MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871)
The Hochalmspitze (3,360 m - 11, 020 ft)
Austria
The mountain
The Hochalmspitze (3,360 m - 11,020 ft) above the Adriatic, is the highest mountain of the Ankogel Group in the High Tauern range, located east of Mallnitz in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is sometimes called "Tauern Queen" (German: Tauernkцnigin) as a counterpart to the "Tauern King", the Grossglockner.The peak is situated slightly south the main ridge of the Central Eastern Alps and the Alpine divide.
It actually consists of two pinnacles, the Schneeige Hochalmspitze and the higher Apere ("snowless") Hochalmspitze with the summit cross. It has glaciers on its eastern and southern sides. The neighbouring Großelendkopf peak (3,317 m -10,883 ft), today counts as a separate mountain.
Like most of the High Tauern, the Hochalmspitze massif is formed of granite and gneiss, and many unusual rock formations can be found on its slopes. The mountain lies at the Eastern end of the range. In the northwest, a ridge connects it to Großer Ankogel, the third highest peak in its group, and to the Kцlnbrein Dam. In the south, the Mallnitz Ridge leads to the neighbouring Reisseck Group.
From the summit, the views stretch as far as the Salzburg Alps, the Dolomites and the Julian Alps.
The first official ascent was made in 1859 by the Austrian mountaineer Paul Grohmann, although letters found in 2010 bring this claim into disrepute, as the mountain may have first been climbed four years earlier. In 1913 a mountain hut was erected by the German and Austrian Alpine Club on the southeastern slope ( 2,215 m(-7,267 ft). In the 1970s plans for a glacier ski resort were developed, but finally abandoned in 1988 when the Austrian Alpine Club was able to purchase large parts of the area.
Source:
- Summitpost.org
The Painter
Marcus (or Markus) Pernhart was a Carinthian / Slovenian / Austrian painter. He is considered the first Slovene realistic landscape painter. He painted several times Triglav.At barely 12 years, he painted the guest rooms of Krajcar Restaurant between Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt. The innkeeper made, the bishop's chaplain Henr. Hermann discovered the talented boys. At 15, he trained in painting first with Andreas Hauser in Klagenfurt. Hermann supported him further and introduced him to his patron, the Gorizia Archbishop Francis Xavier Luzhin. Through this he got contact with the Viennese art scene, particularly to Franz Steinfeld, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was forwarded to the Munich Academy, but soon returned to Carinthia. There he was promoted by his stage name Pernhart the famous landscape painter of his time.
When Pernharts drawing style had fully developed, he was asked by Max from Moro to draw all Castles Carinthia. The idea was to these buildings if they could often for financial reasons can not be obtained, at least to preserve the picture, thereby preserving from decay. Markus Pernhart does not disappoint its customers and held in pencil drawings smallest details of the well-preserved, but also the already partly decayed plants firmly. Already in 1853, he produced 40 drawings followed by 198 others, he property of the Historical Association for Carinthia. In 1855 he gave the Carinthian estates Empress Elisabeth, an album of 21 drawings to which Max Moro contributed. Entitled images from Carinthia appeared in 1863-1868 in deliveries as steel engravings with accompanying. After his death appeared 5 lithographic panoramic images (Klagenfurt in 1875 and 1889).
His entire painted oeuvre consists of approximately 1,200 paintings, drawings and enrgavings that delight even after his death a large appreciation.
Pernhart presented landscapes, preferably lakes and high mountain motifs or castles, but also animals and still life subjects, in an idyllic and pathetic style. His works can be seen against the background of an incipient leisure society, they lead before the regional status objects of his home.
Sources:
- Mountain paintings
