KARL ANNELER (1886 - 1957)
The Wetterhorn (3,692m-12,113ft)
Switzerland
In The Wetterhorn, Grindelwald, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, oil on canvas, c.1920,
Courtesy John Mitchell Gallery London
The mountain
The Wetterhorn (3,692m-12,113ft) in the Bernese Alps, towers above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits of a mountain named Wetterhorn sensu lato, or the "Wetterhцrner", the highest summit of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 m) and the most distant the Rosenhorn (3,689 m). The Mittelhorn and Rosenhorn are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald. The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn.
The Wetterhorn summit was first reached on August 31, 1844, by the Grindelwald guides Hans Jaun and Melchior Bannholzer, three days after they had co-guided a large party organized by the geologist Edouard Desor to the first ascent of the Rosenhorn. The Mittelhorn was first summitted on 9 July 1845 by the same guides, this time accompanied by a third guide, Kaspar Abplanalp, and by Stanhope Templeman Speer. The son of a Scottish physician, Speer lived in Interlaken, Switzerland.
Wetterhorn is neither a difficult, nor an easy mountain. Each access has its specialty. Since the Wetterhorn can be seen from most mountains within 100 miles, the view is unique. Although everything up there is snow and ice, looking perpendicularly down to the green pastures of Grindelwald provides an unforgettable contrast.
The painter
Although Anneler trained as a decorative painter for theatre companies in both his native Bern and then in Münich, by 1910 he had established himself as an independent landscape and portrait painter. He lived in the Lötschental Valley for nearly twenty years where he specialized in landscapes of the Bernese Oberland and recording traditional genre scenes from village life, specifically, weddings and processions. Despite the increase in the number of homes built today, thanks to strict building regulations in Grindelwald such views as shown here of chalets with the Wetterhorn as a backdrop are still common. Anneler’s work is represented in the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau
