MOUNT PILATUS PAINTED BY WALTER CRANE

WALTER CRANE (1845-1915) 

Mount Pilatus (2,128m- 6,982ft)

Switzerland

In From Hotel Pilatus-Kulm in Switzerland, 30 Sept. 1902,  

Watercolour and bodycolour on brown paper, Private collection 

The mountain 

Pilatus (also often referred to Mount Pilatus or Pilate in French) is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne in Central Switzerland. It is composed of several peaks, of which the highest (2,128 m (6,982 ft) is named Tomlishorn and is located about 1.3 km (0.81 mi) to the southeast of the top cable car and cog railway station. The two peaks right next to the stations are called Esel (2,118 m - 6,949 ft), which lies just east over the railway station, the one on the west side is called Oberhaupt (2,105 m -6,906 ft). Jurisdiction over the massif is divided between the cantons of Obwalden (OW), Nidwalden (NW), and Lucerne (LU). The main peaks are right on the border between Obwalden and Nidwalden.

The highest peak however, Tomlishorn, and the other peaks, such as Widderfeld (2,128 m - 6,982 ft) even further west than the Tomlishorn on the border between LU and OW, Matthorn (2,040 m -6,690 ft) to the south, the Klimsenhorn (1,906 m -6,253 ft) to the north (UW), and Rosegg (1,974 m - 6,476 ft)) and Windegg (1,673 m - 5,489 ft)) to the east, both on the border of UW and OW, should only be approached with appropriate Alpine hiking equipement.

A few different local legends about the origin of the name exist. One claims that Pilatus was named so because Pontius Pilate was buried there;[citation needed] a similar legend is told of Monte Vettore in Italy. Another is that the mountain looks like the belly of a large man, Pilate, lying on his back and was thus named for him. The name may also be derived from "pileatus," meaning "cloud-topped."

A medieval legend had dragons with healing powers living on the mountain. A chronicle from 1619 reads: "As I was contemplating the serene sky by night, I saw a very bright dragon with flapping wings go from a cave in a great rock in the mount called Pilatus toward another cave, known as Flue, on the opposite side of the lake". 

Numbered amongst those who have reached its summit are Conrad Gessner, Theodore Roosevelt, Arthur Schopenhauer (1804), Queen Victoria and Julia Ward Howe (1867).

The mountain has fortified radar (part of the Swiss FLORAKO system) and weather stations on the Oberhaupt summit, not open to the public view and used all year round.

The painter

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century. Crane's work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.
Crane was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1882, resigning in 1886; two years later he became an associate of the Water Colour Society (1888); he was an examiner for the Science and Art Department at the South Kensington Museum; director of design at the Manchester Municipal School (1894); art director of Reading College (1896); and in 1898 for a short time principal of the Royal College of Art, where he planned a new curriculum intended to bring students into closer contact with tools and materials.  His lectures at Manchester were published with illustrated drawings as The Bases of Design (1898) and Line and Form (1900). The Decorative Illustration of Books, Old and New (2nd ed., London and New York, 1900) is a further contribution to theory.

As one can noticed, Walter Crane is not particularly well known for his mountain paintings ! The one you can see above is a souvenir of a trip and a stay he did in the famous Hotel Pilatus-Kulm, one of the most spectacular Switzerland's resort built in 1890 and completely renovated in 2010. It still houses rooms with magnificent views of the alpine panorama. 

THE NIEDERHORN PAINTED BY BALTHUS

BALTHUS (1908- 2001) 

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

Switzerland 

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

The mountain 

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

Source:

- Niederhorn official website 

The painter 

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

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