RAMOS CATALAN ( 1888-1961)
El Tupungato (6,635 m - 21,768 ft )
Chili Argentina border
In Tupungato at sunset, oil on canvas, 1930, Valparaiso Fine Art Museum, Chile
The volcano
Tupungato (6,635m - one of the highest mountains in the Americas, is a massive Andean lava dome dating to Pleistocene times. It lies on the border between the Chilean Metropolitan Region (near a major international highway about 80 km (50 mi) east of Santiago) and the Argentine province of Mendoza, about 100 km (62 mi) south of Aconcagua, the highest peak of both the Southern and Western hemispheres. Immediately to its southwest is the active Tupungatito volcano (literally, little Tupungato), which last erupted in 1987.
Tupungato Department, an important Argentine wine-producing region in Mendoza province, is named for the volcano.
The painter
Benito Ramos Catalán (1888-1961) was a chilean painter who used to sign "Ramos Catalan". Known for his marines and landscapes of the Andes and Chile, and most particularly for his mountains paintings. Most of them have the same title: "Mountains of Chile" or "Mountains landscapes of Andes", making quite difficult to know which mountain was exactly depicted, in a country which has quite a lot of summits ! To add to the difficulty, he used to paint the most famous mountains of his country under very unusual angles or with proportions that do not correspond exactly to their real size... making even more difficult to recognize and identify them for experts ! That is why today, 55 years after his death, some of these mountains paintings are not clearly identified and presented, in the public sales, as 'possibly' a particular summit of Chile or Andes...
His works are in many Chilean institutions like Viña del Mar Fine Art Museum, O'Higginiano Fine Art Museum in Talca, Valparaiso Fine Art Museum, and Navy Schools in Valparaiso and Talcahuano, Ranos.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
