SOMMERSPIRET PAINTED BY P. C. SKOVGAARD

 

P. C.  SKOVGAARD (1817-1875) 

Sommerspiret  (120 m-393 ft)

Denmark

 In  Udsigt over havet fra Møens Klint, 1850, oil on canvas, Danish Royal Academy

The cliff
Sommerspiret (120 m - 393 ft) is one of the chalk cliffs forming Møns Klint, a 6 km stretch of cliffs along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The highest cliff is Dronningestolen (128 m- 420 ft). The area around Møns Klint consists of woodlands, pastures, ponds and steep hills, including Aborrebjerg which, with a height of 143 m - 469ft), is one of the highest points in Denmark. The cliffs and adjacent park are now protected as a nature reserve. Møns Klint receives around 250,000 visitors a year. There are clearly marked paths for walkers, riders and cyclists. The path along the cliff tops leads to steps down to the shore in several locations.
On 29 May 2007, close to the cliff tops, the GeoCenter Møns Klint was opened by Queen Margrethe. The geological museum with interactive computer displays and a variety of attractions for children traces the geological prehistory of Denmark and the formation of the chalk cliffs. The museum was designed by PLH Architects, the winners of an international design competition.
Møns Klint has been a most popular subject for landscape painters, especially during the Danish Golden Age when the national romanticism movement encouraged artists to take renewed interest in the Danish countryside.
The painter
Peter Christian Thamsen Skovgaard (known as P.C. Skovgaard; 4 April 1817 – 13 April 1875) was a Danish national romantic landscape painter. He is one of the main figures associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting.  Skovgaard is primarily known for his landscape paintings, and for the special role he played in portraying Denmark's nature; not the spectacular but the ordinary and typical. He helped develop a unique Danish art form and sensibility. He had a deep sympathy for the Danish landscape and its uniqueness, especially Denmark's beloved beech forests. Animal life and locals that belonged to the land populated these landscapes. He studied nature diligently, and tried to portray it faithfully, yet ideally, and with a love of his country. He was a master of composition, and in his later works he developed an increasing interest in portraying atmosphere and light. The scale of his paintings was a breakthrough in Danish art.
He is considered one of the leading landscape painters of the 1800s.
His art production and academic career had a large influence on landscape painting's future in Denmark.
His work has been shown both in Denmark and internationally in numerous exhibitions of Danish art including exhibitions in London (1907, 1948), Paris (1928, 1984–1985), New York City (1960–1961, 1964), and Rome (1974).
The Skovgaard Museum in Viborg is dedicated to the artistic production of the entire Skovgaard family. A number of paintings by P.C. Skovgaard are in the museum's collection.


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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

ULURU / AYERS ROCK (2) PAINTED BY PETER TAYLOR TJUTJATJA

PETER TAYLOR TJUTJATJA (1940-2014)

Uluru /Ayers Rock (863m -2,831 ft)

Australia (Northern Territory) 

In Uluru, Watercolor on Archer Paper, 56 x 37 cm,  Central arborigenal Art, Australia

The mountain 
 Uluru (863m - 2,831 ft) also known as Ayers Rock (in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers) is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia.
Officially the rock is gazetted as "Uluru / Ayers Rock"
It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs, 450 km (280 mi) by road.
Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes, rock caves, and ancient paintings. Both Uluru and the nearby Kata Tjuta formation have great cultural significance for the Aṉangu people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, who lead walking tours to inform visitors about the local flora and fauna, bush food and the Aboriginal dreamtime stories of the area.
Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn and sunset.
Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
More about Uluru

The painter
The painter Peter Taylor Tjutjatja was born at Oodnadatta, south-east of Alice Springs, in the Simpson Desert. As a small boy he travelled with his father often by camel or horse, to Horseshoe Bend Station, where his father worked as a station-hand. From there they travelled north working from station to station until they came to Hermannsburg, a Western Arrernte community in the MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs.
Hermannsburg in central Australia is the homeland of Albert Namatjira - the most famous Aboriginal painter of all time. Peter, as a small boy living in Hermannsburg was influenced by Albert Namatjira's central desert landscapes. While attending school in Adelaide, Peter showed an interest in drawing and his skills were further developed by his art teacher Trevor Clare.
More about the painter 

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MØNS KLINT & SOMMERSPIET BY FREDERIK SØDRING

 

   FREDERIK SØDRING  (1809–1862)

Sommerspiret  (120 m-393 ft)

Denmark

In Part of Mons Klint with the Sommerspiret, 1830,  Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum

The cliff
Sommerspiret (120 m - 393 ft) is one of the chalk cliffs forming Møns Klint, a 6 km stretch of cliffs along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The highest cliff is Dronningestolen (128 m- 420 ft). The area around Møns Klint consists of woodlands, pastures, ponds and steep hills, including Aborrebjerg which, with a height of 143 m - 469ft), is one of the highest points in Denmark. The cliffs and adjacent park are now protected as a nature reserve. Møns Klint receives around 250,000 visitors a year. There are clearly marked paths for walkers, riders and cyclists. The path along the cliff tops leads to steps down to the shore in several locations.
On 29 May 2007, close to the cliff tops, the GeoCenter Møns Klint was opened by Queen Margrethe. The geological museum with interactive computer displays and a variety of attractions for children traces the geological prehistory of Denmark and the formation of the chalk cliffs. The museum was designed by PLH Architects, the winners of an international design competition.
Møns Klint has been a most popular subject for landscape painters, especially during the Danish Golden Age when the national romanticism movement encouraged artists to take renewed interest in the Danish countryside.

The painter
Sødring was born in Aalborg, Denmark. He spent some time living in Norway with his parents before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen beginning in 1825. There he initially studied under Jens Peter Møller, but his greatest influence was from the romantic art of Johan Christian Dahl. Between 1829 and 1831 Sødring travelled to Norway and Germany, taking time to study in Munich. He traveled to Norway and Southern Sweden between 1832-36 and returned during 1847. He was awarded the Fund ad Usus Publicos 1836-38. He travelled to Germany (mainly Munich) 1836-38) and to Paris in 1843.He continued to work, sending several paintings back to Denmark. These travels influenced Sødring's later works. Upon his return, he continued to paint, exhibiting landscapes from the Rhine, Southern Germany, and Tyrol. In 1832, he was painted by Christen Købke; the portrait is now part of the Hirschsprung Collection.[
He exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition 1828-36, 1838-40, 1842-47, 1858. Sødring's other exhibition included at the Salon in Paris and University of Copenhagen both in 1843.

_____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TABLE MOUNTAIN / HOERIKWAGGO BY NITA SPILHAUS

 

 NITA SPILHAUS (1878-1967) 

Table mountain / Hoerikwaggo (1,085 m - 3,558 ft)  

South Africa

In Table Mountain from Rondebosch, watercolor, Private collection

The mountain
Table Mountain (1,085 m - 3,558 ft)  also called Hoerikwaggo is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa and forming part of the Table Mountain National Park. The main feature of Table Mountain is the level plateau approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) from side to side, edged by impressive cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town. This broad sweep of mountainous heights, together with Signal Hill, forms the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl and Table Bay harbour. The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level, about 19 metres (62 ft) higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau.
The cliffs of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"), which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by Antуnio de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503.
The flat top of the mountain is often covered by orographic clouds, formed when a south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain's slopes into colder air, where the moisture condenses to form the so-called "table cloth" of cloud. Legend attributes this phenomenon to a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks. When the table cloth is seen, it symbolizes the contest.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles. The range continues southwards to Cape Point. Table Mountain is featured in the Flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top.

The painter
Nita Spilhaus born Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina Spilhaus was a Portuguese-born South African painter, working in oil, watercolour and pastel. She is best known for her landscapes, paintings and etchings of trees, her portrayals of the Cape mountains, and depictions of the Malay Quarter.
Nita was raised by her grandfather in Lübeck, and her first training in drawing and etching took place at the Lübeck School of Art, then in Munich, where she attended a private art school run by Friedrich Fehr, the Dachau art colony just outside Munich under Adolf Hölzel, and copper engraving under Heinrich Wolff.
She moved to South Africa in 1907 because of the death of her grandfather in 1906, joining her brother Karl, and the family of her uncle Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus.
She joined the 'South African Society of Artists' soon after her arrival. The Cape Times acknowledged her talent as a graphic artist by publishing a modest booklet of 12 etchings portraying scenes in and around Cape Town.
Working from a studio in Keerom Street in Cape Town she gradually became a leading member of Cape Town's art community. When Hugo Naudé visited Munich in 1913 she took over his art classes in Worcester.
Her oil paintings were Impressionist in style, her landscapes rich in atmosphere, while her flower studies are notable for their vivid colours. She had a particular affinity with trees and her striking images of the Stone Pines around Cape Town are a recurring theme in her work.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CAP DE CREUS (2) BY SALVADOR DALI

SALVADOR DALI  (1904-1989) 

Cap de Creus (672 m - 2, 205ft)

Spain

In Paysage de Port Lligat avant la tempête, 1956, oil on canvas, 64,3 x 86,6 cm, Dali Museum 

The mountain 

Cap de Creus (672 m - 2, 205ft) is a peninsula and a headland located at the far northeast of Catalonia (Spain), some 25 kilometres (16 mi) south from the French border. The cape lies in the municipal area of Cadaquès, and the nearest large town is Figueres, capital of the Alt Empordа and birthplace of Salvador Dali. Cadaquès is the most well known village, home of artists and writers, with sophisticated atmosphere, near Port Lligat where Dali built his home in a paradise small bay. (Dalн depicted Cap de Creus in four of his most famous paintings : The Persistence of Memory in 1931 (above), Untitled (Persistence of Fair Weather) 1932-34 , Le Spectre du sex appeal in 1934 (above) and The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1952-54 

Cap de Creus is the easternmost point of Catalonia and therefore of mainland Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. Mountains are the eastern foothills of the Pyrenees, the natural border between France and Spain. The peninsula has an area of 190 square kilometres (73 sq mi) of an extraordinary landscape value; a windbeaten very rocky dry region, with almost no trees, in contrast with a seaside rich in minuscule creeks of deep blue sea to anchor.The region is frequently swept by awful north wind "tramontana" (beyond mountains) which has caused many naval disasters.

Sant Pere de Rodes stands out at 500 metres (1,600 ft) of altitude, with views of the Cap and the Pyrenees. It is an 11th-century monastery whose first structures date from about 750 AD.

One legend tells that the Cap de Creus was hewn by Hercules.

The painter 

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Púbol, known professionally as Salvador Dalí, was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.

Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory was completed in August 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors. Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.

_____________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

SOMMERSPIRETAND MØNS KLINT PAINTED BY GEORG EMIL LIBERT

GEORG EMIL LIBERT (1820-1908)  

Sommerspiret  (120 m - 393 ft)

Denmark

In View of Sommerspiret, the Cliffs of Møn, 1846, oil on canvas, mounted on board, 

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund

About the painting
In the first half of the nineteenth century, Denmark experienced an artistic “Golden Age”. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the small, peninsular kingdom suffered English naval aggression, the dissolution of its partnership with Norway, and increasing hostility with Germany. As modern Denmark emerged as a constitutional monarchy, artists sought a unifying and stabilizing identity for the nation. Inspired by German romantic nationalism, best represented by the mesmerizing meditations on landscape of Caspar David Friedrich, Danish artists produced meticulous images in crystalline light of their native countryside. In the colors and contours of the Danish landscape, they sought to define a distinctly national spirit.
Here, he pictures the white chalk cliffs of the island of Møn in the Baltic Sea, not far from the island of Rügen where Friedrich painted several celebrated images of chalk cliffs. Much of Demark exists on a plateau of white chalk. In places, the bleach-white earth erupts into the sun, washed by the sea. The tourist destination gained additional appeal from the Sommerspiret, or summer spire, a towering chalk formation gleaming against the bright blue Danish sky. Several Danish Golden Age painters, including Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and Louis Gurlitt, painted the Sommerspiret. (Alas, in 1988 it naturally eroded into the sea.) The high degree of finish, clear, harmonious tones, and the inclusion of small figures beholding the marvelous scene are classic characteristics of this moment in the history of landscape painting.

The painter  

Georg Emil Libert was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the son of Johan Christian Libert (1790-1846) and his first wife, Andrea Margrethe Hassing (1796-1820). His father was a cabinetmaker.
He was a graduate of the Royal Academy in Copenhagen where he studied under Johan Ludwig Lund (1777– 1867). In 1845, he applied for travel support from the Academy, which was awarded to him in 1846 with renewed scholarship in 1847. He stayed abroad from 1857-59, especially in Germany and Switzerland. He sought inspiration, especially from the Munich landscape scene.
He exhibited many works in Charlottenborg and at the Kunstforeningen (Art Association). He is best known for his paintings of the Baltic island of Bornholm; indeed one of the cliffs at Helligdomsklipperne, Libert's Rock (Libertsklippen) is named after him.
Many of his works today are in the Danish National Gallery and Thorvaldsens Museum, and are highly sought after by buyers; his painting Ansicht des Heidelberger Schlosses Zwischen der Molkenkur, der Stadt (1859) sold for $11,240 at Sotheby's in Munich in June 1994.

The cliff

Sommerspiret  (120 m - 393 ft) is one of the chalk cliffs  forming Møns Klint, a 6 km stretch of cliffs along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The highest cliff is Dronningestolen  (128 m- 420 ft).  The area around Møns Klint consists of woodlands, pastures, ponds and steep hills, including Aborrebjerg which, with a height of 143 m - 469ft), is one of the highest points in Denmark. The cliffs and adjacent park are now protected as a nature reserve. Møns Klint receives around 250,000 visitors a year. There are clearly marked paths for walkers, riders and cyclists. The path along the cliff tops leads to steps down to the shore in several locations.
On 29 May 2007, close to the cliff tops, the GeoCenter Møns Klint was opened by Queen Margrethe. The geological museum with interactive computer displays and a variety of attractions for children traces the geological prehistory of Denmark and the formation of the chalk cliffs. The museum was designed by PLH Architects, the winners of an international design competition.

Møns Klint has been a most popular subject for landscape painters, especially during the Danish Golden Age when the national romanticism movement encouraged artists to take renewed interest in the Danish countryside.

_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

RAS SPARTEL BY EUGÈNE DELACROIX

EUGÈNE DELACROIX (1798-1863)

Cap Spartel (315 m - 1, 050 ft) 

Morocco

In  Album d'Afrique du Nord et d'Espagne - La côte d'Afrique vue du détroit de Gibraltar, watercolour, Musée du Louvre, Paris  

The mountain
Cap Spartel (315 m - 1, 050 ft)  or Ras Spartel (رأس سبارتيل) is a promontory of the coast of Morocco, located at the southern entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, 14 kilometers west of Tangier. Facing Cape Spartel, 44 km to the north, Cape Trafalgar marks the northern entrance to the strait on the Spanish coast. Cape Spartel is often mistakenly indicated as the northernmost point of Africa.
The promontory benefits from a strong rainfall favorable to the vegetation. In ancient times Cape Spartel was called Cape Ampelusium, or Cap of Vineyards. Under the promontory, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean have dug caves, where the inhabitants of the region used to carve millstones. Today, these spectacular "Hercules caves" are a tourist attraction.
On Cape Spartel, 110 meters above sea level, there is a lighthouse, which began operating on October 15, 1864. Its construction was ordered by Sultan Mohammed IV ben Abderrahman at the request of the consular representatives of the European powers alarmed by the Many shipwrecks occurring off the coast. The light from the lighthouse is visible 30 nautical miles (55.6 km).
Off Cape Spartel is the Spartel Bank, a shoal, some of which wanted to make the legendary island of Atlantis.

The painter
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school. As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.
However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire:"Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible."
In 1832, Delacroix traveled to Spain and North Africa, as part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria. He went not primarily to study art, but to escape from the civilization of Paris, in hopes of seeing a more primitive culture. He eventually produced over 100 paintings and drawings of scenes from or based on the life of the people of North Africa, and added a new and personal chapter to the interest in Orientalism. Delacroix was entranced by the people and the costumes, and the trip would inform the subject matter of a great many of his future paintings. He believed that the North Africans, in their attire and their attitudes, provided a visual equivalent to the people of Classical Rome and Greece: "The Greeks and Romans are here at my door, in the Arabs who wrap themselves in a white blanket and look like Cato or Brutus…"
He managed to sketch some women secretly in Algiers, as in the painting Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834), but generally he encountered difficulty in finding Muslim women to pose for him because of Muslim rules requiring that women be covered. Less problematic was the painting of Jewish women in North Africa, as subjects for the Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1837–41).
While in Tangier, Delacroix made many sketches of the people and the city, subjects to which he would return until the end of his life. Animals—the embodiment of romantic passion—were incorporated into paintings such as Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable (1860), The Lion Hunt (of which there exist many versions, painted between 1856 and 1861), and Arab Saddling his Horse (1855).

__________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

EL CAPITAN PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 

THOMAS HILL  (1829-1908)

El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) 

United States of America

In El Capitan, oil on cnavas,  Oakland Museum of California

The mountain
El Capitan  (2,309m - 7,573 ft) 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") 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.
The top of El Capitan can be reached by hiking out of Yosemite Valley on the trail next to Yosemite Falls, then proceeding west. For climbers, the challenge is to climb up the sheer granite face. There are many named climbing routes, all of them arduous, including Iron Hawk and Sea of Dreams, for example.
The Nose was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore in 47 days using "siege" tactics: climbing in an expedition style using fixed ropes along the length of the route, linking established camps along the way.
In September 1973, Beverly Johnson and Sibylle Hechtel were the first team of women to ascend El Capitan via the Triple Direct route.

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.

_____________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MONT AIGUILLE PAINTED BY WILHELM STEINFIELD

WILHELM STEINFIELD (1816-1854)

Mont Aiguille  (2, 087m -9,209ft) 

France ( Dauphiné) 

In Gebirgslandschaft - Gebirgslandschaft im französischen Dauphiné. Im Zentrum der Mont Aiguille, 1839, Oil on panel,  52 x 41cm, 

The mountain 
Mount Aiguille (2, 087m -9,209ft) , located in the town of Chichilianne, is an advanced tooth of the eastern cliff of the Vercors massif, on the edge of Trièves, south of the department of Isere (France). It is one of the seven wonders of Dauphiné area.
From a geomorphological point of view, it is a structure left by the erosion around it, of the plateau of which it was originally part. Mount Aiguille owes its particular shape to this: a block of cliffs and a summit meadow, similar to the pastures of the entire Vercors plateau.
Mount Aiguille is a limestone scale previously attached to the rest of the Vercors massif. The base consists of a set of soft limestone and marl surmounted by a wall itself composed of a thick series of limestone more rigid. Its morphology results from the difference in the behavior of the layers in the face of erosion.
During the formation of the Alps, the layers of limestone, then lining the bottom of the Tethys, were raised, folded and fractured. The latter favored runoff, which caused significant erosion of the base of the needle (where the layers are softer), while whole sections of the wall collapsed as a result of the undermining of the base. base and by karstification of limestone layers. The countless active faults between Mount Aiguille and the Vercors Massif followed by the planing of the eastern flank of the Vercors massif by glaciers during the different glaciations of the Quaternary era have allowed its current isolation.

The painter
Wilhelm Steinfeld was an Austrian 19th century painter most known during his life for his landscape and mountains paintings. Strangely enough no informations are available about him except he was the son of Franz Steinfeld (1787-1868), very famous himself for his historical paintings.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

JEBEL UWIENAT PAINTED BY SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)

Jebel Uwienat (1,934m - 6,345ft) 

Egypt, Sudan, Lybia border

 In Siout, Egypt, 1874, oil on canvas, 53.3 x 101.6 cm, On view Gallery 67 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

About the painting
Siout, Egypt, is the most important and the finest of Gifford's dozen or so known Egyptian works and ably demonstrates his mastery of both atmospheric and linear perspective. The glowing light serves both to give tonal unity and balance to the overall composition and to reveal the myriad details of the scene with exceptional clarity. The result is a work that is less about the physical facts of the scene it depicts and more about the very act of perceiving. As one of the artist's contemporaries wrote:" Gifford's art was poetic and reminiscent. . . It was nature passed through the alembic [a device that refines or transmutes through distillation] of a finely organized sensibility. "
Although many nineteenth-century American landscape painters traveled abroad in search of subjects, Sanford Gifford was one of the very few who ventured beyond England and the Continent. Early in 1869 he traveled the Nile from Cairo to the first cataract (actually rapids) and back. On March 4 he reached the village of Siout, which lay in the midst of an extensive and fertile plain below the Libyan Hills at the start of a great caravan route running through the Libyan Desert to the Sudan. The town was known for its picturesqueness and its history, having been the capital of the thirteenth nome (province) of Upper Egypt during antiquity and the birthplace of Plotinus, the great Neoplatonic philosopher. Gifford described the view that inspired this painting in his journal : "Looking westward, the town with its domes and minarets lay between us and the sun, bathed in a rich and beautiful atmosphere. Behind, on the right, were the yellow cliffs of the Libyan Mts., running back into the tender grades of distance. Between us and the town were fields of grain, golden green with the transparent light. On the right was a tent with sheep and beautiful horses, the sunlight sparkling on a splendid white stallion. On the left the road ran in, with a fountain and figures of men and women and camels. The whole glowing and gleaming under the low sun. "
(Text by Franklin Kelly, published in the National Gallery of Art exhibition catalogue, Art for the Nation, 2000)


The mountain 
Jebel Uwienat (1,934m - 6,345ft) ( جبل العوينات) literally is located where three countries are meeting : Egypt, Libya and Sudan. The Qattara Depression (Munkhafaḍ al-Qaṭṭārah) of Egypt descends to 436 feet (133 metres) below sea level. Jebel Uweinat literally "mountain of springs", also spelled Al Awaynat, Auenat, Ouenat, Ouinat, Owainat, Uweinat, Uwaynat, Uweinat, Uwenat, Uweynat is a mountain range ocated in the eastern Sahara, forty kilometers south-southeast of the similar mountain range, Jebel Arkanu, in Libya.

The main source of the massif, called Ain Dua, is on its western foothills. This slope is a cliff about six hundred feet high, the foot of which is covered with voluminous rocks falling under the effect of erosion. It is home to oases covered with shrubs and grasses. In total, three valleys are oriented towards the west: Karkur Hamid, Karkur Idriss and Karkur Ibrahim. To the east, the massif ends with the Karkur Talh valley. The highest point of the massif, in its eastern half, is at the top of the Italia plateau.
The western half of the massif is an intrusion of granite forming concentric rings, the largest of which is twenty-five kilometers in diameter. The eastern half consists of sandstones forming four separate trays. Egyptian graffiti from the third millennium BCE testifies to their exploration of the region from the time of the Old Kingdom, via the track of Abu Ballas.
The massif is officially discovered in 1923 by Ahmed Hassanein who, during his exploration, reports the existence of petroglyphs representing lions, giraffes, ostriches, gazelles or oxen, in a style reminiscent of the Bushmen. He tries to cross the mountains from west to east but turns around after traveling 40 kilometers without finding an exit.
In the 1930s, Ralph A. Bagnold and Captain Marchesi each built a cairn atop the highest point of the massif.

The painter
Like most Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes to sketch and paint. In addition to exploring New England, upstate New York and New Jersey, Gifford made extensive trips abroad. He first traveled to Europe from 1855 to 1857, to study European art and sketch subjects for future paintings. During this trip Gifford also met Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge.
In 1858, he traveled to Vermont, "apparently" with his friend and fellow painter Jerome Thompson. Details of their visit were carried in the contemporary Home Journal. Both artists submitted paintings of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak, to the National Academy of Design's annual show in 1859. Thompson's work, "Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain" is now owned by the MET in New York, according to the report.
Thereafter, he served in the Union Army as a corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia upon the outbreak of the Civil War. A few of his canvases belonging to New York City's Seventh Regiment and the Union League Club of New York are testament to that troubled time.
Gifford referred to the best of his landscapes as his "chief pictures". Many of his chief pictures are characterized by a hazy atmosphere with soft, suffuse sunlight. Gifford often painted a large body of water in the foreground or middle distance (see above) in which the distant landscape would be gently reflected. A catalog of his work published shortly after his death recorded in excess of 700 paintings during his career.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

PAO DA AÇUCAR BY AGOSTINHO JOSE DA MOTA

AGOSTINHO JOSE DA MOTA (1824-1878)
 Pao de Açucar  / Sugarloaf mountain  (396 m - 1,299 ft)

Brazil

In  Vista da Gambo no Rio de Janeiro,1852, oil on canvas 

The mountain
Pao de Açucar  (396 m - 1299ft), Sugarloaf Mountain in english, Pain de Sucre in French,  is a isolated peak (Inselberg) situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. It is known worldwide for its cableway and panoramic views of the city. The name "Sugarloaf" was coined in the 16th century by the Portuguese during the heyday of sugar cane trade in Brazil. According to historian Vieira Fazenda, blocks of sugar were placed in conical molds made of clay to be transported on ships. The shape given by these molds was similar to the peak, hence the name.

The painter 
Agostinho José da Mota was a painter, draftsman and Brazilian professor. Thus, in 1837, enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He was a brilliant student and for the merits and competence demonstrated, received the prize for a trip to Europe, in 1850. Returning to Brazil, in 1856, he is one of the founders of the Society Propagating Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro. Two years later, he  painted the portraits of the imperial couple - Dom Pedro II (1825 - 1891) and Dona Teresa Cristina (1822 - 1889).
Most of Agostinho de Motta's artistic production consists of landscapes and still lifes. His representation of the Brazilian landscape is among the best that prints the values and standards of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (AIBA), in which he studied and later was professor, both in the formation of the idea of a national image, as well as in the formation of the image of the empire. Agostinho Mota did this for his artistic works, such as the portrait of the imperial couple and the records of the scene of the time.
The landscapes of Agostinho Motta are the most famous works of the artist. They stand out for the topographical precision, for the exact register of the dimensions of the scenarios and for the competence with which it captures the transpositions between the various colors that constitute its worked exteriors. The scenarios chosen by the artist demonstrate the marked dimension of the national identity that Agostinho Motta intended to portray in his paintings, as the Landscape of Rio de Janeiro, 1857, influenced by the canons of AIBA.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

AGHLA MORE PAINTED BY JAMES HUMBERT CRAIG

JAMES HUMBERT CRAIG (1878-1944)

Aghla More / Eachla Mör  (584 m -1,916 ft)

Ireland

 In Muckish Mountain, oil on canvas, 1935

The mountain 

Aghla More / Eachla Mör  (584 m -1,916 ft) is a mountain in County Donegal, Ireland. The mountain is the third most southern and fourth highest of the mountain chain, called the 'Seven Sisters' by localshas several names as Muckish, Crocknalaragagh, Aghla Beg, Ardloughnabrackbaddy, Aghla More, Mackoght, also known as 'little Errigal' and Errigal !  

The Seven Sisters are part of the Derryveagh Mountain range.

The painter 

James Humbert Craig was an Irish painter. Craig was born in Belfast to Alexander Craig, a tea merchant, and a Swiss mother, Marie Metzenen, from a family with a painting tradition. He was raised in County Down and maintained a studio at Cushendun, County Antrim. Craig abandoned a career in business, briefly attended the Belfast School of Art, and became a mostly self-taught painter of landscapes. Among his favorite panoramas were Donegal, Connemara and the Glens of Antrim. Craig was elected to the Royal Ulster Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1928. He also exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London. 

 His landscapes helped inspire artists like Maurice Canning Wilks.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

GUNIB MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY IVAN AIVAZOVSKY

 IVAN AIVAZOVSKY (1817-1900)

Gunib  Mountain (1, 500m - 4,921ft)

Russia  (Republic of Dagestan) 

 In  Mountain Village Gunib in Daghestan. View from the East. 1869. Oil on canvas. 

The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

The mountain 
Gunib  Mountain (1, 500m - 4,921ft) dominates the village of Gunib  (Гуниб) in Daghestan, chief town of the district of the same name. Its population, of stingy ethnicity, was 2 271 inhabitants in 2010. Gounib is situated in the middle of the Gounib Plateau, 172 kilometers southwest of Makhachkala at an altitude of 1,500 meters.
This area was taken by the Russian army against Shamil on August 25, 1859 who surrendered to General Prince Alexander Bariatinski. The village was formed in 1862 as a dwelling place for workers building a Russian fortress. It took the name of an aul higher on the plateau destroyed in 1859. Gounib was the chief town of Okrug Gounib belonging to the oblast of Dagestan (until 1921). The barracks of the Samur Regiment and the Artillery Regiment of the Dagestan Fortress and Terek were built there in 1895. At that time there were twenty-nine homes of employees, merchants, retired soldiers, a small Orthodox church and a post office.

The painter 

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Ива́н Константи́нович Айвазо́вский)  was a Russian Romantic painter. Despite he is considered one of the greatest marine artists in history, he painted a few mountains landscapes.  Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia and was mostly based in his native Crimea.  Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and lived briefly in Italy in the early 1840s. He then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and often attended military maneuvers. He was sponsored by the state and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The saying "worthy of Aivazovsky's brush", popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for "describing something ineffably lovely." One of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. The vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovsky's works are kept in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums as well as private collections.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MONT GRANIER PAINTED BY FRANCIS CARIFFA

FRANCIS CARIFFA (1890-1975) 

The Mont Granier  (1,933 m 6,342 ft)

 France (Savoie) 

In Le Mont Granier vu des abîmes de Myans, oil on canvas,  Museum of Fine Arts Chambery.

The mountain 
 Mont Granier (1,933 m 6,342 ft) is a limestone mountain located between the départements of Savoie and Isère in France. It lies in the Chartreuse Mountains range of the French Prealps between the towns of Chapareillan and Entremont-le-Vieux. Its east face overlooks the valley of Grésivaudan and Combe de Savoie, and the north face overlooks Chambéry. At 900 meters tall, Mont Granier has one of the highest cliffs in France.
In the year 1248, between November 24–25, a mass of limestone resting on marls slid into the valley, causing a massive landslide that destroyed many villages and caused over a thousand casualties, although the numbers are still debated. This event created the sheer 700 m north face of the mountain.
In the night of between January 8-9, 2016, a part of the northwest pillar crumbled towards Entremont-le-Vieux, where residents woke up at 5 in the morning. The collapse was of about 70,000 cubic meters of rock. The last debris were stopped by trees within 300 m of the closest houses, lying in the hamlets of Brancaz and Tencovaz.

The artist
Francis Cariffa is a French painter (1890 -1975) best known for his mountain paintings.
 He first intended for the theater but eventually turned to painting after the Great War, during which he was a test pilot and returned with the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre. He is also decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1939. He lives for a while in Montmartre, then settles in Challes-les-Eaux.
First influenced by Joseph-Victor Communal, he quickly found his own style. He paints with a knife and is a recognized master of the use of colors.
His first exhibition took place at the Janin Gallery in Chambery in 1924; then he exhibited in Grenoble, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice, Cannes, Menton, Metz, Paris (galleries Simonson, Charpentier, Georges Petit, Bernheim) and also in Belgium, Morocco and Canada.
Author of many paintings, he especially represented the mountain and the high-mountain, but also the landscapes of Provence and Morocco. He is thus classified as an Orientalist painter for his paintings made in Morocco, Marrakech in particular. His paintings were bought by the State and the city of Paris and are exposed to the Museum of Fine Arts Chambery.
His painting Mont-Blanc, painted in 1935, was exhibited in the lounge of the tourists of the liner Normandy.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

ATARAIPU ROCK SKETCHED BY CHARLES BENTLEY

 CHARLES BENTLEY (1805-1854)

Ataraipu Rock  (137 m  - 450 ft)

Guyana

In Ataraipu or the Devil's Rock from 12 from Views in the Interior of Guiana, 

after sketches taken during the expedition   

Published by London: Whitehead & Co. for Ackerman & Co., 1841

.

The cliff
Ataraipu Rock is a cliff in Guyana (South America), located in the Upper Takatu-Upper Esseqiubo region  in the southern part of the country, 400 km south of the capital Georgetown.
The terrain around Ataraipu Rock is mainly flat. Ataraipu Rock is located in a valley. The highest point nearby is 350 meters above sea level, 4.1 km northwest of Ataraipu Rock. The area around Ataraipu Rock is almost unpopulated, with less than two inhabitants per square kilometer.  There are no communities nearby. In the surroundings around Ataraipu Rock, mainly green-green deciduous forest grows. Savanna hclimate prevails in the area.

The artist
Charles Bentley was an English watercolour painter of coastal and river scenery. Bentley was born in 1805 or 1806, the son of a master-carpenter and builder living in Tottenham Court Road, London. He was sent to work colouring prints for Theodore Fielding to whom he was eventually apprenticed in order to learn aquatinting. During his apprenticeship he was sent to Paris, probably to assist work on the plates for Excursion sur les Cotes et dans les Ports de Normandie' (Paris, 1823-5), most of which were after watercolours by Richard Bonington.
Bentley painted scenes all over Britain, in Jersey, the north of Ireland, and in Normandy, which he visited several times with Callow between 1836 and 1841. He also exhibited views of Venice, Holland and Düsseldorf, but it is not certain that he actually went to these places, as he is known to have painted works after sketches by other people, such as his paintings of Trebizond and Abydos, shown in 1841 and 1849, based on drawings by Coke Smyth. He also worked up the illustrations for 12 Views in the Interior of Guiana (above) , published by Rudolf Ackermann in 1841, from studies done on an expedition to South America by John Morison.
Bentley was not financially successful: Samuel Redgrave described him as "uncertain in his transactions, and always poor". He died of cholera on 4 September 1854, leaving a widow.
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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

NORTHCAPE PAINTED BY THOROLF HOLMBOE

THOROLF HOLMBOE (1866-1935) 

North Cape (307m - 1,007 ft)

Norway

In Midnight Sun at the North Cap, oil on canvas

The cliff 
North Cape (307m - 1,007 ft), Nordkapp in  Norwegian, named by the Englishman Steven Borough, captain of the Edward Bonaventure, which sailed past in 1553 in search of the Northeast Passage, is a cape on the northern coast of the island of Magerшya in Northern Norway. The cape is in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The European route E69 highway has its northern terminus at North Cape, since it is a popular tourist attraction. The cape includes a 307 metres (1,007 ft) high cliff with a large flat plateau on top where visitors can stand and watch the midnight sun or the views of the Barents Sea to the north.
The North Cape is the point where the Norwegian Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, meets the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. The midnight sun can be seen from 14 May to the 31st of July.
During winter season, it is also possible to visit North Cape, however the last stretch of road is only open for convoy driving at fixed hours. The road all the way through Norway up to North Cape is kept open during winter and is accessible to regular vehicles with some specific winter precautions being required to deal with the hard snow and wind conditions that may occur in winter.
Before this, E69 was the only winter closed E road in Europe.

The painter 

Thorolf Holmboe (10 May 1866 – 8 March 1935) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and designer.
He was born in Vefsn, in Nordland county. He studied under Hans Gude in Berlin between 1886 and 1887 and Fernand Cormon in Paris between 1889 and 1891. He was inspired by many different styles at different points in his career, including Naturalism, Neo-romanticism, Realism and Impressionism. He is represented with thirteen works in the National Gallery of Norway.

____________________________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

CAP CANAILLE PAINTED BY HENRI MANGUIN

HENRI MANGUIN  (1874-1949)
Cap Canaille (394 m -1292, 65 ft)

France

 In  Aloés en fleurs, Cassis, oil on panel, 1912, Private owner

The mountain

Cap Canaille (394m) is a cape in France located in the the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region with a culminating point called " La Grande Tête"  (The great Head). It is located near the city of Cassis, north-west of La Ciotat. Its red rock is composed of detritic limestones. Going into the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of rocky and steep banks dominated by the western extremity of the Soubeyranes cliffs. The latter are, after the Slieve League in Ireland, one of the highest maritime cliffs in Europe and constitute, in La Ciotat, the highest cliffs in France with a maximum altitude of 394 meters. A road, the D141 called "Route des Crêtes", connects Cassis to La Ciotat by approaching the edge of the cliff.  Several gazebos are set up there with a spectacular view on the French Riviera and the sea. Cap Canaille is well known for having inspired a lot of painters of the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th. Its name is due to a distortion of the Provençal langage  Cap Naio  "Cap Naille" in French, meaning "Swimming mountain " or a distorsion of the roman latin name Mons Canalis meaning " Mountain  of Aqueducts".

The painter 

The French painter Henri-Charles Manguin although often considered a precursor of  Fauvism in 1905, is not very well konwn. Studying at  Gustave Moreau's studio at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he befriends Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. In 1902, he participated for the first time in the Salon des Independants. In 1904, he discovered the small fishing port of Saint-Tropez in the south of France and got in touch with Paul Signac. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, in the United States and at the Venice Biennale. 

Ambroise Vollard buys him 150 paintings.

 In 1924, he participated in the project of the future Annonciade Museum in Saint-Tropez. In 1938, the Druet Gallery closed, his son bought the unsold ones: Manguin destroyed eight paintings, then exhibited all over the world.  In 1942, he rented a workshop in Avignon. Henri Manguin dies in his house of Oustalet in Saint-Tropez on September 25, 1949. The Salon organizes a posthumous retrospective of his works in 1950.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

ULURU / AYERS ROCK BY DANNY EASTWOOD

DANNY EASTWOOD (bn. 1943) 

Uluru /Ayers Rock  (863m -2,831 ft)

 Australia  (Northern Territory)

The mountain 

Uluru (863m -2,831 ft) also known as Ayers Rock (in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers) is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia.   Officially  the rock is gazetted as "Uluru / Ayers Rock". 
It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs, 450 km (280 mi) by road.

Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes, rock caves, and ancient paintings.  Both Uluru and the nearby Kata Tjuta formation have great cultural significance for the Aṉangu people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, who lead walking tours to inform visitors about the local flora and fauna, bush food and the Aboriginal dreamtime stories of the area.

Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn and sunset.

Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Uluru is an inselberg, literally "island mountain". An inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region.  Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists. The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil. These characteristics led to its survival, while the surrounding rocks were eroded. For the purpose of mapping and describing the geological history of the area, geologists refer to the rock strata making up Uluru as the Mutitjulu Arkose, and it is one of many sedimentary formations filling the Amadeus Basin.

According to the Aṉangu, traditional landowners of Uluru: 

The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Aṉangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja.

There are a number of differing accounts given, by outsiders, of Aboriginal ancestral stories for the origins of Uluru and its many cracks and fissures. One such account, taken from Robert Layton's (1989) Uluru: An Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock, reads as follows:

Uluru was built up during the creation period by two boys who played in the mud after rain. When they had finished their game they travelled south to Wiputa ... Fighting together, the two boys made their way to the table topped Mount Conner, on top of which their bodies are preserved as boulders. 

Two other accounts are given in Norbert Brockman's (1997) Encyclopedia of Sacred Places.

The first tells of serpent beings who waged many wars around Uluru, scarring the rock. The second tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by the beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru.

The Commonwealth Department of Environment's webpage advises:

Many...Tjukurpa such as Kalaya (Emu), Liru (poisonous snake), Lungkata (blue tongue lizard), Luunpa (kingfisher) and Tjintir-tjintirpa (willie wagtail) travel through Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Other Tjukurpa affect only one specific area.

Kuniya, the woma python, lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liru, the poisonous snake.

It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse.

The artist 

Danny Eastwood is a descendant of the Ngemba Tribe of Western NSW on his mothers side. Danny was born in Sydney and lived in the Eora Tribal area until he was thirteen. He now lives in the Dahrug Tribal area of Western Sydney.  Danny was NSW Aboriginal Artist of the year in 1992 & in 1993 won the National Aboriginal Artist of the year award. He has been commissioned by local councils in Sydney to create murals which can be seen in Southern Sydney and Parramatta. 

A cartoonist for the Koori male, Danny also teaches visual art in schools and prisons throughout N.S.W  Danny's totem is the Galah bird 'Gillawarna'. 

Danny's art can be found in major collections such as the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney and Heritage Centre in Parramatta. 

Danny won the Parliament of New South Wales Indigenous Art Prize 2008 with his entry 'My Reconciliation', a pen, ink and watercolour work on paper, depicting a scene from the back lane he grew up in as a small boy in inner Sydney. There were many families of all colours that mixed together as friends and neighbours.

CERRO PEDERNAL (2) BY GEORGIA O' KEEFFE

GEORGIA O' KEEFFE (1887–1986)

Cerro Pedernal (3,006 m - 9,862 ft)

United State of America (New Mexico) 




 In Cerro Pedernal, 1941, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fé




The mountain 

Cerro Pedernal  (3,006 m - 9,862 ft) locally known as just "Pedernal", is a narrow mesa in northern New Mexico (U.S.A). The name is Spanish for "flint hill". The mesa lies on the north flank of the Jemez Mountains, south of Abiquiu Lake, in the Coyote Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.  Cerro Pedernal is essentially a high, long butte created by a volcanic process. Viewed along its East-West line, it appears as a tall point rising out of the New Mexico desert, but viewed along its North-South vantage, its true shape is more apparent as a long ridge.

Pedernal is the source of a chert used by the prehistoric Gallina people. The native peoples of the area used the rock around this mountain for arrowheads and other tools. 

Its cliffs are popular with rock climbers. Despite Cerro Pedernal's history and beauty, she is seldom climbed. The high butte is ringed by a long, sheer cliff band that seems impossible to climb unroped. Perhaps this is why few see her summit. However, there is a weakness in the cliffs that offers a short Class 4 scramble to the top. From the summit of Cerro Pedernal, you are afforded uncommon views. The Sangre de Cristo range is visible from Colorado to New Mexico. The Colorado 14er Culebra Peak is easily visible, as well as New Mexico's highest point, Wheeler Peak. On a clear day, the southern San Juan range in Colorado is visible, and even the La Platas around Durango. Ringing Cerro Pedernal is the Jemez range, which are mostly rolling mountains with lush greens. To the West is high desert landscape of deep red sandstone, blue rivers, and the tans and browns of the high desert. The summit of Cerro Pedernal is quite a spectacular spot. 

The famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe used to live for a time in this area (Ghost Ranch) and painted Cerro Pedernal several times (more than 20 paintings). She referred to Pedernal as her "favorite mountain."   Her ashes were scattered on its top.




The painter 

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, known internationally for her boldly innovative art. Her distinct flowers, dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are iconic and original contributions to American Modernism.

Born on November 15, 1887, the second of seven children, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905-1906 and the Art Students League in New York in 1907-1908. Under the direction of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox she learned the techniques of traditional realist painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically in 1912 when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow’s emphasis on composition and design offered O’Keeffe an alternative to realism. She experimented for two years, while she taught art in South Carolina and west Texas. Seeking to find a personal visual language through which she could express her feelings and ideas, she began a series of abstract charcoal drawings in 1915 that represented a radical break with tradition and made O’Keeffe one of the very first American artists to practice pure abstraction.

O’Keeffe mailed some of these highly abstract drawings to a friend in New York City, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. An art dealer and internationally known photographer, he was the first to exhibit her work in 1916. He would eventually become O’Keeffe’s husband.

In the summer of 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape, distinct indigenous art, and unique regional style of adobe architecture inspired a new direction in O’Keeffe’s artwork. For the next two decades she spent part of most years living and working in New Mexico . She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death. O’Keeffe’s New Mexico paintings coincided with a growing interest in regional scenes by American Modernists seeking a distinctive view of America. Her simplified and refined representations of this region express a deep personal response to the high desert terrain.

In the 1950s, O’Keeffe began to travel internationally. She created paintings that evoked a sense of the spectacular places she visited, including the mountain peaks of Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji. At the age of seventy-three she embarked on a new series focused on the clouds in the sky and the rivers below.

Suffering from macular degeneration and discouraged by her failing eyesight, O’Keeffe painted her last unassisted oil painting in 1972. But O’Keeffe’s will to create did not diminish with her eyesight. In 1977, at age ninety, she observed, “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”

Late in life, and almost blind, she enlisted the help of several assistants to enable her to again create art.  In these works she returned to favorite visual motifs from her memory and vivid imagination.

Georgia O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe, on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.

MOUNT LOURA / LADY OF LOURA IN VINTAGE STAMP 1996

VINTAGE STAMPS 1996

Mount Loura  or Lady of Loura  (1,515m - 4,970ft) 

Republic of Guinea

courtesywww.mountainstamp.com/

The mountain 
Mount Loura  (1,515m - 4,970ft) , Fello Loura in the Pular language,  is the northernmost point and highest peak in the Fouta Djallon in northern Guinea. It is 7 km from the prefecture of Mali-ville. 
It is part of a complex of mountains called the Massif de Tamgue, which rises to steep cliffs on three sides, and provides views into Senegal and Mali. It is Locally nick named  Néné Fouta which means Lady of Mount Loura, because of its profile ressembles, at the top of the rock formation, to a woman's face.