NAANU-I-CAKE PAINTED BY CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924)

 

CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924)
Naanu-i-Cake (no elevation data)
Fiji

In "Nananu, Fiji ", watercolor 28.5 x 42 cm

The volcano
Naanu-i-Cake  (no elevation data) is a volcanic island in Fiji less than one kilometer off the coast of the main island of Viti Levu, near the Rakiraki-district in Ra Province. Nananu-i-Cake is located immediately next to the island of Nananu-i-Ra. Nananu-i-Cake and Mabua (the islet located immediately to the southeast) islands are about 600 acres (242.81 hectares) in area. The main residence on the island was designed by the architecture firm of Murray Cockburn, based in Auckland.  A deep-water jetty is on the island's western shore.  In 1974, Sir Harold Mitchell visited Fiji from the UK and purchased Nananu-i-Cake and Mabua as a retreat. Because of Harold's position of Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party under Sir Winston Churchill and his social and political standing, several high-profile dignitaries visited and stayed on the island. Commemorative trees were planted for many of these high-profile visits. Nananu-i-Cake has remained in Sir Harold Mitchell's family since 1974.  Nananu-i-Cake also retains evidence of moka, stone formations built in tidal areas to trap fish at low tide, and ring-wall fortifications built with volcanic rocks. As of 2012, the entire island is tentatively available for sale as a private island, for an estimated equivalent of around $8-8.5 million USD. In early 2022 the island received renewed attention on social media as self-proclaimed crypto-enthustiasts Max Olivier and Helena López Jurado announced plans to purchase the Nananu-i-Cake and build a private resort aimed at other crypto-enthusiasts using money raised from selling NFTs tied to property on the island to prospective residents.

The painter
Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them.
Constance Gordon-Cumming was a prolific landscape painter, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan.
She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes. Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883. She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books.
Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.
Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided.
In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired.

___________________________________________
2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

KILAUEA BY CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING

 

CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924)

 Kilauea  (1,247 m - 4,091 ft) 

 United States of America  (Hawaii)

 In Kilauea Temporary Chimneys and Fire Fountains, watercolor, c.1880

The volcano

Kīlauea (1,247 m-4,091 ft) is a currently active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano is between 300,000 and 600,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. It is the second youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. Structurally, Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently formed caldera at its summit and two active rift zones, one extending 125 km (78 mi) east and the other 35 km (22 mi) west, as an active fault of unknown depth moving vertically an average of 2 to 20 mm (0.1 to 0.8 in) per year.

More about Kilauea

The painter
Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them. Constance Gordon-Cumming was a prolific landscape painter, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan.
She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes. Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883. She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books.
Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.
Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided.
In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired.

_________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

ADAM PEAK / SAMANALA BY CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING

CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924)

Adam Peak (2,243 m - 7360 ft)

Sri Lanka

In Adam's Peak in Ceylon, 1873, watercolor heightened with white and gum arabic 58.7 x 80.5 cm. Private collection 

The mountain
Adam Peak (2,243 m - 7360 ft) called in singhalese Sri Pada or Samanala, is one of the most important summits of the island of Sri Lanka. Conical, it is considered a holy place by Shaivite Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims.
It is located southwest of the island in Ratnapura district, about 40 kilometers north-east of Ratnapura. The small town of Nuwara Eliya, in the neighboring district, is often used as a base for its ascent.
Hindu pilgrims climb the thousands of steps that lead to the summit so as to reach for the sunrise and see the triangular shape of its shadow sweep the surrounding countryside. This climb lasts several hours and is usually done in April.
At the summit of the mountain is found, hollowed out in the rock, a cavity of almost two meters, supposed to be a footprint. Hindus see the trace of the passage of Vishnu or Shiva. For Muslims it is the footprint of Adam's foot, when he left the Garden of Eden, whose island of Ceylon is very symbolically close, and fell on Earth, which explains the name given to the mountain. For Buddhists it is the footprint of Buddha, and there are other origins, which attribute the imprint to Shiva or even to St. Thomas.
Ibn Battuta is the first author to record his rise, in the fourteenth century, he confirms the presence of iron chains installed as a handrail and which had been described by Marco Polo.
The peak of Adam is however not the highest point of the island, which is Mount Pidurutalagala, with 2,524 m.

The painter
Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them.
Constance Gordon-Cumming was a prolific landscape painter, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan.
She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes. Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883. She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books.
Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.
Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided.
In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired.

_________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

HALEMA'UMA'U BY CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING

CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924),

Halemaʻumaʻu  (1,076 m - 3,530 ft) 

United States of America (Hawai'i) 

In Halemaumau,1879, ink wash with white heightening over traces of graphite, 

 Honolulu Museum of art 

The volcano 

Halemaʻumaʻu Crater  ((1,076 m - 3,530 ft)   - six syllables pronounced HAH-lay-MAH-oo-MAH-oo-  is a pit crater located within the much larger summit caldera of Kīlauea in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The roughly circular crater was 770 meters (2,530 ft) x 900 m (2,950 ft) prior to collapses that roughly doubled the size of the crater after May 3, 2018.  Halemaʻumaʻu is home to Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes, according to the traditions of Hawaiian religion. 

The crater until recently contained an active lava lake. From 2008, when the current vent inside Halemaʻumaʻu crater first erupted, to April 2015, lava was present inside the vent, fluctuating from 20 to 150 meters below the crater rim. On April 24, 2015 molten lava in the vent, known as the Overlook Crater, became directly visible for the first time from the Jaggar Museum overlook at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, when the lava rose to an all-time high level since the Overlook Crater first opened.  A few days later, on April 29, the lava started spilling over the rim of the Overlook Crater and onto the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater,  ultimately adding a layer of lava approximately 30 feet (9 m) thick to the crater floor.

For three years from 2015 to 2018 the lava lake level remained close to the rim, with a further minor overflow event in October 2016 and a significant one in April 2018 that covered a majority of the crater floor in new lava.  In early May 2018 the lava level in the Overlook Crater dropped over 700 feet and out of sight, resulting in explosions, earthquakes and large clouds of ash and toxic gas, causing closure of the Kīlauea summit area of the national park from May 10 to September 22. While the park visitor center and headquarters have reopened to the public, the crater is currently in a state of collapse that includes substantial portions of Kīlauea Caldera. The Jaggar Museum overlooking the crater remains closed.

The painter 

Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming  was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them.

Constance Gordon-Cumming was a prolific landscape painter, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan. 

She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes.  Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883.  She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books.

Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.

Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided. 

 In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

KAILASH RANGE BY CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING

CONSTANCE GORDON-CUMMING (1837–1924)

Kailash  Range / Gangdisê Mountains (6,638 m - 21,778ft) 

China  (Tibet autonomous region) 

In The Khylas peaks and village of Pangi three miles above China on the sutledge, 1869- pencil, watercolor and bodycolor on paper 48.2 x 72.5 cm.

The mountain 

 The Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains), which forms part of the Transhimalaya in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is the western subrange of the Transhimalaya System. The Nyenchen Tanglha is the eastern subrange.

The highest peak of the Gangdise Shan's peaks, Mount Kailash or Gang Rimpoché (6,638 m - 21,778ft) is a sacred place in four religions : Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.

For Böns, a religion native to Tibet,  it makes no doubt  that the entire mystical region and Kailash, which they call the "nine-story Swastika Mountain", is the axis mundi (Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring).

For Hindus, it is the home of the wild mountain god Shiva and a symbol of his penis.

For Jains it is where their first leader was enlightened.

For Buddhists, the navel of the universe; and for adherents of Bon, the abode of the sky goddess Sipaimen.

The painter 

Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming  was a noted Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them.

Constance Gordon-Cumming was a prolific landscape painter, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over a thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia, New Zealand, America, China, and Japan. 

She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes.  Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, was published in Edinburgh in 1883.  She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books.

Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese.

Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided. 

 In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired.

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau