LES MONTS WUDANG PAR ROBERT FORTUNE

ROBERT FORTUNE (1812-1880)
Monts Wudang (1,612m)
Chine (Hubei)

In "Plantations : the green tea district", 1848. 

Les montagnes
Les monts Wudang /武当山 sont une chaîne de montagnes à Danjiangkou, au sud de la ville-préfecture de Shiyan dans la province du Hubei, en Chine. Elle est considérée comme l'un des berceaux des arts martiaux internes taoïstes comme le taiji quan ou le bagua zhang qui se développèrent à partir du 18e siècle. C'est aussi un célbre region de culture du thé vert. Les hautes montagnes taoïste de Wudang sont garnies de cultures du thé vert Yin Ya. Ces montagnes sont couvertes d’un léger brouillard  pendant toute l’année et bénéficient d’une taux humidité idéal et de changements importants de température entre le jour et la nuit, ce qui accentue les arômes de ce thé doux et sucré. Ses feuilles sont composées de bourgeons et de feuilles légèrement incurvées. Les montagnes de Wudang sont garnies de jardins de thé.

L'artiste
Robert Fortune  est un botaniste et un voyageur britannique. Il travailla d'abord au jardin botanique d’Édimbourg puis à celui de la Royal Horticultural Societyde Chiswick, qui l’envoya, après la signature du traité de Nankin en 1842, récolter des plantes en Chine. En 1848, un autre voyage secret ,organisé pour le compte de la Compagnie britannique des Indes orientales, lui permet de pénétrer en cachette le mode chinois de préparation du thé et d'introduire de façon clandestine 20 000 pieds de théier en Inde, contribuant à un moment important de l'Histoire du thé qu'on appelle en vérité Le Grand Vol du Thé (The Great Tea Robbery.) Ses voyages suivants, à Taïwan et au Japon, lui permettent de décrire l'élevage du ver à soie et la culture du riz. Ses voyages ont permis l'introduction en Europe de nombreuses espèces ornementales, comme le kumquat, de nombreuses variétés de pivoines, d'azalées et de chrysanthèmes. Un gentleman qui aimait les fleurs mais n'hésitait jamais  à en voler les feuilles. Accessoirement il lui arrivait aussi de dessiner. 

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2024 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau 

EVEREST/ CHOMOLUNGMA / SAGARMATHA PEINT PAR NICHOLAS ROERICH

 

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

Mont Everest / Sagarmatha /Chomolungma (8,848 m - 29,029ft) 

  Frontière Népal - Chine

In "Remember” from " Country series-Hymalaya", 1924, huile sur toile, Roerich Museum, NewYork

 

La montagne
L'Everest //Chomolungma/Sagarmāthā (8,848 m - 29,029ft), à droite dans ce tableau, est une montagne située dans la chaîne de l'Himalaya, à la frontière entre le Népal (province de Koshi) et la Chine (région autonome du Tibet).Il est aperçu par des Européens pour la première fois en 1847 puis, après quelques années d'observations et de calculs, il est identifié comme le plus haut sommet du monde. Son altitude est établie à 8 849 mètres. Cette caractéristique lui vaut d'être baptisé de son nom actuel par les Occidentaux en 1865 en l'honneur de George Everest, arpenteur général des Indes orientales de 1830 à 1843, et, dès les années 1920, de susciter l'intérêt des alpinistes qui se lancent à l'assaut de ses faces. Plusieurs expéditions, en particulier britanniques, se succèdent depuis le versant nord au Tibet. Toutefois, les conditions météorologiques extrêmes font leurs premières victimes, parmi lesquelles George Mallory et Andrew Irvine, en 1924, dont on ne saura probablement jamais avec certitude s'ils ont atteint le sommet. En 1950, le Népal autorise l'accès à la montagne depuis le sud offrant des possibilités d'ascension par l'arête Sud-Est, moins périlleuse. Finalement, trois ans plus tard, Edmund Hillary et Tensing Norgay deviennent les premiers hommes à atteindre le sommet de l'Everest. Dès lors, les exploits en tous genres s'enchaînent, alimentant les fantasmes populaires ; mais, en 1996, une série d'accidents mortels vient rappeler les dangers liés à la montagne, portant de nos jours à plus de 200 le nombre de victimes. Pourtant, le tourisme de masse se généralise, fragilisant ce milieu naturel malgré les créations du parc national de Sagarmatha en 1976 et de la réserve naturelle du Qomolangma en 1988. Ainsi, plus de 14 000 alpinistes ont tenté l'ascension depuis 1922 et plus de 4 000 l'ont réussie, bien aidés, pour la majorité d'entre eux, par les porteurs sherpas et l'utilisation de bouteilles d'oxygène.
La plupart des tentatives d'scension sont effectuées aux mois d'avril et mai avant la mousson d'été. À ce moment de l'année, un changement du courant-jet réduit les vitesses moyennes de vent en haute altitude. D'autres tentatives sont réalisées après la mousson aux mois de septembre et octobre mais la neige tombée pendant la mousson et des conditions météorologiques plus instables rendent l'ascension plus difficile.
Les pionniers laissent désormais la place à la génération du business lucratif. Des dizaines d'opérateurs proposent des expéditions jusqu'au sommet moyennant des sommes pouvant approcher les 50 000 à 70 000 dollars. Ces expéditions commerciales devenues la norme durent environ deux mois, transformant les camps de base en véritables villes éphémères. La démocratisation des technologies permettant une acclimatation à domicile, grâce notamment à des tentes hypoxiques, tend à réduire cette durée.
Point de passage obligé de l'itinéraire classique vers le sommet, le col Sud est devenu une véritable décharge. Peu respectueuses de l'environnement, contrairement  à ce que l'on pourrait penser, les expéditions y abandonnent matériel et déchets qui réapparaissent à la fonte des plaques de neige. Mandatée par le gouvernement népalais et l'UNESCO, une équipe dirigée par l'alpiniste Pierre Royer a entrepris un grand nettoyage au printemps 1993. Au mois de mai, l'expédition, avec une vingtaine de Sherpas, a redescendu huit tonnes de déchets (bouteilles d'oxygène, plastiques, verres, toiles, etc. Le gouvernement népalais essaye de lutter contre cette pollution : chaque expédition est désormais tenue de prouver qu'elle n'a pas abandonné son matériel, sous peine de perdre une caution de 4 000 dollars. En mars 2014, il annonce qu'à partir du mois suivant, tout alpiniste doit redescendre huit kilogrammes de déchets en plus de son propre matériel, sous peine de poursuites. Le tourisme de masse est  le danger qui guette désormais l'Everest surnommé, Le Toit du Monde.

Ecoutez  notre podcast

 

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2024 - Wandering Vertexes / Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

LUSHAN / 庐山 AQUARELLÉ PAR JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)

Lushan / 庐山 ou Mont Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft)

Chine

In " Lushan, Chine," lavis 2018, 36 x5 1,5cm, Collection privée ©Jean-Baptiste Née
@jeanbaptiste.nee

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, né en 1986. est un artiste peintre, scénographe et plasticien français, diplômé des Arts-Décoratifs de Paris en 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née travaille la montagne et la haute montagne, toujours in situ, en confrontation directe avec les mouvements de la terre, de l'eau et du vent. Il donne une place toujours plus importante à l'interaction des éléments sur les œuvres qu'il réalise  (pluie, neige, gel, etc.). Il installe son "grand atelier" dans les Alpes suisses ou dans le massif du Vercors - surtout en hiver -, ainsi que lors de longues randonnées dans les Alpes italiennes. A l'hiver 2018, il travaille dans les massifs du Wudangshan et du Lushan, en Chine, et s'intéresse à la notion taoïste de "Ciel". Depuis 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née expose régulièrement dans des galeries en France et en Suisse. Son atelier est à Montreuil, France.

DANS L'INCONNU

Exposition collective, du 21 octobre au 25 novembre 2023
vernissage le samedi 21 octobre, à 16h
ouverture les samedi et dimanche, de 14h à 19h
avec : Olivier Giroud (sculpture), Alexandre Hollan (peinture), Sophie Melon (sculpture)

Galerie La Navire (Brest)
33 Kreiz Ker
29880 Plouguerneau

 

The mountain
Mont Lu or Lushan (庐山) ( (1,474m- 4,834ft) est situé dans la partie nord de la province du Jiangxi, dans le sud-est de la Chine, et constitue l'une des montagnes les plus célèbres du pays. Le mont Lushan est l'un des centres spirituels de la civilisation chinoise. Les temples bouddhistes et taoïstes, ainsi que les monuments du confucianisme, où ont enseigné les maîtres les plus éminents, se fondent sans effort dans un paysage d'une beauté saisissante qui a inspiré d'innombrables artistes développant une approche esthétique de la nature que l'on retrouve dans la culture chinoise.
Les montagnes de forme ovale mesurent environ 25 km de long et 10 km de large et sont voisines de la ville de Jiujiang et du fleuve Yangtze au nord, de la ville de Nanchang au sud et du lac Poyang à l'est. Son point culminant est le pic Dahanyang (1 474 m) qui fait partie des centaines de sommets abrupts dominant une mer de nuages  englobant les montagnes pendant près de 200 jours par an. Le mont Lu est connu pour sa grandeur, son escarpement et sa beauté et fait partie du parc national de Lushan, site du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO depuis 1996, et une attraction touristique de premier plan, en particulier pendant les mois d'été, lorsque le temps est plus frais.
Lushan était une station d'été pour les missionnaires occidentaux en Chine. Absalom Sydenstricker, le père de Pearl Buck, fut l'un des cinq premiers missionnaires à acquérir une propriété dans le domaine Kuling sur la montagne.
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2023 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Wandering Vertexes ....
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

 

LOTUS PEAK PEINT PAR FAN KUAN / 范寬

FAN KUAN / 范寬 (950- 1032)
Lotus Peak / Lian Hua Peak
Chine

In The Yellow Mountains, National Palace Musuem, Taipe

La montagne
Lian Hua Peak ou Lotus Peak) (1873 mètre ainsi surnommé car il  ressemble à une fleur de lotus,. La "fleur" mesure plus de dix pieds de largeur, et contient en son centre, un mac nommée Moon Pool (la Piscine de la Lune)  Du sommet, les visiteurs peuvent voir les milliers de sommets et les nombreux ravins de la gigantesque  chaine des Monts Huangshan, à travers les nuages ​​brumeux. Par temps clair, le mont Tianmu peut être aperçu à l'est, le mont Lushan à l'ouest, le mont Jiuhua et le fleuve Yangtze au nord. La mer de nuages vue depuis Lotus Peak es encore plus spectaculaire après une pluie. En escaladant le  Lotus Peak, les visiteurs peuvent voir les nombreux pins anciens qui parsèment le paysage.  Certains sont presque millénaires. Des sites pittoresques tels que le pin Flying Dragon, le pin Head Downwards et les azalées de la montagne Huangshan peuvent être vus le long du chemin.

L'artiste
Fan Kuan (范寬, vers 950-1032) était un peintre paysagiste chinois de la dynastie Song (960-1279). Originaire de Huayuan (華原, Yaoxian moderne 耀縣) dans la province du Shaanxi (陜西), Fan Kuan parcourait souvent la région entre la capitale et Luoyang (洛陽). Bien qu'il soit connu pour son caractère magnanime, sa personnalité directe et son penchant pour la boisson et le taoïsme, Fan Kuan est aujourd'hui célèbre pour ses peintures de paysage. Dans ses premières années d'études de peinture, il suit le style de l'artiste du Shandong (山東) Li Cheng (李成, 919-967). Plus tard,  Fan Kuan s'est rendu compte que s'il voulait vraiment représenter la terre, il devait prendre la nature comme professeur plutôt que d'autres artistes ou leurs œuvres. Après tout, un paysage personnel existe dans la nature autant que dans l'esprit. Fan Kuan se rend alors à la montagne Cuihua (翠華山) et s'isole parmi les forêts et les montagnes, se consacrant à l'observation des effets des changements atmosphériques, météorologiques et saisonniers sur le paysage. Les contemporains l'ont alors loué pour sa capacité à communier avec les montagnes. On sait peu de choses sur sa vie, à l'exception de l'admiration et de l'amour qu'il avait pour la vue sur les montagnes du nord de la Chine. Fan Kuan a été répertoriée comme la 59e des 100 personnes les plus importantes du dernier millénaire par le magazine LIFE. 

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2023 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MONT WUDANG PEINT PAR JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
Mont Wudang / 武当山 ( 1,610m - 5, 282 ft)
China (Hubei)

In "Wudangshan (X)," lavis, 2018, 28 x 38cm, Collection privée ©Jean-Baptiste Née
@jeanbaptiste.nee

L'artiste
Jean-Baptiste Née, né en 1986. est un artiste peintre, scénographe et plasticien français, diplômé des Arts-Décoratifs de Paris en 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née travaille la montagne et la haute montagne, toujours in situ, en confrontation directe avec les mouvements de la terre, de l'eau et du vent. Il donne une place toujours plus importante  à l'interaction des éléments sur les œuvres qu'il réalise  (pluie, neige, gel, etc.). Il installe son "grand atelier" dans les Alpes suisses ou dans le massif du Vercors - surtout en hiver -, ainsi que lors de longues randonnées dans les Alpes italiennes. A l'hiver 2018, il travaille dans les massifs du Wudangshan et du Lushan, en Chine, et s'intéresse à la notion taoïste de "Ciel". Depuis 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née expose régulièrement dans des galeries en France et en Suisse. Son atelier est à Montreuil, France.

Les montagnes
Les monts Wudang /武当山 (1 610 m - se composent d'une chaîne de montagnes située dans la partie nord-ouest du Hubei, en Chine, juste au sud de Shiyan. Ils abritent un célèbre complexe de temples et de monastères taoïstes associés au Seigneur du Nord, Xuantian Shangdi. Les monts Wudang sont réputés pour la pratique du Tai-chi et du taoïsme et font figure d'équivalent taoïste du monastère de Shaolin, qui est affilié au bouddhisme Chán. Les monts Wudang sont l'une des "quatre montagnes sacrées du taoïsme", une destination importante pour les pèlerinages taoïstes. Les monastères tels que Le Jardin de Wudang ont été classés au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO en 1994 en raison de leur importance religieuse et de leurs réalisations architecturales. Sur les cartes chinoises, le nom "Wudangshan" s'applique à la fois à l'ensemble de la chaîne de montagnes (qui s'étend d'est en ouest le long du bord sud de la rivière Han, traversant plusieurs divisions au niveau du comté de Shiyan), et jusqu'au groupe de pics situés dans le sous-district de Wudangshan de Danjiangkou, Shiyan. C'est cette dernière zone spécifique qui est connue comme un centre taoïste. Certains considèrent les monts Wudang comme une "branche" de la chaîne des monts Daba, qui est un système montagneux majeur dans l'ouest du Hubei, du Shaanxi, de Chongqing et du Sichuan.

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2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

CHOMOLUNGA / MONT EVEREST PEINT PAR COLIN CAMPBELL COOPER

COLIN CAMPBELL COOPER (1856-1937)
Mont Everest / Chomolunga (8,848 m - 29,029ft)
Chine-Népal

In Himalayas, c. 1920, Huile sur toile, 18 x 22 in. Private collection,
Courtesy James Main Fine Arts, Santa Barbara

 

La montagne
L'Everest / Chomolungma / Sagarmāthā (8,848 m - 29,029ft) st une montagne située dans la chaîne de l'Himalaya, à la frontière entre le Népal (province de Koshi) et la Chine (région autonome du Tibet). Il est aperçu par des Européens pour la première fois en 1847 puis, après quelques années d'observations et de calculs, il est identifié comme le plus haut sommet du monde. Son altitude est établie à 8 849 mètres. Cette caractéristique lui vaut d'être baptisé de son nom actuel par les Occidentaux en 1865 en l'honneur de George Everest, arpenteur général des Indes orientales de 1830 à 1843, et, dès les années 1920, de susciter l'intérêt des alpinistes qui se lancent à l'assaut de ses faces. Plusieurs expéditions, en particulier britanniques, se succèdent depuis le versant nord au Tibet. Toutefois, les conditions météorologiques extrêmes font leurs premières victimes, parmi lesquelles George Mallory et Andrew Irvine, en 1924, dont on ne saura probablement jamais avec certitude s'ils ont atteint le sommet. En 1950, le Népal autorise l'accès à la montagne depuis le sud offrant des possibilités d'ascension par l'arête Sud-Est, moins périlleuse. Finalement, trois ans plus tard, Edmund Hillary et Tensing Norgay deviennent les premiers hommes à atteindre le sommet de l'Everest. Dès lors, les exploits en tous genres s'enchaînent, alimentant les fantasmes populaires ; mais, en 1996, une série d'accidents mortels vient rappeler les dangers liés à la montagne, portant de nos jours à plus de 200 le nombre de victimes. Pourtant, le tourisme de masse se généralise, fragilisant ce milieu naturel malgré les créations du parc national de Sagarmatha en 1976 et de la réserve naturelle du Qomolangma en 1988. Ainsi, plus de 14 000 alpinistes ont tenté l'ascension depuis 1922 et plus de 4 000 l'ont réussie, bien aidés, pour la majorité d'entre eux, par les porteurs sherpas et l'utilisation de bouteilles d'oxygène.

Le peintre
Colin Campbell Cooper, Jr. est un peintre neo-impressioniste américain né à Philadelphie, en Pennsylvanie  dans une famille d’origine anglo-irlandaise. Sa mère, Emily Williams Cooper, dont les ancêtres ont émigré aux États-Unis depuis Weymouth dans le Dorset en Angleterre, était un peintre amateur d’aquarelle. Son père, le Dr Colin Campbell Cooper - dont le grand-père est venu de Derry, en Irlande- était un chirurgien et passionné par les arts. Étant jeune, Colin fut à son tour inspiré par l'art en particulier après sa participation à l’Exposition universelle de 1876. Ses deux parents, favorables à ses ambitions, l'encourage à devenir un artiste. Il est célèbre pour ses peintures architecturales, en particulier de gratte-ciel à New York, Philadelphie ou Chicago. C’est aussi, un voyageur avide, connu pour ses peintures de monuments européens et asiatiques. Il peint aussi de nombreux paysages naturels, des portraits, des fleurs. Il était aussi enseignant et écrivain. 

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2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

WUDANGSHAN / 武当山 PAINTED BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
Wudangshan / 武当山 ( 1,610m - 5, 282 ft)
China (Hubei)

In "Wudangshan (X)," lavis, 2018, 28 x 38cm, 

Collection privée ©Jean-Baptiste Née
@jeanbaptiste.nee

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind. He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.). He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, (see above) and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky" (t’ien 天).Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France.

The mountains
The Wudang Mountains /武当山 (1,610m - consist of a mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, just south of Shiyan. They are home to a famous complex of Taoist temples and monasteries associated with the Lord of the North, Xuantian Shangdi. The Wudang Mountains are renowned for the practice of Tai chi and Taoism as the Taoist counterpart to the Shaolin Monastery, which is affiliated with Chinese Chán Buddhism. The Wudang Mountains are one of the "Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism" in China, an important destination for Taoist pilgrimages. The monasteries such as the Wudang Garden were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 because of their religious significance and architectural achievement.  On Chinese maps, the name "Wudangshan" is applied both to the entire mountain range (which runs east-west along the southern edge of the Han River, crossing several county-level divisions of Shiyan), and to the group of peaks located within Wudangshan subdistrict of Danjiangkou, Shiyan. It is the latter specific area which is known as a Taoist center.  ome consider the Wudang Mountains to be a "branch" of the Daba Mountains range, which is a major mountain system in western Hubei, Shaanxi, Chongqing and Sichuan.
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2022- Wandering Vertexes.
A blog by Francis Rousseau

LUSHAN / 庐山 or MOUNT LU SKETCHED BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
Lushan / 庐山 or Mount Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft)
China

In Lushan ,Chine, Lavis 2018, 19x 28cm , Collection privée ©Jean-Baptiste Née
@jeanbaptiste.nee

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind. He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.). He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, (see above) and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky" (t’ien 天).
Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France.

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山) ( (1,474m- 4,834ft) is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. Mount Lushan is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism, where the most eminent masters taught, blend effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic approach to nature found in Chinese culture.
The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbors Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (1,474m- 4,834ft) and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.
Lushan was a summer resort for Western missionaries in China. Absalom Sydenstricker, the father of Pearl Buck was one of the first five missionaries to acquire property in the Kuling Estate on the mountain.
More about Mount Lu

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2022- Wandering Vertexes.
A blog by Francis Rousseau

THE K2 PEAK PHOTOGRAPHED BY VITTORIO SELLA IN 1909

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1843)  

 The K2  peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft) 

China - Pakistan border

Photographed during the 1909 expedition 

led by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi 

The artist

Vittorio Sella is a mountain italian climber and photographer who took his passion for mountains from his uncle, Quintino Sella, founder of the Italian Alpine Club.  He accomplished many remarkable climbs in the Alps, the first wintering in the Matterhorn and Mount Rose (1882) and the first winter crossing of Mont Blanc (1888).
He took part in various expeditions outside Italy:
- Three in the Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896 where a summit still bears his name;
- The ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska in 1897;
- Sikkim and Nepal in 1899;
- Possibly climb Mount Stanley in Uganda in 1906 during an expedition to the Rwenzori;
- Recognition at K2  in 1909 (aAbove)
- In Morocco in 1925.
During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2), he accompanied the Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia.
Sella continues the practice of climbing into his old age, completing his final attempt in the Matterhorn at the age of 76; a climb he had to interrupt the rise following an accident in which one of his guides injured. He died in his hometown during World War II.  His photographic collection is now managed by the Sella Foundation.
His photos mountain are still  considered today to be among the finest ever made.
Jim Curran believes that "Sella remains probably the greatest photographer of the mountain.  His name is synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement. "
The quality of the pictures of Vittorio Sella is partly explained by the use of a view camera 30 × 40 cm, despite the difficulty of the transportation of such a device, both heavy and fragile in places inaccessible; to be able to transport it safely, he had to make special pieces that can be stored in saddle bags.  His photographs have been widely distributed, either through the press or in the galleries, and were unanimously celebrated; Ansel Adams, who was able to admire thirty-one in an exhibition that was organized at Sella American Sierra Club, said they inspired him "a religious kind of sense of wonder."  Many of his pictures were taken in the mountains for the very first time in the History, which give them a much artistic, historical  but also scientific value ; for example, one could measure the decline in the Rwenzori glaciers in Central Africa.

The mountain 

K2 peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft)  also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest. It is located on the China-Pakistan border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.

The name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labeling them K1 and K2.

The policy of the Great Trigonometric Survey was to use local names for mountains wherever possible and K1 was found to be known locally as Masherbrum. K2, however, appeared not to have acquired a local name, possibly due to its remoteness. The mountain is not visible from Askole, the last village to the south, or from the nearest habitation to the north, and is only fleetingly glimpsed from the end of the Baltoro Glacier, beyond which few local people would have ventured. The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ("big") and ri ("mountain")  has been suggested as a local name, but evidence for its widespread use is scant. It may have been a compound name invented by Western explorers or simply a bemused reply to the question "What's that called?" It does, however, form the basis for the name Qogir (simplified Chinese: 乔戈里峰; traditional Chinese: 喬戈里峰; pinyin: Qiбogēlǐ Fēng) by which Chinese authorities officially refer to the peak. Other local names have been suggested including Lamba Pahar ("Tall Mountain" in Urdu) and Dapsang, but are not widely used.

Lacking a local name, the name Mount Godwin-Austen was suggested, in honor of Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer of the area, and while the name was rejected by the Royal Geographical Society, it was used on several maps, and continues to be used occasionally.

The surveyor's mark, K2, therefore continues to be the name by which the mountain is commonly known. It is now also used in the Balti language, rendered as Kechu or Ketu (Urdu: کے ٹو‎). The Italian climber Fosco Maraini argued in his account of the ascent of Gasherbrum IV that while the name of K2 owes its origin to chance, its clipped, impersonal nature is highly appropriate for so remote and challenging a mountain. He concluded that it was ...

K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram range and the highest point in both Pakistan and Xinjiang.

HUANGSHAN / 黄山 PAINTED BY CHEN RUYAN / 陳汝言

CHEN RUYAN / 陳汝言 ( c. 1331-bef 1380)
Huangshan / 黄山 (1,864m - 6,115ft)
China

In Mountains of the Immortals, Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 33X97 cm. 

(Detail and full scroll )
The Cleveland Museum of Art

About the painting
This extraordinary painting reveals the intense desire by Yuan artists to capture and renew the flavor of past generations. The fantastic landscape is painted in the "blue and green" style associated with the Tang dynasty (618–907), a period of superb cultural achievement in China. Athough the intense mineral pigments have faded with the passage of time, the artist's vision of an imaginary land remains intact for the modern viewer.

The artist
There is no detailed biography that can define the dates of Chen Ruyan's birth and death. Only his works allow us to locate his period of activity which begins around 1340, and ends in 1380, possible date of its execution. The latter is in perfect contradiction with the inscription of Ni Zan situating his death in 1371.
Poet and painter, friend of the artist Wang Meng (painter), he held a post of provincial secretary in Shandong province at the beginning of the Ming dynasty. He makes landscapes in the style of Zhao Mengfu and characters in that of Ma Hozhi.
Chen Ruyan is part of the same circle of literate amateurs with his friends Ni Zan and Wang Meng and he also holds office in the short-lived government of Zhang Shicheng. He accepts a provincial post under the new Ming regime and suffers the same fate as the others, execution, for certain unspecified transgression. His Kingdoms of Immortals portable scroll probably dates from the time he was in the service of Zhang Shicheng; according to an inscription written by Ni Zan in 1371, in which he notes that by then the artist is already dead, the scroll is a birthday present for Mr. Pan, Zhang Shicheng's brother-in-law2.


The mountains
Huangshan - 黄山 is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. Vegetation on the range is thickest below 1,100 meters -3,600 ft), with trees growing up to the treeline at 1,800 meters -5,900 ft). The Huangshan mountain range has many peaks, some more than 1,000 meters (3,250 feet) high. The three tallest and best-known peaks are Lotus Peak (Lian Hua Feng, 1,864 m), Bright Summit Peak (Guang Ming Ding, 1,840 m), and Celestial Peak (Tian Du Feng, literally Capital of Heaven Peak, 1,829 m).
The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan pine trees, hot springs, winter snow, and views of the clouds from above. Much of Huangshan's reputation derives from its significance in Chinese arts and literature. In addition to inspiring poets such as Li Bai, Huangshan and the scenery therein has been the frequent subject of poetry and artwork, especially Chinese ink painting and, more recently, photography. Overall, from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20,000 poems were written about Huangshan, and a school of painting named after it. The mountains also have appeared in modern works. James Cameron, director of the 2009 film Avatar, cited Huangshan as one of his influences in designing the fictional world of that film. The area also has been a location for scientific research because of its diversity of flora and wildlife. In the early part of the twentieth century, the geology and vegetation of Huangshan were the subjects of multiple studies by both Chinese and foreign scientists. The mountain is still a subject of research. For example, in the late twentieth century a team of researchers used the area for a field study of Tibetan macaques, a local species of monkey.
Huangshan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of China's major tourist destinations. The World Heritage Site covers a core area of 154 square kilometres and a buffer zone of 142 square kilometres. In 2002, Huangshan was named the "sister mountain" of Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

HUANGSHAN / 黄山 (3) BY HONG REN / 弘仁

HONG REN / 弘仁 (1610-1663)
Huangshan / 黄山 (1,864m - 6,115ft)
China

In Painting with shitang, ink on paper, 60.2 x 46.8 cm, Qing dynasty, ca. 1657–58,
Yale University Art Gallery - Mary Griggs Burke Collection

The mountain 
Huangshan  /  黄山, sometimes called Yellow Mountains, is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. Vegetation on the range is thickest below 1,100 meters (3,600 ft), with trees growing up to the treeline at 1,800 meters (5,900 ft). The Huangshan mountain range has many peaks, some more than 1,000 meters (3,250 feet) high. The three tallest and best-known peaks are Lotus Peak (Lian Hua Feng, 1,864 m), Bright Summit Peak (Guang Ming Ding, 1,840 m), and Celestial Peak (Tian Du Feng, literally Capital of Heaven Peak, 1,829 m).
The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan pine trees, hot springs, winter snow, and views of the clouds from above. Much of Huangshan's reputation derives from its significance in Chinese arts and literature.  In addition to inspiring poets such as Li Bai, Huangshan and the scenery therein has been the frequent subject of poetry and artwork, especially Chinese ink painting and, more recently, photography.  Overall, from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20,000 poems were written about Huangshan, and a school of painting named after it.  The mountains also have appeared in modern works.  James Cameron, director of the 2009 film Avatar, cited Huangshan as one of his influences in designing the fictional world of that film.  The area also has been a location for scientific research because of its diversity of flora and wildlife. In the early part of the twentieth century, the geology and vegetation of Huangshan were the subjects of multiple studies by both Chinese and foreign scientists. The mountain is still a subject of research.  For example, in the late twentieth century a team of researchers used the area for a field study of Tibetan macaques, a local species of monkey.
Huangshan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of China's major tourist destinations.  The World Heritage Site covers a core area of 154 square kilometres and a buffer zone of 142 square kilometres. In 2002, Huangshan was named the "sister mountain" of Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.

The painter 
Hong Ren  / 弘仁 who is also known as Hongren, was an early Qing dynasty painter and a member of the Anhui (or Xin'an) school of painting. His birth name was Jiang Fang. After the fall of the Ming dynasty he became a monk, as did Zhu Da, Shitao, and Kun Can. They protested the fall of the Ming dynasty by becoming monks. Hong Ren's style has been said to "represent the world in a dematerialized, cleansed version ... revealing his personal peace through the liberating form of geometric abstraction."

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

VICTORIA PEAK PAINTED BY ERNEST CHARTON DE TREVILLE

ERNEST CHARTON DE TREVILLE (1816-1877)

Victoria Peak  (552 m -1,811 ft)

China (Hong Kong)

 

In Victoria Peak vu de la Baie de Hong Kong, Oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountain
Victoria Peak (552 m -1,811 ft) or 太平山 (in Chinese) also locally called The Peak or Mount Austin an sa few others cantonese and Hong Kong Hakka names such as Taai Pen Saa or Deng or Saan Deng or Ce Kei Saan or Lou Fung... is a mountain in the western half of Hong Kong Island. It is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, ranked 31 in terms of elevation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ; Tai Mo Shan (957m) being the highest point in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.The summit is occupied by a radio telecommunications facility and is closed to the public. However, the surrounding areaf public parks and high-value residential land is the area that is normally meant by the name The Peak. During the19th century, the Peak attracted prominent European residents because of its panoramic view over the city and its relatively temperate climate compared to the sub-tropical climate in the rest of Hong Kong. The sixth Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Richard MacDonnell had a summer residence built on the Peak circa 1868. Those that built houses named them whimsically, such as The Eyrie, and the Austin Arm. These original residents reached their homes by sedan chairs, which were carried up and down the steep slope of Victoria Peak.

The painter
Ernest-Marc-Jules Charton Thiessen of Treville better known as Ernest Charton or Ernesto Charton was a French painter, famous for his pastel portraits and realistic- style customary paintings. He made most of his artistic career in South America - particularly in Argentina Chile and Ecuador -, a continent where his first name, as was customary at the time, was Castilianized, which is why he was known as Ernesto Charton.
He was initially established in Valparaíso (Chile), but in 1848 he moved to Santiago where he opened a studio neighboring that of Raymond Monvoisin, another French pioneer of Chilean painting and also belonging to traveling artists as was also at that time the watercolorist Carlos Wood.
Brother of Edouard Charton, director of the Parisian magazine Le Tour du Monde Ernesto was a typical adventurous artist of the nineteenth century in search of the most exotic expressions of unexplored nature, following in this aspect the motivation of numerous European painters of the time.  Many of his American experiences were reflected in the L'llustration, a magazine also directed by his brother and of which he was a correspondent, sending not only chronicles but also drawings, such as those he sent from the streets of Valparaíso before the bombing. He also sent a drawing of the bombing of Callao, which was recorded by Louis Le Breton and published on June 23.
Tempted by the gold rush in California he embarked on October 25, 1848 on the schooner Rosa Segunda, who arrived in the Galapagos Islands within two weeks to get water; when most of the passengers were ashore, the ship abandoned them to their fate. The painter, like his companions, lost everything, including his works.
Charton, who in 1862 would return to Ecuador, managed to settle in Quito with the help of the French consul. He taught drawing and painting at the University of that city; in addition, he directed the Miguel de Santiago Liceo of Painting, a direct antecedent of the School of Fine Arts of that country. As a result of his stay in Ecuador, he left a 48-watercolors album (cf. above)
He returned to France, but in 1855 he returned to Chile with his family; he gained fame as a portraitist, landscaper and teacher. In this last quality he had a famous controversy with the first director of the Academy of Painting of Santiago. ]
In 1870 he left Chile to Argentina, crossing the Andes. From that experience, his large oil painting was born the following year View of the Andes mountain range (115x197cm) that is today in the National Museum of Fine Arts of that country, in Buenos Aires, city where he settled until his death.
In addition to the countries mentioned, he travelled in Italy, Panama (when it was still part of Colombia) Peru and China (Hong Kong, Macao) (see above). 
As a Photographer, he used snapshots as a base for his paintings, portraying typical clothes, customs and parties that he then tracked to the web.
Charton's works are characterized by their vibrant color and the realistic expression of popular customs and motifs. He left among his students from Chile, Ecuador and Argentina this cultural vision of pictorial realism applied to the theme of each country, leaving aside religious, mythological or literally copied motifs of European models.
His paintings can be seen in museums in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes / Mountain paintings
By F rancis Rousseau

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes
A blog by Francis Rousseau

LUSHAN / 庐山 BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)

Lushan / 庐山 or Mount Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft)

China

 In  Lushan (IX), lavis, 2018, 14x19cm,  Collection privée ©Jean-Baptiste Née 

@jeanbaptiste.nee 

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind. He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.). He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, (see above) and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky" (t’ien 天).
Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France.

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山)  ( (1,474m- 4,834ft) is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. Mount Lushan is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism, where the most eminent masters taught, blend effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic approach to nature found in Chinese culture.
The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbors Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (1,474m- 4,834ft) and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.
Lushan was a summer resort for Western missionaries in China. Absalom Sydenstricker, the father of Pearl Buck was one of the first five missionaries to acquire property in the Kuling Estate on the mountain.
More about Mount Lu  

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2020- Wandering Vertexes... / Mountain paintings
A blog by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SHANDIZOU PAINTED BY WU GUANZHONG

 

WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)
Mount Shandizou ( 5,596 m -18,360 ft)

 China

 In Yulong Mountain  under moonlight, Ink on paper, Christie's Hong Kong 

The mountain
Shandizou ( 5,596 m -18,360 ft)  is the highest peak in the  Yùlóng Xuěshān also called  Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, a mountain massif or small mountain range in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, Lijiang, in Yunnan province, China. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain massif forms the bulk of the larger Yulong Mountains, that stretch further north. The northwestern flank of the massif forms one side of the Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡), which has a popular trekking route on the other side. In this gorge, the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) River descends dramatically between Jade Dragon and Haba Snow Mountain. The Yulong Mountains lie to the south of the Yun Range and are part of Southwest China's greater Hengduan Mountains.
In 1938, an expedition lead by the Australian lawyer, feminist, conservationist, and mountaineer, Marie Byles, failed to reach the summit due to bad weather.  Shanzidou has been climbed only once, on May 8, 1987, by an American expedition. The summit team comprised Phil Peralta-Ramos and Eric Perlman. They climbed snow gullies and limestone headwalls, and encountered high avalanche danger and sparse opportunities for protection. 
The Austro-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock spent many years living in the vicinity of Mt Satseto, and wrote about the region and the Naxi people who occupy it. An interest in Rock later drew the travel writer Bruce Chatwin to the mountain, which he wrote about in an article that appeared in the New York Times and later, retitled, in his essay collection What Am I Doing Here? Chatwin's article inspired many subsequent travellers, including Michael Palin, to visit the region.

The Artist
Wu Guanzhong (吴冠中) was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting.  He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters. Wu's artworks had both Western and Eastern influences, such as the Western style of Fauvism and the Eastern style of Chinese calligraphy. Wu had painted various aspects of China, including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many of its landscapes and waterscapes in a style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s. He was also a writer on contemporary Chinese art.  Wu has written many articles based on his version of form and how it applies to modernism. He considered himself as primarily a painter and not as a theorist. Wu had the approach of going out and looking at nature to find something that piqued his interest. Then he would start with a preliminary sketch of what it was that he saw. Next he spent a great deal of time in the studio trying to figure out the best way to show the power of the form of the object. He would then paint quickly and impulsively with whatever European of Chinese brush felt right. Wu would go on painting for hours until he was too emotionally drained to continue. He had his first professional solo exhibition in 1979, and his career took off in the 1980s. He has been the solo exhibitionist in over 10 and been part of a joint exhibition in over 10 others.
In 1991 Wu was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of CultureEarly in his career Guanzhong adopted the pen name Tu, which he used to sign his work.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE TAIHANG MOUNTAINS / 太行山) BY WANG HUI / 王翬(

 

WANG HUI  / 王翬(1632-1717)

The Taihang mountains  /  太行山  (2,882 m -9,455 f)

China 

 In The colors of Mount Taihang, 1669, handscroll ; ink and color on silk, (29.8 x 883.9 cm), 

The MET museum, NYC

The mountains
The Taihang mountains /太行山 are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 kilometres (250 mi) from north to south and has an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 metres (4,900 to 6,600 feet). The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan (2,882 metres (9,455 feet)). The Taihang's eastern peak is Cangyan Shan in Hebei; Baishi Mountain forms its northern tip. The name of Shanxi Province, meaning west of the mountains" derives from its location west of the Taihang Mountains, as does the name of Shandong Province (east of the mountains).

The artist
Wang Hui, like his teachers, believed that the study of old masters was the correct path to innovation. But, whereas Dong Qichang and Wang Shimin championed the impressionistic, abstract brushwork of Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) painters and their southern forebears, Wang Hui increasingly became interested in northern painters who used detailed, descriptive brushwork. This important handscroll, made in response to a work by Guan Tong (fl. ca. 907–923), signals the beginning of Wang’s intensive exploration of northern painting that would last the rest of his career. Wang believed that reconciling his teachers’ interests and his own would lead to a “great synthesis” in painting.
From The Met notice 

___________________________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

DONGTIAN MOUNTAIN HALL / 洞天山堂图 BY DONG YUAN / 董源

 

 DONG YUAN  / 董源 (c. 934 – c. 962)

 Dongtian Mountain Hall / 洞天山堂图 (0 - No elevation data) 

China

In Dongtian Mountain Hall / 洞天山堂图 - Mountains of the Immortals, ink on silk roll 

National Palace Museum, Taipei

About the Painting
This is one of his most well-known landscapes. His stylistic renderings of the natural world would be hugely influential on Chinese painting, and came to be known as the Jiangnan (named for a culture center in the south, literally "south of river") style. His most distinctive technique is the usage of pointillism and cross-hatching in a remarkable way that had not previously been explored, as traditional Chinese painting materials encourage broad, sweeping brush strokes in a similar manner to calligraphy. This would be imitated by thousands.

The artist
Dong Yuan / 董源 (c. 934 – c. 962) was a Chinese painter. He was born in Zhongling (钟陵; present-day Jinxian County, Jiangxi Province).  Dong Yuan was active in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He was from Nanjing, which was a center for culture and the arts. He was known for both figure and landscape paintings, and exemplified the elegant style which would become the standard for brush painting in China for the next nine centuries. He and his pupil Juran (巨然) were the founders of the Southern style of landscape painting, known as the Jiangnan Landscape style. Together with Jing Hao and Guan Tong of the Northern style they constituted the four seminal painters of that time.
As with many artists in China, his profession was as an official, here he studied the existing styles of Li Sixun and Wang Wei. However, he added to these masters' techniques; he included more sophisticated perspective.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT LU / 庐山 BY JING HAO / 荆浩

 

JING HAO  / 荆浩 (c. 880–940) 

Lushan / 庐山 or Mount Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft) 

China

 In Mount Lu (c. 920-40),  hanging scroll, ink on silk, 185.8 x 106.8 cm. 

National Palace Museum, Taipei.

About this work
The piece most frequently held as a template of his style is Mount Lu (above), an ink painting on silk scroll which gives a rather fantastical rendering of one of Jiangxi's natural landmarks. The work is a tight, vertical composition, employing Jing's newly developed cun fa technique to compress the landscape into layers of jutting rock-pillars between chasms of mist. The enclosed space of the composition enhances the monumental characteristics of the mountain, which fills some 90% of the scroll. Humans and buildings, though drawn with remarkable realism in a manner that contrasts sharply against the atmospheric landscape surrounding, are reduced to an almost unnoticeable scale, clustered at the foot of the mountain at the very bottom of the scroll, further conveying the intimidating grandeur of the natural world over the transient activities of man. Scholars have noted, however, that the mist in Mount Lu plays only a minimal role compared with that seen in some of Jing's other works, being employed much more conservatively than is common for the artist—a fact which has led to some speculation among art historians that this particular work may represent a “reminiscence” during a later period in the artist's life. Aside from Mount Lu, only one other major surviving work bearing the signature of Jing Hao has survived into the present.

The artist
Jing Hao / 荆浩 (c. 880–940) began his artistic career during the later years of the Tang Dynasty. Initially he was influenced by the emphasis on monumental landscapes of Tang painters. Their goal to express the grandeur and harmony of nature was exemplified by the established masters such as Wang Wei. Following the collapse of the Tang, Northern China descended into a period of political chaos—the Five Dynasties—in which five separate ruling lines established themselves and were destroyed by factional infighting in rapid succession. An aversion to the turmoil of his era led Jing Hao to retire to seclusion in the northern Taihang Mountains. Here he spent the greater portion of his life in the pursuit of artistic development. Taihang is an isolated region of dense cloud forests punctuated by jagged peaks. These unique geographical characteristics made the region particularly suited to Jing's developing interest in ink wash techniques. Jing was one of the earliest Chinese artists to employ ink washes (yongmo) to simulate depth and atmospheric perspective. Building on the approach initially pioneered by Tang painters such as Xiang Rong, Jing wrote that the principal aim of the yongmo technique was to “distinguish higher and lower [parts of objects] with a gradation in ink tones, and represent clearly shallowness and depth, making them appear natural as if they had not been done with a brush.” Of Xiang himself, Jing wrote that the earlier artist had “attained the secret of mysterious truth only through the use of ink wash”, but criticized Xiang for his lack of definition, lamenting that Xiang had “no bone in his brushwork”. Jing departed from such an approach by employing in his landscapes a mixture of atmospheric ink washes and bold brush strokes to accurately transcribe the Shanxi landscapes in which he worked. This technique, called cun fa, would characterize all of his major works as well as those of other artists who would study his work in later years.

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山) is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. Mount Lushan is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism, where the most eminent masters taught, blend effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic approach to nature found in Chinese culture.
More about Lushan / Mount Lu

____________________________

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LUSHAN / 庐山 BY WU GUANZHONG / 吴冠中

WU GUANZHONG / 吴冠中 (1919- 2010)

Lushan / 庐山 or Mount Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft)

China

In Lushan Songshi, ink on paper, 1987

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山)  ( (1,474m- 4,834ft) is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. Mount Lushan is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism, where the most eminent masters taught, blend effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic approach to nature found in Chinese culture.
The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbors Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (1,474m- 4,834ft) and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.
Lushan was a summer resort for Western missionaries in China. Absalom Sydenstricker, the father of Pearl Buck was one of the first five missionaries to acquire property in the Kuling Estate on the mountain.
More about Mount Lu  

The painter 
Wu Guanzhong / 吴冠中  was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting.  He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters. Wu's artworks had both Western and Eastern influences, such as the Western style of Fauvism and the Eastern style of Chinese calligraphy. Wu had painted various aspects of China, including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many of its landscapes and waterscapes in a style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s. He was also a writer on contemporary Chinese art. Most of Wu’s early works were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. It is difficult to track down works from his early days. Wu had an exhibit in 1942 when he was in school and it was hosted by the Sha Ping Youth Palace.
Wu Guanzhong has had solo exhibitions in major art galleries and museums around the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, Korea, France, England and the USA. His paintings were exhibited at the British Museum in 199;, being the first living Chinese artist to have an exhibition there. One of his paintings, Seascape at Beidaihe (1977), was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an exhibition of paintings from the collection of art dealer Robert H. Ellsworth. His work may also be seen in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
In 2008, Wu donated 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). This donation is the largest Wu Guanzhong donation to a public museum.
In 2010, Wu donated works to the Hong Kong Art Museum.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE WULING MOUNTAINS / 武陵山脉 PAINTED BY TANI BUNCHŌ / 谷 文晁

 

TANI BUNCHŌ  / 谷 文晁 (1763-1841)

Wuling mountains / 武陵山脉 ( 2,570 m (8,430 ft)

China

In Earthly Paradise of Wuling (detail), ink on silk screen, circa 1785

The mountains
Wuling mountains / 武陵山脉 ( 2,570 m (8,430 ft) are a mountain range located in Central China, running from Chongqing Municipality and East Guizhou to West Hunan.   Fanjingshan or Mount Fanjing, is the highest peak in the Wuling Mountain range,  located in Guizhou province,  The Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve was established in 1978.
The Wuling mountains are home to many ethnic groups, including as the Tujia, Han, Miao, Dong, and Bai.
The Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area is a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Wuling Mountain Range noted for its more than 3,000 quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks across most of the site, along with many ravines and gorges between them with streams, pools and waterfalls. It was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1986 and a World Heritage site in 2018.


The painter
Tani Bunchō (谷 文晁) was a Japanese literati (bunjin) painter and poet.
 In his youth he began studying the painting techniques of the Kanō school under Katō Bunrei (1706–82). After Bunrei's death, Bunchō worked with masters of other schools, such as the literati painter Kitayama Kangen (1767–1801), and developed a wide stylistic range that included many Chinese, Japanese and European idioms.
Unlike most bunjinga painters of his time, however, Bunchō was an extremely eclectic artist, painting idealized Chinese landscapes, actual Japanese sites, and poetically-inspired traditional scenery. He also painted portraits of his contemporaries (such as Ono Ranzan and Kimura Kenkadō), as well as imagined images of such Chinese literati heroes as Su Shi and Tao Yuanming. Since travel outside Japan was forbidden under the Tokugawa shogunate, Bunchō was unable to study in China; he spent many years traveling around Japan, studying Chinese, Japanese, and Western art .

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT EVEREST BY RENÉ MAGRITTE

 

 

RENÉ  MAGRITTE (1898-1967)

Mount Everest or Sagarmatha or Chomolunga (8,848 m - 29,029ft) 

  Nepal - China border 

In Le Toit du Monde (The World Roof), 1926, oil on canvas, Private collection 

 About this painting
Le Toit du Monde meaning the The World Roof, like most of the René Magritte Panitngs can't be explained. René Magritte described his paintings as "visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."
The only thing we may noticed is the fact the shape of the mountain he painted is indeed the shape of Mount Everest, the highest summit on earth, nicknamed for that reason The World Roof (Le Toit du Monde).
The black veins that appear on the mountain, as well as the other elements of the composition cannot be explained and are part of that "unknowable" poetry of mystery described above.

The painter
René François Ghislain Magritte  was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art and conceptual art.
The use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte was once asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco ".
Magritte's use of ordinary objects in unfamiliar spaces is joined to his desire to create poetic imagery. He described the act of painting as "the art of putting colors side by side in such a way that their real aspect is effaced, so that familiar objects—the sky, people, trees, mountains, furniture, the stars, solid structures, graffiti—become united in a single poetically disciplined image. The poetry of this image dispenses with any symbolic significance, old or new."
Magritte's constant play with reality and illusion has been attributed to the early death of his mother. Psychoanalysts who have examined bereaved children have hypothesized that Magritte's back and forth play with reality and illusion reflects his "constant shifting back and forth from what he wishes—'mother is alive'—to what he knows—'mother is dead'

The mountain
Mount Everest (8,848 m - 29,029ft), also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma, is Earth's highest mountain.  This is teh reason it was nicknamend "The World Roof " like in the painitng aboce.
 It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range in Nepal and Tibet. The international border between China (Tibet Autonomous Region) and Nepal runs across Everest's precise summit point. Its massif includes neighbouring peaks Lhotse (8,516 m -27,940 ft); Nuptse (7,855 m -25,771 ft) and Changtse (7,580 m -24,870 ft).
In 1856, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at (8,840 m -29,002 ft). The current official height of (8,848 m -29,029 ft) as recognised by China and Nepal was established by a 1955 Indian survey and subsequently confirmed by a Chinese survey in 1975. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon a recommendation by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India. As there appeared to be several different local names, Waugh chose to name the mountain after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest, despite George Everest's objections.
More about Mount Everest  

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau