MITRE PEAK ET MONT PEMBROKE PEINTS PAR LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON

 

LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON (1850-1912)
Mitre Peak / Rahotu (1,683m - 5,522 ft)
Mont Pembroke ( 2,015m)
Nouvelle-Zélande


In Milford Sound with Mount Pembroke Peak and Mitre Peak/Rahotu 1901, watercolor on Bristol board- South Coast Antiques & Gallery

Les montagnes
Mitre Peak/ Rahotu (1 683 m) est une montagne emblématique de Nouvelle-Zélande, située sur la rive du Milford Sound (South Island). C'est l'un des sommets les plus photographiés du pays. C'est la forme particulière évoquant un couvre chef d'évêque chrétien, la mitre, qui a donné son nom à ce sommet. Il a été nommé ainsi par le capitaine John Lort Stokes du HMS Acheron. Le sommet jaillit  du rivage de Milford Sound, dans le parc national de Fiordland, au sud-ouest de l'île du Sud, offrant un spectacle époustouflant. La montagne s'élève presque verticalement à partir de la surface de l'eau qui est en réalité un fjord. Le pic est un ensemble étroitement groupé de cinq pics, Mitre Peak n'étant même pas le plus haut. Selon le point de vue ou l'on se place, Mitre Peak  peut apparaître comme un seul pic. Milford Sound fait partie de Te Wahipounamu, un site inscrit du patrimoine mondial par l'UNESCO. Le seul accès routier à Milford Sound se fait par la State Highway 94,  l'une des routes les plus pittoresques de Nouvelle-Zélande. Mitre Peak est difficile à gravir et peu de gens le font. La première tentative a été faite en 1883, mais a été avortée en raison du mauvais temps. La tentative suivante eut lieu le 13 mars 1911 par JR Dennistoun de Peel Forest. Il y a six voies jusqu'à Mitre Peak, et la plupart des grimpeurs commencent par prendre un bateau pour Sinbad Bay. 

Le mont Pembroke, ou Mount Pembroke en anglais, est un sommet de Nouvelle-Zélande.  Il culmine à 2 015 mètres d'altitude au nord de Milford Sound, un fjord du parc national de Fiordland qui baigne sa base.

Le peintre
Laurence William Wilson émigre à Auckland en 1877 puis voyage beaucoup avant de s'installer à Dunedin en 1884. Il peint à la fois à l'huile et à l'aquarelle, devient compagnon de peinture de George O'Brien puis  professeur. L'un de ses élèves fut 'artiste Dunedin Alfred O'Keefe. En 1895, LW Wilson avec Grace Joel, Alfred O'Keefe, Jane Wimperis et Girolami Nerli formnt le Easel Club, émanation artistique de  l'établissement de Dunedin, qui offrait un programme de cours spéciaux et l'introduction d'une femme modèle professionnelle pour le nu.  En 1904, LW Wilson quitta Dunedin pour Melbourne où il passa 5 mois sur une peinture commandée de la ville avant de partir pour l'Angleterre, retournant finalement en Nouvelle-Zélande via l'Inde et l'Afrique. Il a exposé avec la Canterbury Society of Arts en 1882 et l'Otago Art Society entre 1994 et 1904. Son travail a été inclus dans l'exposition NZ and South Seas Dunedin 1889-90 et à l'exposition St Louis en 1904. LW Wilson est représenté dans le collections de toutes les grandes galeries publiques de Nouvelle-Zélande.

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

 

MOUNT ASPIRING / TITETEA BY LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON

LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON (1851-1912)
Mount Aspiring / Tititea (3, 033 m -9,951 ft)
New Zealand

In Mount Aspiring, Matukituki River, watercolour,
Christchurh Art Gallery- Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

The mountain
Mount Aspiring / Tititea is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region.
Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres (9,951 ft). Māori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. It was named in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the Otago Province, John Turnbull Thomson.[2] It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Matukituki River. The first ascent was on 23 November 1909 by Major Bernard Head and guides Jack Clarke and Alec Graham.[3] Head's party climbed to the summit ridge by the west face from the Bonar Glacier, a route not repeated until 1965.
Mount Aspiring / Tititea sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka.[2] It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.


The painter
Laurence William Wilson emigrated to Auckland in 1877 and then travelled extensively to settle in Dunedin in 1884. He painted in both oils and watercolours, became a painting companion of George O'Brien and a teacher. One of his pupils was the Dunedin artist Alfred O'Keefe. In 1895, LW Wilson together with Grace Joel, Alfred O'Keefe, Jane Wimperis and Girolami Nerli formed the Easel Club , a breakaway from the Dunedin Establishment, which offered a programme of special classes and the introduction of a professional lady model for life drawing. In 1904 LW Wilson left Dunedin for Melbourne where he spent 5 months on a commissioned painting of the city before he set out for England, eventually returning to New Zealand via India and Africa. He exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1882 and the Otago Art Society between 1994 and 1904. His work was included in the NZ and South Seas Exhibition Dunedin 1889-90 and at the St Louis Exposition in 1904. LW Wilson is represented in the collections of all the major public galleries in New Zealand.

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TARANAKI / MOUNT EGMONT PAINTED BY LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON

 

 

LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON (1851-1912)
Taranaki /Mount Egmont (2,518 m - 8,261 ft)
New Zealand (Northen Island)

The mountain
Taranaki or Mount Egmont (2,518 m - 8,261 ft) is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand Geographic Board. The mountain is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak or Panitahi in Māori (1,966 m - 6,450 ft), on the south side. Because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji, Taranaki provided the backdrop for the movie The Last Samurai.
For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki by Māori. The Māori word tara means mountain peak, and naki is thought to come from ngaki, meaning "shining", a reference to the snow-clad winter nature of the upper slopes. It was also named Pukehaupapa and Pukeonaki by Iwi who live in the region in ancient times.
According to Māori mythology, Taranaki once resided in the middle of the North Island, with all the other New Zealand volcanoes. The beautiful Pihanga was coveted by all the mountains, and a great battle broke out between them. Tongariro eventually won the day, inflicted great wounds on the side of Taranaki, and causing him to flee. Taranaki headed westwards, following Te Toka a Rahotu and forming the deep gorges of the Whanganui River, paused for a while, creating the depression that formed the Te Ngaere swamp, then heading north. Further progress was blocked by the Pouakai ranges, and as the sun came up Taranaki became petrified in his current location. When Taranaki conceals himself with rainclouds, he is said to be crying for his lost love, and during spectacular sunsets, he is said to be displaying himself to her. In turn, Tongariro's eruptions are said to be a warning to Taranaki not to return.
Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont on 11 January 1770 after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty who had supported the concept of an oceanic search for Terra Australis Incognita. Cook described it as "of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow" surrounded by a "flat country ... which afforded a very good aspect, being clothed with wood and verdure".
When Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne made landfall off Taranaki on 25 March 1772 he named the mountain Pic Mascarin. He was unaware of Cook's earlier visit. It appeared as Mount Egmont on maps until 29 May 1986, when the Minister of Lands ruled that "Mount Taranaki" would be an alternative and equal official name. The Egmont name still applies to the national park that surrounds the peak and geologists still refer to the peak as the Egmont Volcano.
Taranaki is geologically young, having commenced activity approximately 135,000 years ago. The most recent volcanic activity was the production of a lava dome in the crater and its collapse down the side of the mountain in the 1850s or 1860s. Between 1755 and 1800, an eruption sent a pyroclastic flow down the mountain's northeast flanks, and a moderate ash eruption occurred about 1755, of the size of Ruapehu's activity in 1995/1996. The last major eruption occurred around 1655. Recent research has shown that over the last 9,000 years minor eruptions have occurred roughly every 90 years on average, with major eruptions every 500 years.

The painter
Laurence William Wilson emigrated to Auckland in 1877 and then travelled extensively to settle in Dunedin in 1884. He painted in both oils and watercolours, became a painting companion of George O'Brien and a teacher. One of his pupils was the Dunedin artist Alfred O'Keefe. In 1895, LW Wilson together with Grace Joel, Alfred O'Keefe, Jane Wimperis and Girolami Nerli formed the Easel Club , a breakaway from the Dunedin Establishment, which offered a programme of special classes and the introduction of a professional lady model for life drawing. In 1904 LW Wilson left Dunedin for Melbourne where he spent 5 months on a commissioned painting of the city before he set out for England, eventually returning to New Zealand via India and Africa. He exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1882 and the Otago Art Society between 1994 and 1904. His work was included in the NZ and South Seas Exhibition Dunedin 1889-90 and at the St Louis Exposition in 1904. LW Wilson is represented in the collections of all the major public galleries in New Zealand.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau