style and began painting with brighter colors, especially after 1910. Never a true impressionist, Eaton painted in a loosely realist style. Many works from his later career depicted European scenes, where Eaton traveled regularly as an adult. He particularly favored the countryside around Bruges as well as Lake Como in Italy, which he painted with a particularly bright palette.
By the 1920s Eaton's output and creativity had faded. The Great Depression demolished the art market, and Eaton's sales dried up. He moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey in the 1880s, and lived a quiet retirement with his sister and niece before his death in 1937. He was buried at Bloomfield Cemetery. His works, like many artists of his generation, were nearly forgotten for decades until a resurgence of interest in the late twentieth century.