THE BRENNER PASS BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS BEAUMONT (1753-1812)

JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS BEAUMONT (1753-1812)

The Brenner Pass (1,372m - 4,501ft)  

Austria - Italy border 

In Montagne de Brenner, 1797, drawing from Picturesque travel to the Pennine Alps

The mountain
The Brenner pass (1,372m - 4,501ft) is an Alpine pass separating Italy (the municipality of Brennero in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) from Austria (Gries in Tyrol).  The Brenner pass connects the Stubai Alps to the west to the Zillertal Alps to the east, between the peaks of Sattelberg (2,115m - 6,939ft) and Wolfendorn (2,776m - 9,107ft). It separates the southern and northern parts of the Wipptal, a valley formed by Isarco to the south and Sill to the north, extending from Fortezza to Innsbruck. The pass marks the Italian-Austrian border and the watershed between the drainage basin of the Adriatic Sea (Adige) and the Black Sea (Inn and Danube). It is the lowest and most frequented passage between the north and the south of the main ridge of the Alps and the only one that a large transit railway crosses in the open sky. It is also crossed by the Brenner motorway leading from Modena to Innsbruck, part of the European Route 45.
The construction of the motorway began in 1957. On this occasion was built the Europabrücke, which was until 1974 the highest bridge in Europe with 190 m  (623 ft)high.

The painter
Sir  Jean-François Albanis Beaumont, draughtsman, aquatint engraver, and landscape painter, was born in Chambery in 1753, but naturalized in England.  He studied classics in Chambéry and when he was 17 years old went to Paris. He studied 4 years at the Royal College of Engineering of Mézières and received several commissions in the Bourbonnais.
Returning in 1775 to Chambéry, he designed the decorations for the celebrations of the marriage of Clotilde de France and Prince Charles-Emmanuel. Engineer Filippo Nicolis di Robilant encouraged him to work for king Victor Amadeus III, who placed him with the chief engineer of the county of Nice, where he took part in the important works underway in Port Lympia. He was inscribed on April 30, 1780, in the class of civil architects of the University of Turin.
He accompanied the Duke of Gloucester, William Frederick of Hanover in his Grand Tour (Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland), who subsequently entrusted him with the education of his children. He then settled in Britain and married an Englishwoman of Protestant religion.
In 1787 he began to publish his first works illustrated with his own drawings "Picturesque travel to the Pennine Alps", "Historical and picturesque journey of the County of Nice", "Journey through the Rhaetian Alps in 1786", "Selected views of antiquities And ports in the south of France "and" Travel through the Maritime Alps".
In 1796, his mission was completed and he could return to Savoie and settle near Genevawhere in 1798 he bought a small agricultural estate on the commune of Thônex with which he planned to enter the  trade of wool. He does not find the success expected and must soon resell everything and resume his work as geographer and traveler.
In 1800, he published "Journey in the Alps Lepontine from France to Italy" and then "Description of the Greek and CoteAlps" (1802 and 1806).
In 1810, he died at the monastery of Sixt of which he became the owner. He had resumed the exploitation of the iron mines, but he faced too many difficulties. He is buried on the spot.
The views of the towns and landscapes he drew are very sought after and give an idea of ​​the appearance of these places at the time.

THE COL DE MONTGENEVRE BY NICOLAS DE STAEL

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)

Col de Montgenèvre  (1, 850m - 6,070ft)

France (Jura)

In Briançon, oil on canvas,  1953, Private collection

The mountain
The Col de Montgenèvre (1, 850m) is a pass of the French Alps located between the Cerces range (Chaberton range) and the Queyras range. It connects the town of Briançon with Cesana Torinese in Italy but is entirely on the French side of the border, located 2.4 km.
According to  the roman historian Titus Livius, the pass of Montgenèvre would have been crossed by the troops of Hannibal during his passage of the Alps following the future way of the Alps. In Roman antiquity, the summit of the Montgenèvre pass marks the starting point of the Via Domitia (Domitian road), a Roman road built on the initiative of the consul Cnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus from 121 BC. J.-C. and inaugurated 3 years later; this route then connected Italy to Hispania (Spain) through the south of Gaule (France) freshly conquered.
The Montgenèvre pass has been crossed 10 times by the Tour de France. It has been ranked alternatively 1st or 2nd category.

The Painter 

Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. Nicolas de Staël was born Nikolai Vladimirovich Staël von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн) in Saint Petersbourg (Russia), into the family of a Baron Vladimir Staël von Holstein, the last Commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. De Staël's family was forced to emigrate to Poland in 1919 because of the Russian Revolution ; both his father and stepmother died in Poland and the orphaned Nicolas de Staël was sent with his older sister Marina to Brussels to live with a Russian family (1922).
De Staël's painting career spans roughly 15 years (from 1940) and produced more than a thousand paintings. His work shows the influence of Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Chaim Soutine, as well as of the Dutch masters Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hercules Seghers. During the 1940s and beginning in representation, de Staël moved further and further toward abstraction. Evolving his own highly distinctive and abstract style, which bears comparison with the near-contemporary American Abstract Expressionist movement, and French Tachisme, but which he developed independently of them. Typically his paintings contained block-like slabs of colour, emerging as if struggling against one another across the surface of the image. According to de Staël himself, he turned to his "abstracting" because he "found it awkward to paint an object as a likeness because of the awkwardness I felt when faced ! with the infinite multitude of coexisting objects in any single object".

De Staël's work was quickly recognized within the post-war art world, and he became one of the most influential artists of the 1950s. However, he moved away from abstraction in his later paintings, seeking a more "French" lyrical style, returning to representation (seascapes, footballers, jazz musicians, seagulls) at the end of his life.  His most well-known late paintings of beaches and landscapes are dominated by the sky and effects of light. 

Much of de Staël's late work—in particular his thinned and diluted oil on canvas abstract landscapes of the mid-1950s—predicts Color field painting and Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. Nicolas de Staël's bold and intensely vivid color in his last paintings predict the direction of much of contemporary painting that came after him including Pop Art of the 1960s.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TIZI N'TICHKKA (2) BY JACQUES MAJORELLE

JACQUES MAJORELLE (1886- 1962)

                                                         Tizi n'Tichka  (2,260m - 7,415ft) 

Morocco

In Kasbah et Atlas, gouache sur papier, Private collection 

The mountain pass

Tizi n'Tichka (2,260m - 7,415ft)  is a mountain pass in Morocco, linking the south-east of Marrakesh-Safi to the city of Ouarzazate through the High Atlas mountains and visible from Ounila valley.  It lies above the great Marrakech Plains and is a gateway to the Sahara Desert. From November through March, snow can often fall on the pass, but it can be warm all year round in the strong sun.  It  is the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. The road was constructed along the old caravan trail by the French military in 1936, and is now part of National Route 9 (formerly Route P-31). 

The last, known Barbary lion in the wilderness of North Africa was shot near Tizi n'Tichka pass in 1942. Genetically speaking, however, the Barbary lion appears to live on in the Senegal lion of Western and Central Africa.

The painter 

Jacques Majorelle son of the celebrated Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis Majorelle, was a French painter. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in 1901 and later at the Académie Julian in Paris with Schommer and Royer. Majorelle became a noted Orientalist painter, but is most remembered for constructing the villa and gardens that now carry his name, Les Jardins Majorelle in Marrakech.
In around 1917 he travelled to Morocco to recover from heart problems and after short period spent in Casablanca, he visited Marrakech, where he fell in love with the vibrant colours and quality of light he found there. Initially, he used Marrakech as a base for trips to Spain, Italy and other parts of North Africa, including Egypt. Eventually, however, he settled in Marrakech permanently.
He drew inspiration for his paintings from his trips and from Marrakesch itself. His paintings include many street scenes, souks and kasbahs as well as portraits of local inhabitants. He opened a handicrafts workshop in Marrakech and also designed posters to promote travel to Morocco.  His work was profoundly affected by his voyages around the Mediterannean and North Africa. He introduced a more coloured vision, bathed in light where the drawing disappears and the image emerges from large spots of colour laid flat. It seemed as if he had discoved the sun in these countries. His style exhibited more freedom and spontaneity.
In 1919, he married Andrée Longueville and the pair lived in an apartment near the Jemâa el-Fna Square (then at the palace of Pasha Ben Daoud). In 1923, Jacques Majorelle bought a four acre plot, situated on the border of a palm grove in Marrakech and in 1931, he commissioned the architect, Paul Sinoir, to design a Cubist villa for him. He gradually purchased additional land, extending his holding by almost 10 acres. In the grounds around the residence, Majorelle began planting a luxuriant garden which would become known as the Jardins Majorelle or Majorelle Garden. He continued to work on the garden for almost forty years. The garden is often said to be the his finest work.  Majorelle developed a special shade of the colour blue, which was inspired by the blue tiles prevalent in southern Morocco. This colour was used extensively in Majorelle's house and garden, and now carries his name; Majorelle Blue.
The garden proved costly to run and in 1947, Majorelle opened the garden to the public with an admission fee designed to defray the cost of maintenance.  He sold the house and land in the 1950s, after which it fell into disrepair.
Majorelle was sent to France for medical treatment in 1962 following a car accident, and died in Paris, later that year of complications from his injuries. He is buried in Nancy, the place of his birth.
During his lifetime, many of Majorelle's paintings were sold to private buyers and remain in private collections. Some of his early works can be found in Museums around his birthplace such as the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy. Examples of his later work can be seen in the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesch, the French Consulate of Marrakech and in the Villa at the Majorelle Gardens. 

PIZ BERNINA & MORTERATSCH BY EMIL NOLDE

Emil Nolde  (1867-1956) 

Piz Bernina (4, 049m- 13, 283ft) 

Switzerland - Italy border 

In  La belle Bernina et le vieux Morteratsch, postcard 

About this work 

The postcards series date from  pre-expressionist phase of Nolde’s career (though he was around 30 when he created them). After hiking in the Swiss Alps, Nolde did a painting, Mountain Giants, presenting the mountains in human form. Nolde wrote : “The picture went to the annual exhibition in Munich in 1896. [Ferdinand] Hodler’s picture “Night”  which established his fame, was also there. But my “Mountain Giants" was soon returned, rejected… In those days there was a general and stormy derision and ridicule about each of Hodler’s pictures. ‘And his colors are as ugly as can be possible!’ What help was my contradiction and my firm conviction that his sinuous, pushing, wry bodies are part of the character of the mountain folk, just as the firs on the mountain slopes are gnarled and grown oddly.” From then, he painted practically every Swissw Alps Summit in human form: the Zugspitze, the Waxenstein, the Eiger, the Monch, the Jungfrau, the Grand Saint- Gothard, Piz Bernina, the Morteratch, the Ortler, the Finsteraarhorn... they will be posted one after one in this blog, the Cervin / Matterhorn being the first one.

The mountain 

Piz Bernina or Pizzo Bernina (4, 049m- 13, 283ft)  is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps, the highest point of the Bernina Range, and the highest peak in the Rhaetian Alps. It is located south of Pontresina and near the major Alpine resort of St. Moritz, in the Engadin valley with the massif partially in Italy.  The mountain can be seen from different viewpoints with the use of ski-lifts from Diavolezza, Piz Corvatsch or Piz Nair. It is also the most easterly mountain higher than 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in the Alps, the highest point of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, and the fifth-most prominent peak in the Alps. The minor summit (4,020 m -13,190 ft) known as La Spedla is the highest point in the Italian Lombardy region. The mountain was named after the Bernina Pass in 1850 by Johann Coaz, who also made the first ascent.  The prefix Piz comes from the Romansch language in Graubünden; any mountain with that name can be readily identified as being located in southeastern Switzerland.
The Morteratsch Glacier  is the largest glacier in the Bernina Mountains. It is located in the canton of Grisons in Upper Engadine. It has a maximum length of 7 km with a height difference of 2,000 m and ends at the highest point on Punta Perrucchetti at 4,020 m. It covers with the Pers glacier about 16 km2. Between 1878 and 1998, the glacier retreated 1.8 km with an annual average of about 17.2 meters. The decline has accelerated in recent years with an average of 30 meters per year from 1999-2005. At the confluence with the Pers Glacier, the Morteratsch Glacier behaves like a natural dam blocking the runoff and the origin of a small lake.

The painter 

Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke (The Bridge) of Dresden in 1906, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.

Nolde's intense preoccupation with the subject of flowers reflects his continuing interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.

From the early 1920s,  Nolde was a supporter of the Nazi party, having become a member of its Danish section. He expressed anti-semitic, negative opinions about Jewish artists, and considered "Expressionism to be a distinctively Germanic style". This view was shared by some other members of the Nazi party, notably Joseph Goebbels and Fritz Hippler.

However Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as "degenerate art", and the Nazi regime officially condemned Nolde's work. Until that time he had been held in great prestige in Germany. A total of 1,052 of his works were removed from museums, more than those of any other artist.  Some were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937, despite his protests, including (later) a personal appeal to Nazi gauleiter Baldur von Schirach in Vienna. He was not allowed to paint—even in private—after 1941. Nevertheless, during this period he created hundreds of watercolors, which he hid. He called them the "Unpainted Pictures".

In 1942 Nolde wrote: "There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every color holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colors are colors, tones tones...and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed."

After World War II, Nolde was once again honored, receiving the German Order of Merit, He died in Seebüll (now part of Neukirchen). The Schiefler Catalogue raisonné of his prints describes 231 etchings, 197 woodcuts, 83 lithographs, and 4 hectographs.

GIEWONT PAINTED BY JAN STANISLAWSKI

JAN STANISLAWSKI (1860-1907)

Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft)

Poland

In  Evening under Koziniec, oil on canvas, 1906  

The mountains 

Giewont is a mountain massif in the Tatra Mountains of Poland. It  is 1,895 m - at its highest.

The massif has three peaks (all m/metres in AMSL):

- Great Giewont - Wielki Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft)

- Long Giewont - Długi Giewont (1,867 m- 6, 125 ft)

- Small Giewont -  Polish Mały Giewont (1,728 m - 5,669 ft)

There is a mountain pass located between Great and Long Giewont, known as Szczerba (1,823 m-  5, 980 ft).  Long Giewont and Great Giewont are situated at a higher altitude than the nearby town of Zakopane, making them clearly visible from that city.

On Great Giewont, there is a 15 m steel cross (erected in 1901) - the site of religious pilgrimages. The area is notorious for its hazardous nature during thunderstorms, so this should be taken into consideration when approaching the summit.

The first recorded ascent to Giewont's summit was undertaken in 1830 by Franciszek Herbich and Aleksander Zawadzki (a19th century explorer). The first winter ascent of Giewont occurred in 1904 by a group of five mountaineers led by Mariusz Zaruski. Nowadays the climbing on Giewont is strictly banned. On the other hand, hiking on the hiking trails is allowed and the access (except the winter) is not difficult hence Giewont is a very popular destination among amblers and Sunday tourists. In the summer up to few thousands tourists a day ascend the top.

Giewont lies in the area of the Polish Tatra National Park (Tatrzański Park Narodowy). In Polish folklore it is associated with a legend about oversleeping knights, who will awake when Poland is in danger. 

The painter 

Jan Stanisławski was a Polish modernist painter, art educator, founder and member of various innovative art groups and literary societies. He began to learn painting at the art studio in Warsaw which later gave rise to the School of Fine Arts, under Wojciech Gerson.  In 1885, he continued his studies in Paris under Charles Emile Auguste Durand. While based in Paris, he travelled much, visiting Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and eastern Galicia.
His early works were exhibited at the inauguration of the Salon du Champ-de-Mars in Paris in 1890 and at the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts in 1892. In the 1890s, he travelled extensively and his sketchbooks filled up with drawings from Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Kraków, and various places in Ukraine.  In 1897, he initiated and helped organise the Separate Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at Kraków’s Cloth Hall. That year, he became a teacher of landscape painting at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, and in 1906 – after the school was upgraded to an academy in 1900 – was granted full professorship and also taught at Teodor Axentowicz’s Private School of Painting and Drawing for Women and at Teofila Certowicz’s Art School for Women in Kraków.
He co-founded the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka" ("Art") in Kraków in 1897.  In 1898, he became a member of the Viennese Secession, and his works were exhibited among theirs in 1901, 1902 and 1905. In 1901, he became a founding member of the Polish Applied Arts Society. He worked in the Wawel Castle Reconstruction Committee and was involved in the activities of the Green Balloon (Zielony Balonik) Cabaret. After his death, two exhibitions were opened at the Palace of Art by the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts in November 1907, one to show 154 of his oil paintings, as well as drawings and watercolours, and the other to present the works of his numerous outstanding students.
_______________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TIZI N'TICHKA BY JACQUES MAJORELLE

JACQUES MAJORELLE  (1886-1962) 

Tizi n'Tichka  (2,260m- 7,415ft) 

Morocco

In Irounen, Grand atlas, Vallée d'Ounila, gouache sur papier, Private collection 

The mountain pass

Tizi n'Tichka (2,260m - 7,415ft)  is a mountain pass in Morocco, linking the south-east of Marrakesh-Safi to the city of Ouarzazate through the High Atlas mountains and visible from Ounila valley.  It lies above the great Marrakech Plains and is a gateway to the Sahara Desert. From November through March, snow can often fall on the pass, but it can be warm all year round in the strong sun.  It  is the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. The road was constructed along the old caravan trail by the French military in 1936, and is now part of National Route 9 (formerly Route P-31). 

The last, known Barbary lion in the wilderness of North Africa was shot near Tizi n'Tichka pass in 1942. Genetically speaking, however, the Barbary lion appears to live on in the Senegal lion of Western and Central Africa.

The painter 

Jacques Majorelle son of the celebrated Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis Majorelle, was a French painter. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in 1901 and later at the Académie Julian in Paris with Schommer and Royer. Majorelle became a noted Orientalist painter, but is most remembered for constructing the villa and gardens that now carry his name, Les Jardins Majorelle in Marrakech.
In around 1917 he travelled to Morocco to recover from heart problems and after short period spent in Casablanca, he visited Marrakech, where he fell in love with the vibrant colours and quality of light he found there. Initially, he used Marrakech as a base for trips to Spain, Italy and other parts of North Africa, including Egypt. Eventually, however, he settled in Marrakech permanently.
He drew inspiration for his paintings from his trips and from Marrakesch itself. His paintings include many street scenes, souks and kasbahs as well as portraits of local inhabitants. He opened a handicrafts workshop in Marrakech and also designed posters to promote travel to Morocco.  His work was profoundly affected by his voyages around the Mediterannean and North Africa. He introduced a more coloured vision, bathed in light where the drawing disappears and the image emerges from large spots of colour laid flat. It seemed as if he had discoved the sun in these countries. His style exhibited more freedom and spontaneity.
In 1919, he married Andrée Longueville and the pair lived in an apartment near the Jemâa el-Fna Square (then at the palace of Pasha Ben Daoud). In 1923, Jacques Majorelle bought a four acre plot, situated on the border of a palm grove in Marrakech and in 1931, he commissioned the architect, Paul Sinoir, to design a Cubist villa for him. He gradually purchased additional land, extending his holding by almost 10 acres. In the grounds around the residence, Majorelle began planting a luxuriant garden which would become known as the Jardins Majorelle or Majorelle Garden. He continued to work on the garden for almost forty years. The garden is often said to be the his finest work.  Majorelle developed a special shade of the colour blue, which was inspired by the blue tiles prevalent in southern Morocco. This colour was used extensively in Majorelle's house and garden, and now carries his name; Majorelle Blue.
The garden proved costly to run and in 1947, Majorelle opened the garden to the public with an admission fee designed to defray the cost of maintenance.  He sold the house and land in the 1950s, after which it fell into disrepair.
Majorelle was sent to France for medical treatment in 1962 following a car accident, and died in Paris, later that year of complications from his injuries. He is buried in Nancy, the place of his birth.
During his lifetime, many of Majorelle's paintings were sold to private buyers and remain in private collections. Some of his early works can be found in Museums around his birthplace such as the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy. Examples of his later work can be seen in the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesch, the French Consulate of Marrakech and in the Villa at the Majorelle Gardens. 

SEVEN WEEKS DEFILE PEAK BY G. J. BEUKES

GERHARD .J. BEUKES (1885 -1945)

Seven Weeks Defile Peak (2,325 m -7,628 ft) 

South Africa (Western Cape) 

In Seweweekspoort, oil on cardboard, 1936, Private collection USA 

The Mountain 

Seven Weeks Defile Peak   (2,325 m -7,628 ft) in Afrikaans Seweweekspoortpiek, is a peak in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is the highest mountain in the Cape Fold Belt and the highest point in the Western Cape province. Along with its western neighbour, Du Toits Peak, it qualifies as an Ultra and these are the only two in the country. It is located in the Klein Swartberg range, close to the Seweweekspoort  mountain pass.

The Swartberg mountains (black mountain in Afrikaans, a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa, is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east-west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little Karoo. To the north of the range lies the other large semi-arid area in South Africa, the Great Karoo. Most of the Swartberg Mountains are above 2000 m high, making them the tallest mountains in the Western Cape. It is also one of the longest, spanning some 230 km from south of Laingsburg in the west to between Willowmore and Uniondale in the east. Geologically, these mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt.

Much of the Swartberg is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The artist

Gerhard J. (Gabriel Jacobus) Beukes was born in a Afrikanner family of Western Cape aerea. He xas active as painter and early photographer in South Africa until the 1940s'. He is known for his landscape and mountains paintings of the Western Cape area and his paintings on cardboard of the Swartberg mountains.  No other information on this painter.  

MANGART PAINTED BY MARCUS PERNHART

MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871)

Mangart (2,679 m - 8, 789ft) 

Slovenia, Italy border

Painted from the Italian side 

The mountain 
Mangart  (2,679 m - 8, 789ft) also called  Mangrt or Veliki Mangart is a mountain in the Julian Alps, located on the border between Italy and Slovenia. It is, after Triglav and Skrlatica, the third-highest peak in Slovenia. It was first climbed in 1794 by the naturalist Franz von Hohenwart. Mangart is also the name of the mountain range between the Koritnica Valley and the Mangart Valley.
The road to Mangart Saddle (2,072 m- 6,798 ft) is the highest road in Slovenia. The Mangart Pass Hut is located at the western foot of Mangart. Two lakes under Mangart's northern face are situated on the italian side of the mountain.

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.

COL DU SAINT-GOTHARD BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS BEAUMONT

JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS  BEAUMONT (1753-1812) 

Col du Saint Gothard (2, 108m - 6,916 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Ascension du Gothard from Journey in the Alps Lepontine  from France to Italy, 1800, aquatint

The  mountain pass
The Col du Saint-Gothard (2, 108m - 6,916 ft), in  Italian Passo del Gottardo, in German  Gotthardpass, is a mountain pass of the Swiss Alps which connects Andermatt in the Canton of Uri to Airolo in the canton of Ticino. This pass, whose name refers to Gothard de Hildesheim, provided most of the direct flows of people and goods between northern Switzerland and Ticino and Italy, and more generally between the center of the plain of Pô  and North Europe.
The vast glacial basin that leads to the pass itself is a place of passage that has been used for centuries, which has contributed to the prosperity of the cities of Milan and Zurich, linking them directly. It would have been opened around 1220, thanks in particular to the construction of the Pont du Diable (The Bridge of Evil) which brings the advantage over other passes of the Central Alps to be relatively low and to have valleys easy to access.
It was linked with the constitution of a first confederation of Swiss cantons (Confederation of III Cantons) at the end of the 13th century around Lake Lucerne and towards Ticino. At that time, the canton of Uri  enjoyed a new importance and potential income from the toll. His dependence of the Count of Zurich Rudolf II, from the house of Habsburg, was bought in 1231 in the name of Frederick II.
The first mention of an hospice existing in this mountain pass, dates back to 1237.  Four centuries later, in 1602, Frederic Borromée established a priest there and built a house for travelers in 1623-1629. From 1685 to 1841, the establishment is managed by the Capuchin brothers. After the fall of an avalanche in 1774 (as it can be seen in the painting above) the building is rebuilt in stone, accompanied by an octagonal stable. The old "Souste" (now the National Museum of St. Gothard) was erected in 1834-1837 according to plans of Domenico Fontana. This rectangular building, with portico and characteristic arcades on the main façade, was restored in 1983-1986. The building initially served as a hotel for wealthy travelers, but also as a warehouse and customs post. It later became a dependency of the Albergo Monte Prosa, established on plans by A. Regli and inaugurated in 1886.
A dam was constructed in the cervical bowl of the pass. During the second half of the 20th century, the lake near the pass was immersed in obsolete munitions by the Swiss army.
To reach Airolo, there are two routes that leave from the summit:
- Tremola vecchia (meaning "old trembling" in Italian), the old road, still almost entirely paved;
- A more modern road, the Nuova tremola.
To reach Andermatt, the winding road offers a view of beautiful scenery.

The route of the pass is regularly borrowed by the cyclist Tour de Suisse. Since its creation in 1933, this competition has passed 37 times on the Gotthard.

The painter
Sir  Jean-François Albanis Beaumont, draughtsman, aquatint engraver, and landscape painter, was born in Chambery in 1753, but naturalized in England.  He studied classics in Chambéry and when he was 17 years old went to Paris. He studied 4 years at the Royal College of Engineering of Mézières and received several commissions in the Bourbonnais.
Returning in 1775 to Chambéry, he designed the decorations for the celebrations of the marriage of Clotilde de France and Prince Charles-Emmanuel. Engineer Filippo Nicolis di Robilant encouraged him to work for king Victor Amadeus III, who placed him with the chief engineer of the county of Nice, where he took part in the important works underway in Port Lympia. He was inscribed on April 30, 1780, in the class of civil architects of the University of Turin.
He accompanied the Duke of Gloucester, William Frederick of Hanover in his Grand Tour (Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland), who subsequently entrusted him with the education of his children. He then settled in Britain and married an Englishwoman of Protestant religion.
In 1787 he began to publish his first works illustrated with his own drawings "Picturesque travel to the Pennine Alps", "Historical and picturesque journey of the County of Nice", "Journey through the Rhaetian Alps in 1786", "Selected views of antiquities And ports in the south of France "and" Travel through the Maritime Alps".
In 1796, his mission was completed and he could return to Savoie and settle near Genevawhere in 1798 he bought a small agricultural estate on the commune of Thônex with which he planned to enter the  trade of wool. He does not find the success expected and must soon resell everything and resume his work as geographer and traveler.
In 1800, he published "Journey in the Alps Lepontine from France to Italy" and then "Description of the Greek and Cote Alps" (1802 and 1806).
In 1810, he died at the monastery of Sixt of which he became the owner. He had resumed the exploitation of the iron mines, but he faced too many difficulties. He is buried on the spot.
The views of the towns and landscapes he drew are very sought after and give an idea of ​​the appearance of these places at the time.

COL DU BONHOMME BY EUGENE VIOLLET-LE-DUC

EUGENE VIOLLET-LE-DUC (1814-1879),

Col du Bonhomme (2,329 m - 7,641 ft)

France (Alpes) 

In Le col du Bonhomme, le Cervin du Breuil, 1862, watercolor, Musée Lambinet Versailles, France  

The mountain

The Col du Bonhomme (2,329 m - 7,641 ft) is a pass that connects the Val Montjoie to the Beaufortain. It is located between the Mount du Rocher du Bonhomme and the Aiguilles de Pennaz. It is one of the passes crossed on the hiking trail of the Tour du Mont Blanc near the refuge of the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme at 2,443 meters.

In 1355, following the Treaty of Paris, the Faucigny passed from the possession of the counts of Geneva to that of the county of Savoy and the Col du Bonhomme lost its status of frontier to become  part of the "House of Savoy". On the night of the 27th of August, 1689, at Prangins, near Nyon, on the shore of Lake Geneva (Switzerland), about a thousand men try to go back to their Piedmont valley. In nine days they traveled 200 km by passing the massif of Mont Blanc by the Col du Bonhomme to reach Sibaud (Bobbio Pellice). This first trek,  with quite a lot of victims, was called the "Glorious Retreat".  Following the visit of the Emperor Napoleon III after the annexation of Savoy to France (1860), the path of the Col du Bonhomme is laid out (1861-1866). The free zone was subsequently reduced in 1919 by France at the end of the First World War by the Treaty of Versailles.

Nowadays, from the bottom of the Contamines-Montjoie valley, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Gorge, the climb takes from 2 to 3 hours, making it accessible to a large number of walkers. It can also be reached from Les Chapieux, the Gittaz dam and the Gittes crest path.

The artist 
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (not to be confused with the writer Violette Leduc) was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings.  But he was, as well, an excellent but less famous watercolorist, sketching quite a number of mountains and volcanoes all over Europe.
Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect. His works were largely restorative and few of his independent building designs were ever realised. Strongly contrary to the prevailing Beaux-Arts architectural trend of his time, much of his design work was largely derided by his contemporaries. He was the architect hired to design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty, but died before the project was completed.
During the early 1830s, a popular sentiment for the restoration of medieval buildings developed in France. Viollet-le-Duc, returning during 1835 from study in Italy, was commissioned by Prosper Mérimée to restore the Romanesque abbey of Vézelay. This work was the first of a long series of restorations; Viollet-le-Duc's restorations at Notre Dame de Paris with Jean-Baptiste Lassus brought him national attention. His other main works include Mont Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, Roquetaillade castle and Pierrefonds.
Viollet-le-Duc's "restorations" frequently combined historical fact with creative modification. For example, under his supervision, Notre Dame was not only cleaned and restored but also "updated", gaining its distinctive third tower (a type of flèche) in addition to other smaller changes. Another of his most famous restorations, the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne, was similarly enhanced, gaining atop each of its many wall towers a set of pointed roofs that are actually more typical of northern France. Many of these reconstructions were controversial. Viollet-le-duc wanted what he called ‘a condition of completeness' which never actually existed at any given time. This approach to restoration was particularly problematic when buildings survived in a mixture of styles. For instance, Viollet-le-Duc eliminated eighteenth-century additions to Notre Dame. Both his theory and his practice were strongly criticized on the grounds that only what had once been in place should be reconstructed. At the same time, in the cultural atmosphere of the Second Empire theory necessarily became diluted in practice: Viollet-le-Duc provided a Gothic reliquary for the relic of the Crown of Thorns at Notre-Dame in 1862, and yet Napoleon III also commissioned designs for a luxuriously appointed railway carriage from Viollet-le-Duc, in 14th-century Gothic style.
Among his restorations were:
- Churches :
Notre-Dame in Paris, Abbey of the Mont Saint-Michel, Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene in Vézelay, St. Martin in Clamecy,  Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Basilica of St. Denis near Paris, St. Louis in Poissy, Notre-Dame in Semur-en-Auxois, Basilica of St. Nazarius and St. Celsus in Carcasonne, Basilica of St. Sernin in Toulouse, Notre-Dame in Lausanne (Switzerland).
Town halls:
- Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, Narbonne
Castles:
- Château de Roquetaillade in Bordeaux, Château de Pierrefonds, Fortified city of Carcassonne, Château de Coucy, Antoing in Belgium, Château de Vincennes in  Paris.
When monuments was to much damaged, he sometimes  obtain from the emperor Napoleon III the permission to entirely rebuilt it,  like he did in Avignon with the Popes ramparts all around the city.

GRINDELWALD VALLEY PAINTED BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF  (1735-1783)

Grindelwald Valley (1,034 m -3,392 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Grindelwald, vue du glacier inférieur sous l'orage, 1775, oil on canvas 

The spot 

Grindelwald (1,034 m 3,392 ft) designates a valley, a village and a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal. Three major swiss peaks overlooking Grindelwald: the Eiger (3,970 m - 13, 020ft), the Mettenberg (3,104m -10,184ft), the Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft). 

The Painter 

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

THE CIRQUE DE GAVARNIE BY GUSTAVE DORE

GUSTAVE DORE (1832-1883) 

Cirque de Gavarnie (1, 500m - 4900ft) 

France (Pyrénées)

In Le Cirque de Gavarnie, les chutes, la Brèche de Roland, 1882, watercolor on paper

The mountain 

The Cirque de Gavarnie (1, 500m - 4900ft)  is a cirque (an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion) in the central Pyrenees, in south-western France, close to the border of Spain. It was described by Victor Hugo as "the Colosseum of nature" due to its enormous size and horseshoe shape causing a resemblance to an amphitheatre. It is located within the commune of Gavarnie, the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, and the Pyrenees National Park. Major features of the cirque are La Brèche de Roland (Roland's Pass) and the Gavarnie Falls.

The cirque is 800 m wide (on the deepest point) and about 3,000 m wide at the top. 

During the warmer seasons of spring and fall, there are a number of large meltwater falls that spill into the cirque. The largest of these is Gavarnie Falls, the second highest waterfall in Europe. It descends some 422 metres (1,385 ft) over a series of steps before reaching the floor of the cirque.

There are also several passes and clefts between the peaks that form the rim of the Cirque. The largest is La Brèche de Roland (2,800 m - 9,200 ft) above sea level.  Legend says that its sheer walls were cut into the mountain by the sword of the hero Roland, nephew to Charlemagne.

The cirque, and many others like it in the Pyrenees, was formed by the process of glacial erosion. The Cirque de Gavarnie's uniquely immense size was likely caused by repeated cycles of glacial scraping over millions of years.

A number of rare plants and animals live on the peaks at the upper rim of the Cirque de Gavarnie, protected on both the French and the Spanish sides by national parks. Martagon lillies grow in the pine forests. Saxifraga and other tiny alpine flowers cling to the rock faces. Chamois, a type of mammal similar to goats or antelope, live among the crags.
Source:
- Tourism office Gavarnie 

The painter

Paul-Gustave-Louis-Christophe Doré said Gustave Doré, born January 6, 1832 in Strasbourg and died January 23, 1883 in Paris in his house in the rue Saint-Dominique, is an illustrator, writer, cartoonist, painter and French sculptor. It has been internationally recognized in his lifetime.
- More about Gustave Doré 

GRINDELWALD VALLEY PANORAMA BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF (1735-1783) 

The Eiger (3,970 m - 13, 020ft)

The Mettenberg (3,104m -10,184ft)

The Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft) 

Grindelwald Valley (1,034 m (3,392 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Panorama of the Grindelwald valley with  the Eiger, the Mettenberg, the Wetterhorn, 

oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountains 

The Eiger (3,970 m - 13,020 ft)  is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau (4,158 m -13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps.
The Mettenberg  (3,104m -10,184ft) also spelled Mättenberg, is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland. It lies north of the Schreckhorn.

The Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft)  is a mountain in the Swiss Alps towering 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.

Grindelwald (1,034 m 3,392 ft) designates a valley, a village and a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal.

The Painter 

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

SEEBERG SADDLE BY MARCUS PERNHART

MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871)

Seeberg Saddle (1,218m- 3, 996ft) 

Austria - Slovenia

The mountain 
Seeberg Saddle   (1,218m- 3, 996ft), Seebergsattel in German, Jezerski in Slovene,  or also just Seeberg, is a high mountain pass connecting Bad Eisenkappel in the Austrian state of Carinthia with Jezersko in the Slovenian region of Carinthia. It is located in the Southern Limestone Alps, between the Karavanke range in the west and the Kamnik–Savinja Alps in the east.
The road across the pass is probably of Roman origin, leading from the Drava valley in the Noricum province towards the city of Aquileia. The border at the summit was implemented after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain. Today the Seeberg Highway (B 82) heads from the Austrian side up to the border crossing on the pass. Directly behind the Slovenian border station is an inn. On the Slovenian side, the state road No. 210 descends from the Seeberg down to Jezersko, offering a panoramic view of the Kamnik Alps.
Seeberg Saddle is also known as the Carinthian Seeberg to distinguish it from the Styrian Seeberg Pass in the Northern Limestone Alps.

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.
- More about Marcus Pernhart

PIZ BERNINA PAINTED BY ALBERT BIERSTADT

ALBERT BIERSTADT (1830-1902)

Piz Bernina (4, 049m- 13, 283ft) 

Switzerland - Italy border 

In  Piz Bernina, Switzerland, 1880-90, oil on paper mounted on masonite, 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

The mountain 

Piz Bernina or Pizzo Bernina (4, 049m- 13, 283ft)  is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps, the highest point of the Bernina Range, and the highest peak in the Rhaetian Alps. It is located south of Pontresina and near the major Alpine resort of St. Moritz, in the Engadin valley with the massif partially in Italy.  The mountain can be seen from different viewpoints with the use of ski-lifts from Diavolezza, Piz Corvatsch or Piz Nair. It is also the most easterly mountain higher than 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in the Alps, the highest point of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, and the fifth-most prominent peak in the Alps. The minor summit (4,020 m -13,190 ft) known as La Spedla is the highest point in the Italian Lombardy region. The mountain was named after the Bernina Pass in 1850 by Johann Coaz, who also made the first ascent.  The prefix Piz comes from the Romansch language in Graubünden; any mountain with that name can be readily identified as being located in southeastern Switzerland.

The first ascent was made via the east ridge in 1850 by the 28-year-old topographer Johann Wilhelm Coaz (1822-1918) and his assistants, the brothers Jon and Lorenz Ragut Tscharner. 

In 1866, the south ridge running from La Spedla was climbed by Francis Fox Tuckett and F. A. Y. Brown with guides Christian Almer and F. Andermatten.
The first attempt to climb the northern ridge, the Biancograt, was partially made on 12 August 1876 by Henri Cordier and Thomas Middlemore with guides Johann Jaun and Kaspar Maurer.
On august 1878,  Paul Güssfeldt, accompanied by the guides H. Grass and J. Gross, reached the summit via the Biancograt and accomplished the first complete ascent on this route.
On 15 March 1929, the first winter ascent was made by C. Colmus with guides C. and U. Grass.
Climbing
The normal route starts from the Rifugio Marco e Rosa (3,600 m -11,800 ft) above the Fuorcla Crast'Agüzza, and follows the route taken by the first ascentionists. The north ridge, called the Biancograt or Crast Alva (both meaning White Ridge), is the most well-known and attractive route to the summit, and is much more difficult than the normal route. The route starts from the Tschierva Hut (2,584 m -8,478 ft) in Val Roseg, accessible from Pontresina. The Biancograt itself starts at the Fuorcla Prievlusa (3,430 m -11,250 ft)) and leads to Piz Bianco (3,995 m -13,107 ft). To reach the summit, the Bernina gap – which repulsed Cordier, Middlemore, Jaun and Maurer in 1876 – has to be traversed.
Sources: 
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse

The painter 
Albert Bierstadt was a German-born American painter. He was brought to the United States at the age of one by his parents. He later returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. At an early age Bierstadt developed a taste for art and made clever crayon sketches in his youth.
In 1851, he began to paint in oils. He became part of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along this scenic river. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.
- More about Albert Bierstadt

BAINSKLOOF PAINTED BY HUGO NAUDE

HUGO NAUDE (1869-1938) 

Bainskloof Pass (594 m - 1,949ft)

South Africa

In Bainskloof, Worcester,  oil on board

The mountain 

Bainskloof Pass (594 m - 1,949ft) is a mountain pass on the R301 regional road between Wellington and Ceres in the Western Cape province of South Africa, reaching at the highest point of the mountain.  The 18 kilometres (11 mi) pass, opened in 1854, was constructed by road engineer Andrew Geddes Bain with the use of convict labour. Originally built for horse-drawn traffic, the pass was later tarred. Here, the road joins the Witte River, which descends the northern side of the mountains through a precipitous cleft to a stretch of rapids, waterfalls and natural pools. Bainskloof Pass is now a national monument.

The painter 

Hugo Naudé was South Africa’s pioneer impressionist painter. He received his professional art education at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1889 -1890) and the Kunst Akademie in Munich (1890 -1894) and spent a year amongst the Barbizon painters in Fontainebleau near Paris.
Born and raised in the Boland town of Worcester, Naudé became South Africa’s first professional artist, establishing “Cape Impressionism”, an adaptation of European Impressionism, in conjunction with the artists Pieter Wenning, Nita Spilhaus, Ruth Prowse and Strat Caldecott. After his European training, Naudé had to adapt to the sunlit brilliance of the African landscape and as “plein-airste” gradually loosened the bonds of his formal training - pioneering a truly South African style which has been maintained by a second and third generation of artists.
When Hugo Naudé returned to South Africa in 1896, after 6 years of formal art training and study in Europe (1889-1895) he initially tried to establish himself as a portrait painter for which he had received expert training from the great Franz von Lenbach in Munich. The prevailing artistic climate proved this idea to have been too optimistic, and thus began a gradual transition in subject matter from portrait to landscape.
Naudé’s total sincerity as a man and his integrity as an artist is evident in his oeuvre of work reflecting his submission to the attraction of nature and the landscape which evidently also suited his temperament. Applying his technical skills acquired from his formal art training, he tried to reflect the soul of the African landscape by capturing the dramatic tensions of nature in light and atmosphere by means of strong contrasts. This proved to be a lonely struggle as he had to adapt his palette and technique to suit the brilliant sunshine and colours the local landscape confronted him with. His determination and perseverance resulted in a unique style of landscape painting where the open-air freshness of the work, the confident brushstrokes of individually mixed colours and the underlying sense of composition always captured the atmosphere and brilliance of the scene.

WETTERHORN PAINTED BY BARONESS HELGA VON CRAMM

BARONESS HELGA VON CRAMM (1840-1919)

The Wetterhorn (3, 692m -12, 113ft)

 Switzerland

In Weterhorn seen from the Little Scheideck,  Christmas card chromolithograph, 1870 or 880 

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.
Climbing 
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.
A September 1854 ascent by a party including Alfred Wills is much celebrated in Great Britain. Apparently believing to be the first ascendant, Wills' description of this trip in his book "Wanderings Among the High Alps" (published in 1856) helped make mountaineering fashionable in Britain and ushered in the systematic exploration of the Alps by British mountaineers, the so-called golden age of alpinism.  Despite several well-documented earlier ascents and the fact that he was guided to the top, even in his obituary in 1912 he was considered to be "certainly the first who can be said with any confidence to have stood upon the real highest peak of the Wetterhorn proper" (i.e. the 3,692 m summit).  In a subsequent corrigendum, the editors admitted two earlier ascents, but considered his still "the first completely successful" one.
In 1866, Lucy Walker was the first documented female ascendant of the peak.
The 24-year-old English mountaineer William Penhall and his Meiringen guide Andreas Maurer were killed by an avalanche high up on the Wetterhorn on 3 August 1882.
The famed guide and Grindelwald native Christian Almer climbed the mountain many times in his life, including on his first of many trips with Meta Brevoort and her nephew W. A. B. Coolidge in 1868. His last ascent was in 1898 at the age of 70 together with his wife to celebrate their golden anniversary on top.  Winston Churchill is also supposed  to have climbed the Wetterhorn in 1894.
The Wetterhorn summit was the intended terminal for the world's first passenger carrying aerial tramway, but only the first quarter was built. It was in operation until the beginning of World War I.
There are four "normal" routes, depending on direction and season. You will need rope, ax, crampons. Hundred years a ago, a cable car from Grindelwald (1200 m) in three stages was planned. The lowest part can still be seen and is an interesting reminder of the enthusiasm investors had before World War I.
Wetterhorn is neither a difficult, nor an easy mountain. Each access has its specialty. Three huts and  one bivouac are at your choice and if you are in good shape and can climb 2500 meters in one morning, you do not have to bother about huts. The choice of the huts varies according to the season. In summer you have two huts with extremely nice walks. Even if you do not succeed in climbing the Wetterhorn, you will like the view and the variation of the climb to the Dossen - or Gleckstein huts. If you have an inexperienced person or child with you, a short rope is nice to have. 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 
Baroness Helga von Cramm was a German and Swiss water-colourist and graphic artist. She made her quite famous with her in chromolithograh Christmas cards.  Helga von Cramm lived in Britain, Switzerland (St. Moritz), Germany and Italy, and Florence.
Helga was the eldest child of Wolf Frederick Adolf Freiherr von Cramm-Burchard  Helga's father, having been brought up in the Court at Brunswick, educated at the court of knights, served in the Brunswick Cuirassiers , was an equerry and an hereditary Chamberlain and Lord of the Kings Bedchamber (that of William VIII of Braunschweig). Later he retired to his estate at Rhode. Her brother Aschwin Thedel Adelbert Freiherr v. Sierstorpff-Cramm, is one of the four great-grandfathers of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, now Princess Beatrix, and mother of the present king, Willem-Alexander. Helga was thus a great-great aunt of the former Dutch Queen.
In the United Kingdom, from 1877, she exhibited at the : Society of Women Artists,  Royal Scottish Academy,  Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours,  Dudley Gallery, Fine Art Society, Glasgow Institute,Grosvenor Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts ,Royal Society of British Artists and at a few other places...

COL DU GEANT PHOTOGRAPHED BY BISSON FRERES

BISSON FRERES

Louis-Auguste Bisson (1814-1876) and Auguste-Rosalie (1826-1900) Bisson 

 The Col du Géant (3,356m - 11, 010 ft)   

France - Italy border  

Photographed in 1860

The mountain 

The col du Géant  (Pass of  the Giant) (3,356 m) is the main passage of the Mont Blanc massif between Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in the valley of the Arve. On the French side, to the north is the Glacier du Géant which overlooks the Mer de Glace.

The pass is located between the summits of the Tour Ronde and the Dent du Géant. Close to the pass are Helbronner Peak and the Torino refuge, where the Panoramic Mont-Blanc cable car arrives, which joins on one side the Aiguille du Midi and the other La Palud near Entrêves.

About the Col du Géant there is a pending dispute over the course of the frontier between France and Italy, similar to that concerning the summit of Mont Blanc. The Italian make the frontier passing in  the Col du Géant, whereas on French maps the frontier passes a hundred meters to the south, the Col du Géant being entirely in France. This dispute was revived in 2015, following the ban on access to the Géant glacier from the Torino refuge, by the Chamonix town hall authorities, for security reasons. The Italian newspaper La Stampa noted that if this dispute is anachronistic in the context of the European Community, it could nevertheless pose a problem of "criminal and civil liability if incidents were to occur in the icy zone. "

The photographers 

Bisson  Frères (Bisson Brothers) were among the best-known European photographers of the1850s and 1860s.   Louis-Auguste Bisson (1814–1876) was a 19th-century French photographer who opened a photographic studio in early 1841. Soon after, his brother Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (1826–1900) entered into partnership with him. Their studio was in the La Madeleine in Paris, and they became famous as the Bisson Frères. In 1860,  they accompanied the french Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Empress Eugénie, on the occasion of the reunion of Savoy with France. The Bissons  Brothers went to Chamonix to attempt the ascent of Mont-Blanc. They failed to reach the summit but the large glass negatives they produced during the climb were the basis of an album of twenty-four superb Alpine views.  Their most famous body of work is comprised of the high-altitude photographs they made in the Alps during the climbing seasons of 1859-1862. Despite the arduous conditions, the Bissons captured this masterful scene of an epic struggle by men intent on conquering nature--set against a magnificent landscape.Having received an encouraging response to his work, the following year Auguste ascended Mont Blanc, taking with him twenty-five porters to carry his equipment. The photographs were made using the Collodion process, with very large negatives, often up to 30 cm x 40 cm (12" x 16"). The brothers refused to reduce their images to the carte de visite size and, consequently, after four years, they ceased operating their business. One of the most famous works attributed to this artist is his photograph of the writer Honoré de Balzac and the portrait of the  composer Frédéric Chopin. The origin of the portrait of Chopin has never been adequately explained and, subsequently, the image was excluded from the "Les frères Bisson Photographes" exhibition at the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1999 in Paris.

MOSQUITO PASS PAINTED BY THOMAS MORAN

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Mosquito Pass  (4,019 m -13,185 ft)  

United States of America (Colorado)

Painted in 1874 

The mountain 

Mosquito Pass (4,019 m-13,185 ft), is a high mountain pass in the Mosquito Range of central Colorado in the United States. About the origin of the Mosquito pass name, there are lots of versions. One of the most popular says that just after nearby Montgomery was founded, gold was discovered high in the mountains above and gave rise to the town of Mosquito. The name came from a town meeting where a mosquito was crushed between pages of a book during the meeting. It was the only name they could agree on. 

Mosquito Pass is situated on the boundary between Lake and Park counties between Leadville (west) and Fairplay (east). It also lies on the divide between the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers, which is the informal demarcation between the northern and southern parts of Colorado east of the Continental Divide.

One of the highest passes in the state, Mosquito Pass can be traversed only on foot, on an off road motorcycle or with a proper four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle. 2WD vehicles will find the road difficult due to the stream crossings and high rocky sections. Even with 4WD, it is typically passable only during the summer months. The best time to attempt the pass is between late July and early September. With such a high summit altitude the road can be closed anytime due to snowfalls. The zone is prone to heavy mist and can be dangerous in low visibility conditions.

The pass is two way, so you could start at Fairplay or Leadville. Starting at the intersection of Highways 285 and 9 it heads towards Alma. There is a sign that marks the entrance to 'Mosquito Gulch' - turn left here (Colorado Highway 12). Proper preparation is essential to having a safe, enjoyable trop on this road. Due to the remoteness of the area, take special care to ensure that your vehicle is ready for the trip: inspect all tires and make sure they are properly inflated, check all vehicle fluids, replace worn hoses and belts, empty your RV's holding tank and fill the water tank, purchase groceries and supplies. For the vehicle, bring at least two full-sized spare tires mounted on rims, tire jack and tools for flat tires, emergency flares, extra gasoline, motor oil, and wiper fluid and a radio.

The pioneering Methodist circuit rider John Lewis Dyer crossed over Mosquito Pass several times a week during the 1860s, using snowshoes in winter, in his mission to spread the gospel. Father Dyer Peak is named in his honor.

Reference

- Mosquito Pass in Dangeruos roads website

The painter 

Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.

Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.

Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection. In the photograph depicting President Barack Obama and Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office it is seen on the wall: the portrait of George Washington is between City of Washington From Beyond the Navy Yard (1833) by George Cooke (on the left) and The Three Tetons (1895) by Thomas Moran (on the right). 

Reference

- The National Gallery of Art, Washington