FJORD D'OSLO / ÎLE DE JELØYA PEINTE PAR EDVARD MUNCH

EDVARD MUNCH (1863-1944)
Fjord D'oslo / Ile de Jeløya (140m)
Norvège

In " The Island ", huile sur toile, 1900, Collection privée

A propos de ce tableau
L'ile de Jeløya a l'extrémité du Fjord d'Oslo est connue pour avoir été une des sources d'inspiration principales des paysages peints par Edvard Munch.

Le relief
Le fjord d'Oslo est un fjord du Sud de la Norvège, débouchant au large sur le détroit de Skagerrak, et au fond duquel se trouve la capitale du pays : Oslo. Il mesure 17 kilomètres de long pour un kilomètre de large au passage le plus étroit au niveau de la ville de Drøbak. Géologiquement, il correspond au rift d'Oslo. L'ile de Jeløya était en fait une péninsule du fjord d'Oslo, mais elle a été séparée du continent en 1855 par le canal de Moss-, un canal de 20 mètres de large construit à travers l' isthme bas. Le pont-canal -constitue le lien entre Jeløya et le continent à Moss. Avec 19 km2 , Jeløya (140m) est la plus grande île du fjord d'Oslo. Géologiquement, Jeløya est en grande partie constituée d'un jeune type de roche de lave de la période Permienne  D'autres îles du fjord d'Oslo formées au cours de la même période comprennent Revlingen, Eldøya  Missingene et Søsterøyene. Du grès Ringerike se trouve dans certaines parties de Jeløya et des céphalaspides fossiles ont été trouvés. La plus grande moraine norvégienne de la période glaciaire traverse Jeløya, va à l'est de Moss et Rygge et continue à travers la Suède jusqu'en Finlande. Jeløya est un site sur lequel beaucoup de manisons de campagne et de fermes sont intallées, notamment Grønli gård et Kubberød gård. Grimsrød gård a hébergé Edvard Munch pendant plusieurs années. Roed gård a été créé en tant que centre artistique et culturel combiné. Alby gård abrite l'une des galeries d'art les plus connues de Norvège, la Galleri F 15.

Le peintre
Edvard Munch, prononcé est un peintre et graveur expressionniste norvégien. Edvard Munch peut, a posteriori, être considéré après l'exposition berlinoise de 1892, comme le pionnier de l'expressionnisme dans la peinture moderne. Il est très tôt réputé pour son appartenance à une nouvelle époque artistique en Allemagne et en Europe centrale. L'importance de son œuvre est aujourd'hui reconnue en Europe et dans le monde. Les œuvres de Munch les plus connues sont celles conçues au début des années 1890, notamment Le Cri. Son œuvre ne connaît véritablement le succès dans les pays nordiques qu'à partir de 1909, grâce à la grande exposition rétrospective organisée par son ami Jappe Nilssen et par Jens Thiis, directeur de la galerie nationale d'Oslo. Le peintre absent est momentanément convalescent dans une clinique privée de Copenhague, après y être entré en état de dépression nerveuse, victime de troubles graves du comportement, physiques et nerveux, en 1908.  Ses techniques de prédilection sont essentiellement la peinture et la tempera sur carton. Il est aussi un pionnier de l'art accessible à tous, un art dévoilé, montré et non caché, dans les rues et les espaces publics, dans les divers lieux de nature.Edvard Munch a toujours été captivé par les paysages de rivage du fjord d'Oslo (ci-dessus), qu'il a découverts dans sa jeunesse par des chemins de terre, puis jeune artiste depuis la mer grâce à Hans Jaeger, capitaine affréteur de petits navires d'excursion et de cabotage de loisir. Quelques-unes de ses contrées sont devenues des lieux emblématiques de sa vie.

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2011-2024 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau  

LE SOGNEFJORD PEINT PAR JOHAN CHRISTIAN DAHL

Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, 1788–1857)
Sognefjord (1000m)
Norvège

In Winter at the Sognefjord (February 1827) Huile sur toile, 75.5 x 61.5 cm. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

Le Fjord
Le Sognefjord (plus de 1000 mètres) Sognefjorden en norvégien, est un fjord situé au nord de Bergen, en Norvège. Le Sognefjord est le fjord le plus long d'Europe et le deuxième plus long du monde après le Scoresby Sund au Groenland ; il s'agit également du fjord le plus large de Norvège. Situé dans le comté de Sogn og Fjordane dans l'ouest de la Norvège, il s'enfonce dans les terres sur 204 kilomètres, jusqu'à la ville de Skjolden. Sa profondeur atteint 1 308 mètres en dessous du niveau de la mer. Les profondeurs maximales sont atteintes un peu à l'intérieur des terres : près de son embouchure, le fond du fjord monte de façon abrupte jusqu'à un plateau situé à 100 m en dessous du niveau de la mer. La largeur moyenne du Sognefjord est d'environ 4,5 km. Des falaises le surplombent jusqu'à des hauteurs supérieures à 1 000 m. Parmi les villes situées sur le fjord et ses bras, on peut citer Balestrand, Gudvangen et Flåm. La beauté du fjord en fait une destination touristique très prisée. De nombreuses croisières sont possibles sur le Sognefjord, été comme hiver. Une ligne touristique de chemin de fer, la ligne de Flåm, longe le Sognefjord.

Le peintre
Johan Christian Dahl (ou J. C. Dahl) est un peintre paysagiste norvégien. issu d'un milieu simple : son père étant un pêcheur modeste de Bergen, en Norvège. Enfant, Dahl étudie à la cathédrale de Bergen pour devenir prêtre, mais ses capacités artistique précoces l'amènent à tenter une carrière dans la peinture. De 1803 à 1809, il étudie avec le peintre Johan Georg Müller , dont l'atelier est alors le plus important de Bergen. Il se met à travailler la peinture pour des décors de théâtre, s'essaie à l'art du portrait et des vues de Bergen et de ses environs. Dahl poursuit ses études à l'Académie de Copenhague, ville dont il peint la campagne environnante. En 1812, il écrit à Lyder Sagen, l'un de ses mentors, que Jacob van Ruisdael et Caesar van Everdingen sont parmi les paysagistes qu'il a le plus imités.
 Dahl participe à des expositions d'art annuelles à Copenhague à partir de 1812, mais sa vraie percée se produit en 1815, quand il expose pas moins de treize tableaux. Le prince danois Christian Frederik veille à ce que ses œuvres soit achetées pour la collection royale ; il devient aussi un ami et un mécène de l'artiste. En 1816, Dahl rencontre C.W. Eckersberg et devient son ami. Après son succès à Copenhague, Dahl devient un artiste indépendant. Toutefois, ses préférences académiques demeurent attachées aux peintures historiques véhiculant des messages moraux, ainsi qu'aux paysages pourtant considérés comme un art bas et, dans certains milieux, même pas comme de l'art du tout mais comme une imitation purement mécanique de la nature. Les seuls paysages pouvant être considérés comme de l'art, selon l'Académie, sont des idéaux, des paysages imaginaires dans les styles pastoral ou héroïque. Conformément à ce goût régnant alors, Dahl tente de donner à ses thèmes danois un certain caractère atmosphérique afin de les élever au-dessus de ce qui est alors considéré comme un niveau artistique purement commercial. En même temps, il conserve intact son désir le plus profond de donner une image plus fidèle de la nature norvégienne. Cette volonté reste en partie motivée par la nostalgie et le patriotisme, mais il s'agit également d'une marque d'adaptation de la sensibilité de l'artiste au goût du public. En septembre 1818, Dahl se rend à Dresde. Il y rencontre Caspar David Friedrich qui l'aide à s'y établir et devient un ami proche. Un critique écrit : « Friedrich produit alors des paysages minutieusement exécutés - exemples d'un art informé par son éducation protestante stricte et d'une recherche de la volonté divine dans la nature - qui ont été à juste titre célèbres au moment où il fait la connaissance de Dahl. De cette période, nous sommes en mesure de voir ses Deux hommes contemplant la lune (1819) ; tout comme le tableau Greifswald au clair de lune (1816-1817) qui dépeint la ville natale de l'artiste, en Poméranie, sur la côte de la Baltique: baignant dans un même clair de lune. » De Dresde, Dahl voyage à la campagne pour rechercher des sujets qui pourraient lui être utiles dans les grands travaux qui seraient peints plus tard dans son atelier. Il écrit au prince Christian Frederik en 1818 que « la plupart du temps, [il] représente la nature dans toute sa liberté et sa sauvagerie ». Dahl a assez de matière dans la région de Dresde pour fournir des motifs pour ses peintures, mais il continue à peindre des paysages imaginaires de forêts, de montagnes et de cascades. Par exemple, une peinture intitulée Norsk fjellandskap med elv (Montagnes du paysage norvégien avec un fleuve), achevée en 1819, suscite une grande attention parmi les jeunes artistes. Une autre peinture, représentant une monumentale chute d'eau, est achevée en 1820. La même année, Dahl est accepté à l'Académie de Dresde. Le prince Christian Frederik écrit à Dahl en 1820 depuis l'Italie et l'invite à le rejoindre sur le golfe de Naples. Il y passe finalement dix mois. Ce séjour devient un facteur décisif de son développement artistique. C'est en Italie, avec sa forte lumière méridionale, que l'art de Dahl atteint véritablement son apogée.
Dahl est à Rome en février 1821. Il passe beaucoup de temps à visiter les musées, rencontre des artistes et peint. Parmi les sujets que lui inspire l'Italie, il peint le site de Rome et le golfe de Naples. En tant que membre de l'académie, Dahl consacre toujours une partie de son temps à la formation de jeunes artistes. En 1824, Caspar David Friedrich le nomme professeur extraordinaire, ce qui lui permet de recevoir un salaire régulier. Parmi ses élèves, figurent Knud Baade, Peder Balke et Thomas Fearnley. Avec son épouse, Dahl vit à Dresde à partir de 1823. En 1827, Emilie Dahl meurt quand elle accouche de leur quatrième enfant. En 1829, leur second enfant meurt de la scarlatine. En janvier 1830, Dahl épouse son élève Amalie von Bassewitz, mais elle aussi meurt en couches en décembre de la même année. Quelques années plus tard, son plus jeune enfant meurt, laissant Dahl avec deux enfants survivants, Caroline et Siegwald. Bien que vivant à Dresde, il multiplie les voyages en Norvège, où il se rend en 1826, 1834, 1839, 1844 et 1850, la plupart du temps pour peindre les montagnes. Lors de son dernier voyage en Norvège en 1850, il se découvre vieillissant et très affaibli, bien qu'il s'astreint à continuer de peindre des paysages dans les montagnes. Ce dernier voyage dans son pays natal est toutefois l'occasion pour lui de réaliser plusieurs de ses œuvres parmi les plus saisissantes.

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

 

LE MONT GROVANIPA PEINT PAR NIKOLAÏ ASTRUP

 

 

 

NIKOLAÏ ASTRUP (1880-1928)

Grovanipa (1,000 m) 

Norvège 

 

In " The Moon in May ", ca.1908 ,Color woodcut with hand coloring on paper, 19 x 25.4 cm

La montagne
Le mont Grovanipa (1, 000m) est une montagne située en Norvège dans la municipalité de Jølster et la province de Sogn og Fjordane Fylke, dans la partie sud-ouest du pays, à 290 km au nord-ouest d'Oslo, la capitale du pays. Le relief  autour de Grovanipa est montagneux au nord-ouest, mais au sud-est, il est plutôt vallonnée. C'est une région très peu densément peuplée avec environ 15 personnes par kilomètre carré.  La grande ville la plus proche est Skei, à 5,0 km au nord de Grovanipa. La région est célèbre pour ses paysages a couper le souffle, sa glace, ses collines et ses chutes d'eau.

Le peintre
Nikolaï Astrup était un peintre norvégien né à Bremanger dans le Nordfjord, Il a étudié le dessin et la peinture à Oslo où il était étudiant à l'école de peinture populaire de Harriet Backer. Il a ensuite vécu un certain temps à Paris et en Allemagne avant de retourner à Jølster. Il s'y est marié et a eu 8 enfants. Il fut toujours  pauvre et il lutta contre une mauvaise santé. Il  est mort d'une pneumonie en 1928 à l'âge de 47 ans. Astrup préférait les couleurs claires et fortes et ses paysages avaient généralement pour sujet principal son environnement immédiat à Jølster, autour de son lac, ses montagnes  et son fjord. Il s'est appliqué à promouvoir  « un  langage visuel national qui évoquait les traditions et le folklore de sa patrie ». Ses peintures décrivent une interaction intime entre la nature et l'environnement bâti, caractérisée par des lignes audacieuses et des couleurs riches. Astrup est souvent qualifié de peintre néo-romantique et il est considéré comme l'un des plus grands artistes norvégiens du début des années 1900  Ses œuvres ont été comparées à celles de son contemporain Edvard Munch, bien que son style ait été  "plus brillant - pas seulement en couleurs, mais aussi en humeur".
Très connu en Norvège, Astrup l'est peu dans le reste du monde. La première exposition de son travail en dehors de la Norvège a eut lieu à la Dulwich Picture Gallery de Londres en mai 2016. L'exposition présenta plus de 90 peintures à l'huile et estampes, y compris des œuvres de collections privées jamais exposées auparavant. 

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

LES ILES LOFOTEN PEINTES PAR ANNA-KATARINA BOBERG

 

ANNA-KATARINA BOBERG (1864-1935)
Le Higravstinden / Iles Lofoten (1,148 m- 3766 ft)
Norvège

In " Northern Lights. Study from North Norway" (c. 1901-09) huile sur toile 46 x 55 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 

 

La montagne
Le Higravstinden (1, 148 m- 3,766 ft) )est le plus haut sommet de l'archipel des Lofoten appartenant à la Norvège. Il se situe sur l'île d'Austvågøya. Les îles Lofoten se situent au large de Bodø, au nord du cercle polaire, entre la mer de Norvège et le Vestfjord, bras de mer poissonneux qui les sépare du continent. Les Lofoten sont caractérisées par des montagnes et des pics, des baies protégées et des côtes découpées. Si le nord de l'archipel fournit des étendues herbeuses relativement importantes, le relief est de plus en plus escarpé au fur et à mesure que l'on descend vers le sud, laissant place à une forme caractéristique d'« Alpes dans la mer », où seule une étroite bande côtière est assez habitable. À Svolvær, le jour polaire se produit du 25 mai au 17 juillet, et la nuit polaire du 4 décembre au 7 janvier. À Leknes, le soleil ne descend pas sous l'horizon entre le 26 mai et le 17 juillet. La nuit est ininterrompue du 9 décembre au 4 janvier. Des aerores boréales et des phénomènes lumineux inhabituels sous d'autres latitude terrestres peuvent alors être observés, comme c'est le cas sur cette toile de Anna Katarina BIoberg


L'artiste
Anna Katarina Boberg (1864-1935), suédoise, mariée à l'architecte Ferdinand Boberg est née Anna Scholander, fille de l'architecte Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander. Elle est la sixième de sept enfants. Elle étudie le français et, durant une courte période, étudie la peinture à l'Académie Julian à Paris. En 1905, Anna Boberg rencontre Margaret de Connaught, princesse héritière de Suède, qui était aussi peintre. Un rencontre et amitié qui mènera les deux femmes chevalier en bandouliere dans dans la région de Stockholm ou elles peignirent ensemble de nombreux paysages. Mais le grand œuvre d'Anna Boberg fut le sans conteste sa peinture des paysages des Iles Lofoten qu'elle découvrit pour la première fois en 1901 et et qu'elle ne cessa de peindre pendant les 33 années suivantes. Les glaciers, l'océan, le soleil de minuit et ses lumières furent d'inépuisables sources d'inspiration pour elle. En 1925, elle s'installe avec son mari à Paris où ils resteront quatre années avant de retourner à Stockholm. Ils vvrrons désormais dans la villa Tin Grand à Södermalm jusqu’à la mort d'Anna Boberg en 1935. Anna Boberg fut une artiste polyvalente. Elle peignit aussi bien des tableaux de montagnes que des panneaux décoratifs,pour les salles à manger des grands hôtels. Elle a également conçu la céramique « Vase Peacock » pour Rörstrand en 1897. Elle a aussi travaillé le verre et le tissu avec un égal bonheur. 

 

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

 

LE DONNAMANNEN PEINT PAR ALBERT MARQUET

ALBERT MARQUET
Dønnamannen (856 mètres)
Norvège 

 In Sandnoesoen, Norvège , 1925, aquarelle

La montagne
Dønnmannen (856 mètres) tire son nom du fait que le sommet de la montagne a un profil qui peut ressembler au profil d'un homme allongé sur le dos. Il se dresse à l’ouest de Sandnoesoen. dont l’architecture moderne et élégante du pont de l’Helgeland impressionne aujorud'hui les visiteurs. La commune compte 7 500 habitants qui vivent comme lorsque Marquet a peint cette aquarelle, dela  pêche, et de l’agriculture. La ville est toujours très animée en raison des allées et venues incessantes des ferries.
Le sommet est également le point culminant de la municipalité de Dønna. L'Association touristique norvégienne a déjà balisé les chemins menant au sommet depuis Breivika, Einvika et Teigstad. Les chemins de Breivika et Einvika ont un itinéraire commun vers la montagne depuis Hagen et sont considérés comme les plus sûrs, mais en 2018, un accident mortel s'est produit sur cet itinéraire.  La route depuis Teigstad a été fermée en 2016 en raison du risque de glissements de terrain.


L'artiste
Maître du paysage au regard aiguisé, le peintre français Albert Marquet a gardé de sa période fauve un certain sens de la couleur et de la lumière. . En 1890, Marquet s'installe à Paris pour fréquenter l'Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, où il rencontre Henri Matisse. Ils ont été colocataires pendant un certain temps et se sont influencés mutuellement. Marquet a commencé des études en 1892 à l'École des Beaux-Arts de Paris sous Gustave Moreau. En 1905, il expose au Salon d'Automne. Consternés par la coloration intense de ces peintures, les critiques réagissent en nommant les artistes les "Fauves", c'est-à-dire les bêtes sauvages. Bien que Marquet ait peint avec les fauves pendant des années, il a utilisé des couleurs moins vives et moins violentes que les autres, et a mis l'accent sur des tons moins intenses faits en mélangeant des complémentaires, donc toujours comme des couleurs et jamais comme des gris.
Marquet peint ensuite dans un style plus naturaliste, principalement des paysages, mais aussi plusieurs portraits et, entre 1910 et 1914, plusieurs tableaux de nus féminins.
De 1907 à sa mort, Marquet alterne entre le travail dans son atelier à Paris (ville qu'il peint beaucoup de fois) et de nombreuses régions de la côte européenne et en Afrique du Nord. Il a été le plus impliqué avec l'Algérie et Alger et avec la Tunisie. Il resta également impressionné notamment par Naples et Venise où il peignit la mer et les bateaux, accentuant la lumière au-dessus de l'eau. Au cours de ses voyages en Allemagne et en Suède et en Norvège, il peint les sujets qu'il préfère habituellement : vues sur le fleuve et la mer, ports et navires, mais aussi paysages urbains. Marquet était particulièrement vénéré par les peintres américains Leland Bell et sa femme Louisa Matthiasdottir. Il était également vénéré par les contemporains de Bell, Al Kresch et Gabriel Laderman. Étant donné que Bell et Laderman ont tous deux enseigné dans plusieurs écoles d'art américaines, ils ont eu une influence sur les jeunes artistes figuratifs américains et leur appréciation de Marquet.
Matisse a dit ; "Quand je regarde Hokusai, je pense à Marquet - et vice versa ... Je ne veux pas dire imitation d'Hokusai, je veux dire similitude avec lui".

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes ....
            Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
            Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT KOLSASS PAINTED BY CLAUDE MONET

 

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
Kolsås or Kolsass mountain (342 m - 1,122 ft)
Norway

In "Le village de Sandviken, près du Mount Kolsaas" Norvège, 1895, Huile sur toile 73,4 x92, 5 cm - Art Institute Chicago

Monet and Mount Kolsass
A text in french from the book Claude Monet, une vie dans le paysage by Marianne Alphant - Editions Hazan, 1993. (You may use the Google translation tool in this blog to tranlaste into your own langage)
« Au cours l'hiver 1895 le peintre français fit un séjour en Norvège. et peignit a plusieurs reprises à différentes heures du jour et dans différentes conditions climatiques une montagne, le mont Kolsaas. Mais sitôt réalisées leur auteur n'en fut guère satisfait et elles furent vite éclipsées par l'exposition des Cathédrales. Des vingt-sept ou vingt-huit qui furent recensées, le musée Rodin n'en propose qu'une douzaine, issues de collections publiques (Orsay, Marmottan) aussi bien que privées (Japon, Etats-Unis) et déjà présentées à Stavanger, en Norvège.
Monet effectua ce long voyage vers le Nord sur l'invitation de son beau-fils Jacques Hoschedé, pour saisir quelques effets de neige qu'il escomptait bien capter facilement là-bas. En quoi il se trompait généreusement, erreur à l'origine d'un de ses plus intéressants ratages.
Les quatre «portraits» du mont Kolsaas sont assez intrigants en ce que l’on y perçoit tout l'art du peintre pour «rendre» l'impalpable bien que cela l'entraînent vers des contrées inexplorées. « Le motif se met à flotter dans une atmosphère qui ne le porte plus, ne le soutient plus, l'abandonnant au gré d'une humeur vagabonde, à la manière d'un nuage libre de dériver au gré des vents. L'impression d'échec provient alors d'une incapacité à arrimer la figure, à saisir l'objet à bras le corps, à se tenir d'aplomb face à ce qui le surplombe. Mais la valeur inestimable de cet apparent échec excède largement cet effet de brouillon. (…)
Les peintures ne doivent pas leur sentiment d'incomplétude à une quelconque précipitation mais bien plutôt au désir de se fondre dans un immense éloge à la blancheur. (…)
Le mont Kolsaas ressemble de la sorte au dernier souffle ou à l'éternuement d'un linceul qui, l'instant suivant, s'affaissera dans l'indéterminé d'une forme sans contour. Autrement dit, l'informe. Ces quelques peintures représentent sans doute l'une des rares tentatives de distinguer la neige de la blancheur, de séparer les deux corps comme on le ferait dans une expérience chimique de dissociation. Car la neige n'est pas blanche, pas plus que le blanc n'est la couleur de la neige. L'un et l'autre entrent doucement en conflit pour que, dans l'intervalle, à la faveur d'une anecdote ­ petit pont ou rivière ­, se glisse l'élément qui permettra de rassurer la vision. Entre la neige et la blancheur, il y a un mariage fatal qu'il faut à tout prix éviter faute de s'y endormir. Entre le ciel et le bleu, c'est pareil mais c'est une autre histoire. Les deux histoires se rejouent chaque fois qu'un peintre essaie de fixer leur frontière, leur bord extrême. Comment cette peinture pourrait-elle alors s'achever ?."

The mountain
Kolsås or Kolsass Mountain (342 m - 1,122 ft) is a wooded mountain ridge in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Geologically, Kolsås belongs to the Oslo Graben area. Its two peaks (one at 387m the other at 342m) consist of hard rhomb porphyric lava covering softer rocks, forming steep cliffs to the east, south and west. An old farm beneath the mountain has the name Kolsberg. The first element in this name is the genitive case of the old male name Kolr, and the last element is "berg" (mountain). The parish and municipality of Bærum (Old Norse Bergheimr) is probably named after this prominent mountain. The last element in the name of the mountain was later changed to ås (mountain ridge) to distinguish it from the name of the farm.
The French painter Claude Monet painted Mont Kolsaas in 1895 in a series of 4 paintings  one is permanently shown at the Musée d’Orsay , an other in Musée Marmottan. in Paris The 2 others shows on this blog are held in private collections in USA and Japan.

The painter
The painter Oscar-Claude Monet better known as Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting « Impression, soleil levant » (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons exactly like the japanese artist Hokusai (1760-1849) did with his 36 views of Mount Fuji.
  Monet repeated this kinf of "exercise de stylee with his series on Les Petites Dalles.

 
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

NEWTONTOPPEN ( SPITZBERGEN) BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859)
Newtontoppen (1,713 m - 5,620ft)
Norway (Svalbard- Spitzbergen)

In Spitzbergen, Bearing South,  watercolor and graphite from Views of Polar region, Yale Center for British arts, USA

The mountain
Newtontoppen  (1,713 m - 5,620ft) or Newton Peak, named in 1898 after Isaac Newton, is the largest and highest mountain in Svalbard. Its peak is the highest point on Svalbard.  It is located at the north east corner on the island of Spitsbergen in the Chydeniusfjella range.  The nearest settlement is the formerly Soviet coal mining settlement, Pyramiden. The mountain is mostly made of Silurian granite. The mountain was first ascended by Helge Backlund on 4 August 1900.  Spitsbergen, (sharp mountains) is an island belonging to Norway and located in Svalbard, an archipelago forming a territory of this country. The island bears the name of Spitsbergen since1920, date of the signing of the treaty which regulates in particular fishing rights (whaling among others). The treaty signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden, leads all the contracting states to recognize the sovereignty of Norway over this territory.  France has two scientific research stations at Spitzbergen: the Charles Rabot base and the Jean Corbel base, the latter (created in 1964) being the oldest of the archipelago's scientific stations.
Spitsbergen was discovered by chance by Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz in 1596 while en route to China via the Northeast Passage. He then named the island Spitsbergen in reference to the craggy peaks he saw.  Nevertheless, the archipelago seems to have been known by Russian Pomor hunters as early as the 12th and 14th centuries. Tourism is nowadays  one of Spitsbergen's main sources of income with cruise ships, including those of the Hurtigruten company. The island is also served by the airports of Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund.

The artist
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of the Yale Center From British Art. Among them :
- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors),
- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82 watercolors), Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74 watercolors),
- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68 watercolors), Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78) watercolors),
- Views of Polar Regions (75 watercolors) (see above)
- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors), But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms. He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.
As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles.
He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and The Natural history of dogs.
Quite a productive fellow !

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TROLLTINDENE PAINTED BY PEDER BLAKE

PEDER BALKE (1804-1887)

Trolltindene  or Seven Sisters (1,072 m - 3,517 ft)

Norway 

In Mountain Range Trolltindene, oil on canvas, 30.8 x 41.9 cm, c. 1840, 

Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway

About the painting
One of Peder Balke's earliest surviving paintings of the coast is the romantic and dramatic Mountain Range Trolltindene  (or Seven Sisters) from about 1840. Its carefully framed clear patch in the clouds reveals this part of a mountain chain rising to over 1000 m, at the western edge of the great Rondane National Park in central Norway.

The mountains 
Trolltindene  or Seven Sisters (1,072 m - 3,517 ft)  is a mountain range on the island of Alsten in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordlandcounty, Norway.The mountain range consists of seven peaks on the southeastern half of the island. whicg are (listed from northeast to southwest):

- Botnkrona (1,072 m - 3,517 ft)
- Grytfoten (1,019 m - 3,343 ft)
- Skjæringen (1,037 - 3,402 ft)
- Tvillingene (980 m- 3,220 ft)
- Breitinden  (910m - 2,990 ft)
The range is popular with hikers and offers scenic views over the surrounding area. On clear days visitors can truly understand why the surroundings are called "The kingdom of the thousand isles" by the locals.

The painter 
Peder Balke is a Norwegian painter that was even barely known in his home country, until recently. He didn’t encounter success during his lifetime. Having difficulties to sell his paintings, he abandoned his career to focus on social projects and politics but he continued to paint for his own pleasure. Once delivered from the pressure of making a living from his paintings, his style changed to become more personal, more modern.
During the summer 1832, Peder Balke, who was in love with the Norwegian landscapes, decided to go and seek for its most remote, its most desolate and its most distant points by sailing up the west coast of Norway as far as he could go. He went up to the inhospitable and barely accessible far-northern region of Finnmark. He reached the North Cape, the northernmost part of Norway, which was even more impressive at that time because it was the further north you could go, the final limit to knowledge and exploration – beyond it lies nothing (explorers only reached the North Pole in the late 1900s, two decades after his death).

Peder Balke wrote in his memoirs: “I can’t begin to describe how elated I was at having seen and re-tread the land, once again, after satisfying my deep longing to see the northern provinces. No easier is it for me to pen my thoughts on which sublime and mesmerizing impressions the wealth of natural beauty and unrivaled settings leave upon the mind of an observer. These impressions not only overwhelmed me for a brief moment, but they, too, influenced my entire future since I never yet, neither abroad nor other places in our country, have had the occasion to gaze at something so awe-inspiring and exciting as that which I observed during this journey to Finnmark. Unsurpassed in the norther provinces is the beauty of nature, while humans – nature’s children – play but a minor role, in comparison”.

The 1832 journey had a momentous effect upon his development as an artist; the eerie, isolated, dramatic and gloomy Arctic landscapes became a leitmotiv as he continued to paint them from his memory for the rest of his life. 

Peder Blake’s early paintings are quintessentially romantic, the product of a man awed by nature, overwhelmed by the often-horrifying beauty of his own land.

Long forgotten, Peder Balke is today increasingly recognized as an important precursor of modern painters.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

KVASSTINDEN & BREITINDEN PAINTED BY EVEN ULVING

 EVEN ULVING (1863 - 1952)
  Kvasstinden (1,010 m -3,313ft ) 
Breitinden (910 m - 2,985ft) 
Norway 

In  Motiv of Helgeland. Winter landscape with reindeer, oil on canvas, 1906,
Royal Palace Collection, Oslo

The mountains 
 Kvasstinden (1,010 m -3,313ft )  and Breitinden (910 m - 2,985ft) are part of the The Seven Sisters,  a mountainous massif of Norway located on the island of Alsten, in the county of Nordland, southwest of Mo i Rana. From north-east to south-west, the seven summits are:  Botnkrona (1,072 m - 3517ft)),  Grytfoten (1,019 m -3, 343ft),  Skjæringen (1,037 m- 3,402ft), Tvillingene ("the Twins") (945 m- 3,100ft  and 980 m - 3,215ft),  Kvasstinden  (1,010 m -3,313ft)  and  Breitinden (910 m - 2,985ft).

The painter 
Even Christophersen Ulving (was a Norwegian painter.  At the age of 18, he traveled to Kristiania to learn his craft with Wilhelm von Krogh  In 1883/84 he was a student at Knud Bergslien's painting school, in 1885/86 by Heinz Heim and Carl Frithjof Smith at the Kunstakademie in Munich, and in 1887 by William Adolphe Bouguereau at the Académie Julian in Paris.
Ulving painted naturalistic, mostly motifs from Helgeland or Vestfold . He especially understood how to portray the characteristic colors of the different seasons in a variety of often powerful tones, without causing any discord. His landscapes always show human activities or traces of it. He also likes to paint rural genre scenes in huts and living rooms.
Pictures of him hanging in the royal castle, and also the National Museum Oslo recently bought two works by him.
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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

NORTHCAPE PAINTED BY THOROLF HOLMBOE

THOROLF HOLMBOE (1866-1935) 

North Cape (307m - 1,007 ft)

Norway

In Midnight Sun at the North Cap, oil on canvas

The cliff 
North Cape (307m - 1,007 ft), Nordkapp in  Norwegian, named by the Englishman Steven Borough, captain of the Edward Bonaventure, which sailed past in 1553 in search of the Northeast Passage, is a cape on the northern coast of the island of Magerшya in Northern Norway. The cape is in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The European route E69 highway has its northern terminus at North Cape, since it is a popular tourist attraction. The cape includes a 307 metres (1,007 ft) high cliff with a large flat plateau on top where visitors can stand and watch the midnight sun or the views of the Barents Sea to the north.
The North Cape is the point where the Norwegian Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, meets the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. The midnight sun can be seen from 14 May to the 31st of July.
During winter season, it is also possible to visit North Cape, however the last stretch of road is only open for convoy driving at fixed hours. The road all the way through Norway up to North Cape is kept open during winter and is accessible to regular vehicles with some specific winter precautions being required to deal with the hard snow and wind conditions that may occur in winter.
Before this, E69 was the only winter closed E road in Europe.

The painter 

Thorolf Holmboe (10 May 1866 – 8 March 1935) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and designer.
He was born in Vefsn, in Nordland county. He studied under Hans Gude in Berlin between 1886 and 1887 and Fernand Cormon in Paris between 1889 and 1891. He was inspired by many different styles at different points in his career, including Naturalism, Neo-romanticism, Realism and Impressionism. He is represented with thirteen works in the National Gallery of Norway.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

HIGRAVSTINDEN PAINTED BY THOROLF HOLMBOE

 THOROLF HOLMBOE (1866-1935) 

Higravstinden (1,146 m - 3,760 ft) 

Norway 

In  Fishing village, Lofoten, oil on canvas, 

The mountain 

Higravstinden or Higravstindan  (1,146 m - 3,760 ft) is the tallest mountain on the island of Austvеgшya in the Lofoten archipelago. It is located on the border of the municipalities of Hadsel and Vеgan in Nordland county, Norway. The village of Laupstad and the European route E10 highway are located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the mountain and the village of Liland is located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of the mountain. 

There is a glacier located on the east side of the mountain.

The painter 

Thorolf Holmboe (10 May 1866 – 8 March 1935) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and designer.
He was born in Vefsn, in Nordland county. He studied under Hans Gude in Berlin between 1886 and 1887 and Fernand Cormon in Paris between 1889 and 1891. He was inspired by many different styles at different points in his career, including Naturalism, Neo-romanticism, Realism and Impressionism. He is represented with thirteen works in the National Gallery of Norway.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

RONDSLOTTET PAINTED BY NIKOLAI ASTRUP

NIKOLAI ASTRUP  (1880-1928)

Rondslotett (2,178m - 7,146ft) 

Norway

In Vinternatt  Rondslottet, oil on canvas

The mountain 

Rondslottet (2,178m - 7,146ft)  is the highest mountain in the Rondane mountain range and is also the highest mountain in the county Hedmark. The landscapes of Rondane are well known to have inspired the work Peer Gynt (1867), a play by Henrik Ibsen, and a opera by Edvard Grieg which is partly set in Rondane. Rondane is the finite plural of the word rond. Several mountains in the area have the ending-ronden (Digerronden, Høgronden, Midtronden, Storronden and Vinjeronden), and this is the finite singular of the same word. The word rond was probably originally the name of the long and narrow lake Rondvatnet ('Rond water/lake') - and the mountains around were then named after this lake. For the meaning see under Randsfjorden.

Rondane National Park (Norwegian: Rondane nasjonalpark) is the oldest national park in Norway, established on 21 December 1962.  The park contains ten peaks above 2,000 metres (6,560 ft), with the highest being Rondeslottet at an altitude (see above). The park is an important habitat for herds of wild reindeer. The park was extended in 2003, and now covers an area of 963 km2 (372 sq mi) in the counties Oppland and Hedmark. Rondane lies just to the east of Gudbrandsdal and two other mountain areas, Dovre and Jotunheimen are nearby.

Visitors to Rondane are free to hike and camp in all areas of the park, except in the immediate vicinity of cabins. Apart from being closed for motor traffic, not many special regulations apply. Fishing and hunting is available to licensees. The Norwegian Mountain Touring Association (DNT) is an association that owns and manages a network of mountain cabins in the service of hikers. In Rondane, there is a central cabin by the southern end of the lake Rondvatnet, Rondvassbu. There is also Dørålseter and Bjørnhollia at the northern and eastern rims of the park. All three cabins are manned, and provide food and limited accommodation. There are also un-manned cabins in the Park, like Eldåbu where a key is needed. The service cabins are also open during the winter season, although they are sometimes only self-serviced off season. Ski trails are marked and sometimes prepared, either by DNT or some of the hotels and skiing resorts close to the park.

The painter 
Nikolai Astrup was a Norwegian painter born in Bremanger in Nordfjord, but grew up in Ålhus in Jølster where his father worked as a priest.  Nikolai studied  drawing and painting subjects in Oslo where he was a student at Harriet Backer's popular school of painting.
He later lived for a while in Paris and in Germany before returning to Jølster. He got married there and had 8 children. The economy was very tight and he struggled with poor health. Astrup died of pneumonia in 1928 at the age of 47.
Astrup preferred clear, strong colors and usually made landscape art depicting his surroundings in Jølster. Having spent the majority of his life in Jølster, the Nordic landscape proved a strong influence and through his paintings he sought 'a national "visual language" that evoked the traditions and folklore of his homeland'. His paintings describe an intimate interaction between nature and the built environment, characterized by bold lines and distinctive rich color. Astrup is regarded as a neo-romantic painter, but he also worked with woodcuts. He is looked upon as one of the greatest Norwegian artists from the early 1900s ; several of his paintings have been sold at auctions for approximately $500,000 USD. Astrup's works have been likened to those of his contemporary Edvard Munch, though Astrup's style has been described as being 'so much brighter – not just in colour, but also in mood'.
Although well known in Norway, Astrup is little-known in the rest of the world. The first exhibition of his work outside of Norway is taking place at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London from 5 February - 15 May 2016. The exhibition will display over 90 oil paintings and prints, including works from private collections never exhibited before.

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

SOGNEFJORD PAINTED BY THERESE FUCHS

THERESE FUCHS  (1849-1898)

Sognefjord (1, 306m - 4, 291ft)

 Norway 

In Sommertag im Sognefjord, 1898, oil on canvas,  Private collection 

The mountains 

The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (1,308 metres -4,291 ft deep) is the largest and best known fjord in Norway and  the deepest in its  central parts near Haeyanger. Located in Sogn og Fjordane county in Western Norway, it stretches 205 kilometres (127 mi) inland from the ocean to the small village of Skjolden in the municipality of Luster. The fjord takes its name from the traditional district of Sogn, which covers the southern part of the county.

The fjord runs through many municipalities: Solund, Gulen, Hyllestad, Hшyanger, Vik, Balestrand, Leikanger, Sogndal, Laerdal, Aurland, Еrdal, and Luster.   Near its mouth, the bottom rises abruptly to a sill about 100 metres (330 ft) below sea level. The seabed in Sognefjord is covered by some 200 metres (660 ft) thick sediments such that the bedrock is some 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) below sea level. The fjord is up to 6 km wide. Cliffs surrounding the fjord rise almost sheer from the water to heights of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) and more.

The inner end of the Sognefjord is localized southeast of a mountain range rising to about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level and covered by the Jostedalsbreen, continental Europe's largest glacier.  Hurrungane range at the eastern end of the fjord reaches 2400 m. The greatest elevation from sea bed to summit is at Sogndal. Several rivers pour fresh water into the fjord with an annual "spring" flood in June.The mouth of the fjord is surrounded by many islands including Sula, Losna, and Hiserшyna.

Boats connect settlements along the fjord and its sidearms. Larger villages on the fjord and its branches include Leirvik, Ytre Oppedal, Vadheim, Hшyanger, Vikшyri, Balestrand, Hermansverk, Sogndalsfjшra, Gudvangen, Flеm, Aurlandsvangen, Laerdalsшyri, Еrdalstangen, Gaupne, and Solvorn. Gudvangen is situated by the Naerшyfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord particularly noted for its unspoiled nature and dramatic scenery, and only 300 metres (980 ft) across at its narrowest point. The Naerшyfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the village of Flеm, the Flеm Railway climbs 864 m (2,835 ft) up to Myrdal Station in a distance of only 20 kilometres (12 mi)—the steepest unassisted railway climb in the world.

Around the inner end of the fjord, three of Norway's famous stave churches have survived: Kaupanger and Urnes (along the shoreline) and Borgund (30 kilometres or 19 miles into the Laerdal valley). The Sognefjord Span (power lines) crosses the fjord with a span of 4,597 metres (15,082 ft). This is the second largest span of power lines in the world. The fjord has become a tourist attraction with summer tourists being an important part of the local economy.

The painter 

Therese Fuchs was a German artist of the Dusseldorf School of Painting  who is known to have lived in Norway for a considerable time.  A prolific painter, she created atmospheric works depicting Alpine scenes, fiords, lakes and snowy landscapes, signing her work 'Th. Fuchs'. Many sources give her date of death as 1898 but this may be the year of her last dated painting as other sites state 'after 1898'. ​In the Getty Library Repository there is a letter from Therese Fuchs, dated 1901, sent to the German artist Melchior Lechter which might prove she was still alive in 1901...
Between 1819 and 1918, some 4000 artists belonged to the Düsseldorf school of painting, a school which  had a significant influence on the Hudson River School in the United States.  Albert Bierstadt applied but was not accepted.  His American friend Worthington Whittredge became his teacher while attending Düsseldorf.

HARDANGER FJORD PAINTED BY WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

WILLIAM H. JOHNSON (1901-1970) 

 Hardanger Fjord (700m - 2, 287ft)

Norway

In Mountain and sea, Hardanger Fjord, Norway, ca.1938,
Oil on burlap, Smithsonian American Art Museum

The mountain 

The Hardangerfjord, whose highest peak is 700 meters (2, 287ft) high, stretches from the Atlantic to the Hardangervidda plateau in Hordaland County, western Norway. It is the fourth fjord in the world and the second in Norway by its length. This vertiginous rock overlooks Ringedalsvatnet Lake in Odda. It is a hiking destination that attracts enthusiasts from all over the world. But this is not the only extraordinary site on the edge of the Hardangerfjord.

"Norway boasts a number of impressive rock platforms, offering panoramic views and photographs of genuine postcards. Trolltunga is one of the best, "writes Lonely Planet about one of the most spectacular rock formations in Norway.

Although nature often seems intact and difficult to access, the site offers excellent infrastructure, with well-signposted trails and hotels and cottages to spend the night. One can take a guided hike on the blue ice of the Folgefonna glacier or take one of the national tourist routes: these are carefully selected routes, located in the most spectacular parts of Norway.

Sources:

- Visit Norway 

The painter 

William Henry Johnson was an modernist African-American painter. He became a student at the National Academy of Design in New York City, working with Charles Webster Hawthorne. He later lived and worked in France, where he was exposed to modernism. After Johnson married Danish textile artist Holcha Krake, the couple lived for some time in Scandinavia. There he was influenced by the strong folk art tradition. The couple moved to the United States in 1938. Johnson eventually found work as a teacher at the Harlem Community Art Center, through the Federal Art Project. Johnson's style evolved from realism to expressionism to a powerful folk style, for which he is best known. In 1947, in Oslo (Norway) he was diagnosed as suffering from syphilis which had impaired both mental and motor function. As a U.S. citizen who was no longer considered mentally competent, he was sent back to New York by the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. An attorney was appointed by the court as his legal guardian, and his belongings were put into storage. He no longer painted after 1955.
 A substantial collection of his paintings, watercolors, and prints is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which has organized and circulated (in 1991 and 2006) major exhibitions of his works.
 An expanded version of this exhibition traveled to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama in 2007.  The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts was established in 2001 in honor of the 100th birthday of William Johnson. Beginning with Laylah Ali in 2002, the Foundation has awarded the William H. Johnson Prize annual to an early career African American artist.
In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in Johnson's honor, recognizing him as one of the nation's foremost African-American artists and a major figure in 20th-century American art. The stamp, the 11th in the "American Treasures" series, showcases his painting Flowers (1939–1940), which depicts brightly colored blooms on a small red table.
Source:
- Smithsonian American Art Museum

RONDSLOTETT PAINTED BY HARALD SOHLBERG

HARALD SOHLBERG (1869-1935) 

Rondslotett (2,178m - 7,146ft) 

Norway

1.  In Winter night in Rondane, 1901, oil on canvas, National Gallery, Oslo 

2. In Winternight in Rondane, 1914, oil on canvas,National Gallery, Oslo 

3. In Winter night in Rondane, 1918-24,  oil on canvas,National Gallery, Oslo

The mountain 

Rondslottet (2,178m - 7,146ft)  is the highest mountain in the Rondane mountain range and is also the highest mountain in the county Hedmark. The landscapes of Rondane are well known to have inspired the work Peer Gynt (1867), a play by Henrik Ibsen, and a opera by Edvard Grieg which is partly set in Rondane. Rondane is the finite plural of the word rond. Several mountains in the area have the ending-ronden (Digerronden, Høgronden, Midtronden, Storronden and Vinjeronden), and this is the finite singular of the same word. The word rond was probably originally the name of the long and narrow lake Rondvatnet ('Rond water/lake') - and the mountains around were then named after this lake. For the meaning see under Randsfjorden.

Rondane National Park (Norwegian: Rondane nasjonalpark) is the oldest national park in Norway, established on 21 December 1962.  The park contains ten peaks above 2,000 metres (6,560 ft), with the highest being Rondeslottet at an altitude (see above). The park is an important habitat for herds of wild reindeer. The park was extended in 2003, and now covers an area of 963 km2 (372 sq mi) in the counties Oppland and Hedmark. Rondane lies just to the east of Gudbrandsdal and two other mountain areas, Dovre and Jotunheimen are nearby.

Visitors to Rondane are free to hike and camp in all areas of the park, except in the immediate vicinity of cabins. Apart from being closed for motor traffic, not many special regulations apply. Fishing and hunting is available to licensees. The Norwegian Mountain Touring Association (DNT) is an association that owns and manages a network of mountain cabins in the service of hikers. In Rondane, there is a central cabin by the southern end of the lake Rondvatnet, Rondvassbu. There is also Dørålseter and Bjørnhollia at the northern and eastern rims of the park. All three cabins are manned, and provide food and limited accommodation. There are also un-manned cabins in the Park, like Eldåbu where a key is needed. The service cabins are also open during the winter season, although they are sometimes only self-serviced off season. Ski trails are marked and sometimes prepared, either by DNT or some of the hotels and skiing resorts close to the park.

The painter 

Harald Oskar Sohlberg was a Norwegian Neo-romantic painter. Sohlberg attended the Royal School of Art and Design of Christiania. He later trained under the graphic artist and painter Johan Nordhagen. He also studied as a pupil of Kristian Zahrtman,  Erik Werenskiold, Eilif Peterssen and Harriet Backer. He is particularly known for his depictions of the mountains of Rondane and the town of Røros. Perhaps his most widely recognized paintings, in several variations, is Winter's Night in Rondane, presently featured at the National Gallery in Oslo (Nasjonalgalleriet).

Winter Night in the Mountains (Norwegian: Vinternatt i Rondane) is the name of several versions of the same place, created in several techniques and at different moments of the life of the painter, exactly like Claude Monet  did with Mount Kolsaas (in Norway as well)  or Hokusai did with Mount Fuji in Japan. The first version of Winter's Night in Rondane was painted in 1910,  the last in 1918, but the most famous is the oil painting from 1914.

KOLSASS MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY CLAUDE MONET

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)

  Kolsås or Kolsass  mountain  (342 m - 1,122 ft)

Norway

Four "portraits" of Mont Kolsass in 1895 

1.  In Mont Kolsass, 1895, oil on canvas,  Musée Marmottan, Paris 

2. In Mont Kolsass, 1895, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay. Paris 

3. In Mont Kolsass, reflets roses 1895, oil on canvas, Private collection, USA.  

4. In Mont Kolsass,  tempête de neige 1895, oil on canvas, Private collection, Japan

The mountain 

Kolsås or Kolsass Mountain (342 m - 1,122 ft) is a wooded mountain ridge in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Geologically, Kolsås belongs to the Oslo Graben area. Its two peaks (one at 387m the other at 342m) consist of hard rhomb porphyric lava covering softer rocks, forming steep cliffs to the east, south and west. An old farm beneath the mountain has the name Kolsberg. The first element in this name is the genitive case of the old male name Kolr, and the last element is "berg" (mountain). The parish and municipality of Bærum (Old Norse Bergheimr) is probably named after this prominent mountain. The last element in the name of the mountain was later changed to ås (mountain ridge) to distinguish it from the name of the farm.

The area from Kolsås to Dælivannet is a protected landscape area from 1978 (five square kilometers), with four nature reserves: Skotta, Dalbo, Kolsåsstupene and Kolsåstoppen nature reserve.

Kolsås has been a training area for climbers since beginning of the 20th century. Today it is the largest rock climbing area in the Oslo region. The wall Øvre Sydstup on the southern wall has more than 200 climbing routes. The northern hillside of Kolsås has alpine skiing facilities.

Kolsåsbanen is part of the subway rail system Oslo T-bane, running from downtown Oslo to Kolsås station, via Gjettum station and Hauger station.

The military base Kolsås leir, partly located inside the mountain, was home of NATO's Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) until 1994.

The area has occurrences of old petroglyphs, tumuli and limestone quarries.

The French painter Claude Monet painted Mont Kolsaas in 1895 in a series of 4 paintings (see above)  one is permanently shown at the Musée d’Orsay , an other in Musée Marmottan. in Paris The 2 others shows on this blog are held in private collections in  USA and Japan. 

The painter 

Oscar-Claude Monet better known as Claude Monet  was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting « Impression, soleil levant » (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons exactly like the japanese artist  Hokusai (1760-1849) did with his 36 views of Mount Fuji.
Monet repeated this kind of exercice de style with his series on Les Petites Dalles

Monet and Mont Kolsass
 A text  in french  from the book Claude Monet, une vie dans le paysage by Marianne Alphant - Editions Hazan, 1993.

 « Au cours  l'hiver 1895 le peintre français fit un séjour en Norvège. et peignit a plusieurs reprises à différentes heures du jour et dans différentes conditions climatiques une montagne, le mont Kolsaas. Mais sitôt réalisées leur auteur n'en fut guère satisfait et elles furent vite éclipsées par l'exposition des Cathédrales. Des vingt-sept ou vingt-huit qui furent recensées, le musée Rodin n'en propose qu'une douzaine, issues de collections publiques (Orsay, Marmottan) aussi bien que privées (Japon, Etats-Unis) et déjà présentées à Stavanger, en Norvège.
Monet effectua ce long voyage vers le Nord sur l'invitation de son beau-fils Jacques Hoschedé, pour saisir quelques effets de neige qu'il escomptait bien capter facilement là-bas. En quoi il se trompait généreusement, erreur à l'origine d'un de ses plus intéressants ratages. 
Les quatre «portraits» du mont Kolsaas sont assez intrigants en ce que l’on y perçoit tout l'art du peintre pour «rendre» l'impalpable  bien que cela l'entraînent vers des contrées inexplorées.  « Le motif se met à flotter dans une atmosphère qui ne le porte plus, ne le soutient plus, l'abandonnant au gré d'une humeur vagabonde, à la manière d'un nuage libre de dériver au gré des vents. L'impression d'échec provient alors d'une incapacité à arrimer la figure, à saisir l'objet à bras le corps, à se tenir d'aplomb face à ce qui le surplombe. Mais la valeur inestimable de cet apparent échec excède largement cet effet de brouillon. (…) 
Les peintures  ne doivent pas leur sentiment d'incomplétude à une quelconque précipitation mais bien plutôt au désir de se fondre dans un immense éloge à la blancheur. (…) 
 Le mont Kolsaas ressemble de la sorte au dernier souffle ou à l'éternuement d'un linceul qui, l'instant suivant, s'affaissera dans l'indéterminé d'une forme sans contour. Autrement dit, l'informe. Ces quelques peintures représentent sans doute l'une des rares tentatives de distinguer la neige de la blancheur, de séparer les deux corps comme on le ferait dans une expérience chimique de dissociation. Car la neige n'est pas blanche, pas plus que le blanc n'est la couleur de la neige. L'un et l'autre entrent doucement en conflit pour que, dans l'intervalle, à la faveur d'une anecdote ­ petit pont ou rivière ­, se glisse l'élément qui permettra de rassurer la vision. Entre la neige et la blancheur, il y a un mariage fatal qu'il faut à tout prix éviter faute de s'y endormir. Entre le ciel et le bleu, c'est pareil mais c'est une autre histoire. Les deux histoires se rejouent chaque fois qu'un peintre essaie de fixer leur frontière, leur bord extrême. Comment cette peinture pourrait-elle alors s'achever ?.  "

 

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2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

NORTH CAPE PAINTED BY PEDER BALKE

PEDER BALKE (1804 -1887)

North Cape  (307m - 1,007 ft)

Norway

The cliff 
North Cape (307m - 1,007 ft), Nordkapp in  Norwegian, named by the Englishman Steven Borough, captain of the Edward Bonaventure, which sailed past in 1553 in search of the Northeast Passage, is a cape on the northern coast of the island of Magerшya in Northern Norway. The cape is in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The European route E69 highway has its northern terminus at North Cape, since it is a popular tourist attraction. The cape includes a 307-metre (1,007 ft) high cliff with a large flat plateau on top where visitors can stand and watch the midnight sun or the views of the Barents Sea to the north. A new visitor centre was built in 1988 on the plateau with panoramic views, a cafй, restaurant, post office, souvenir shop, and a so-called super video cinema.
The steep cliff of North Cape is located at 71°10′21″N 25°47′04″E, about 2,102.3 kilometres (1,306.3 mi) from the North Pole. It is often referred to as the northernmost point of Europe. However, the neighbouring Knivskjellodden point, just to the west actually extends 1,457 metres (4,780 ft) further to the north. Furthermore, both of these points are situated on an island; the northernmost point of mainland Europe is located at Cape Nordkinn (Kinnarodden) which lies about 5.7 kilometres (3.5 mi) further south and about 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the east. That point is located near the village of Mehamn on the Nordkinn Peninsula. The northernmost point of Europe including islands is several hundred miles further north, either in Russia's Franz Josef Land or Norway's Svalbard archipelago, depending on whether Franz Josef Land is considered to be in Europe or in Asia.
The North Cape is the point where the Norwegian Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, meets the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. The midnight sun can be seen from 14 May to the 31st of July.
The sun reaches its lowest point from 12:14 - 12:24 a.m. during those days.
The North Cape is reached by European route E69 highway through the North Cape Tunnel, an undersea tunnel connecting the island of Magerшya to the mainland. The EuroVelo bicycle route EV1 runs from North Cape to Sagres, Portugal—a 8,196 kilometres (5,093 mi) distance by land and sea.
Regular buses run from the nearby town of Honningsvеg to the North Cape (36 kilometres (22 mi)), and coaches meet the many cruise ships that call at the port of Honningsvеg. The nearest airport is Honningsvеg Airport, Valan.
During winter season, it is also possible to visit North Cape, however the last stretch of road is only open for convoy driving at fixed hours. The road all the way through Norway up to North Cape is kept open during winter and is accessible to regular vehicles with some specific winter precautions being required to deal with the hard snow and wind conditions that may occur in winter. Before this, E69 was the only winter closed E road in Europe.

The painter 
Peder Balke is a Norwegian painter that was even barely known in his home country, until recently. He didn’t encounter success during his lifetime. Having difficulties to sell his paintings, he abandoned his career to focus on social projects and politics but he continued to paint for his own pleasure. Once delivered from the pressure of making a living from his paintings, his style changed to become more personal, more modern.
During the summer 1832, Peder Balke, who was in love with the Norwegian landscapes, decided to go and seek for its most remote, its most desolate and its most distant points by sailing up the west coast of Norway as far as he could go. He went up to the inhospitable and barely accessible far-northern region of Finnmark. He reached the North Cape, the northernmost part of Norway, which was even more impressive at that time because it was the further north you could go, the final limit to knowledge and exploration – beyond it lies nothing (explorers only reached the North Pole in the late 1900s, two decades after his death).

Peder Balke wrote in his memoirs: “I can’t begin to describe how elated I was at having seen and re-tread the land, once again, after satisfying my deep longing to see the northern provinces. No easier is it for me to pen my thoughts on which sublime and mesmerizing impressions the wealth of natural beauty and unrivaled settings leave upon the mind of an observer. These impressions not only overwhelmed me for a brief moment, but they, too, influenced my entire future since I never yet, neither abroad nor other places in our country, have had the occasion to gaze at something so awe-inspiring and exciting as that which I observed during this journey to Finnmark. Unsurpassed in the norther provinces is the beauty of nature, while humans – nature’s children – play but a minor role, in comparison”.

The 1832 journey had a momentous effect upon his development as an artist; the eerie, isolated, dramatic and gloomy Arctic landscapes became a leitmotiv as he continued to paint them from his memory for the rest of his life. 

Peder Blake’s early paintings are quintessentially romantic, the product of a man awed by nature, overwhelmed by the often-horrifying beauty of his own land.

Long forgotten, Peder Balke is today increasingly recognized as an important precursor of modern painters.

GAUSTATOPPEN PAINTED BY PEDER BALKE

Painted in 1858 by Peder Balke 

PEDER BALKE (1804-1887)

 Gaustatoppen (1,883 m - 6,178 ft)

 Norway

1.   In Gaustatoppen, 1877, watercolor, National gallery of Norway  

2.  In Gaustatoppen, 1858, oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountain 

Gaustatoppen (1,883 m -6,178 ft) is the highest mountain in the county Telemark in Norway. The view from the summit is impressive, as one can see an area of approximately 60,000 kmІ, one sixth of Norway's mainland.  Inside the mountain there is a railway (with an electric locomotive) that cost one million US dollars to build from 1954 to 1959. and a elevator. It was built to access the military radio station built on the top.  Nowadays, mlilitary installations are not used anymore, but they are still there as a tourist attraction. The mountain is popular for downhill skiing in winter, and competitions have been held on its slopes. These competitions include the "Norseman triathlon", billed as "the world's most brutal iron-distance triathlon". It starts in Eidfjord and finishes at the top of Gaustatoppen. The summit is accessible on foot in the summer, on a rocky pathway of medium difficulty, although the southern side of the mountain is very dangerous and inaccessible.  

Fist ascent was made in 1810 by Jens Esmark.

The wreckage of an airplane crash lies there, as it is too difficult to remove it.

The painter 
Peder Balke is a Norwegian painter that was even barely known in his home country, until recently. He didn’t encounter success during his lifetime. Having difficulties to sell his paintings, he abandoned his career to focus on social projects and politics but he continued to paint for his own pleasure. Once delivered from the pressure of making a living from his paintings, his style changed to become more personal, more modern.
During the summer 1832, Peder Balke, who was in love with the Norwegian landscapes, decided to go and seek for its most remote, its most desolate and its most distant points by sailing up the west coast of Norway as far as he could go. He went up to the inhospitable and barely accessible far-northern region of Finnmark. He reached the North Cape, the northernmost part of Norway, which was even more impressive at that time because it was the further north you could go, the final limit to knowledge and exploration – beyond it lies nothing (explorers only reached the North Pole in the late 1900s, two decades after his death).

Peder Balke wrote in his memoirs: “I can’t begin to describe how elated I was at having seen and re-tread the land, once again, after satisfying my deep longing to see the northern provinces. No easier is it for me to pen my thoughts on which sublime and mesmerizing impressions the wealth of natural beauty and unrivaled settings leave upon the mind of an observer. These impressions not only overwhelmed me for a brief moment, but they, too, influenced my entire future since I never yet, neither abroad nor other places in our country, have had the occasion to gaze at something so awe-inspiring and exciting as that which I observed during this journey to Finnmark. Unsurpassed in the norther provinces is the beauty of nature, while humans – nature’s children – play but a minor role, in comparison”.

 The 1832 journey had a momentous effect upon his development as an artist; the eerie, isolated, dramatic and gloomy Arctic landscapes became a leitmotiv as he continued to paint them from his memory for the rest of his life. 

Peder Blake’s early paintings are quintessentially romantic, the product of a man awed by nature, overwhelmed by the often-horrifying beauty of his own land.

Long forgotten, Peder Balke is today increasingly recognized as an important precursor of modern painters.

____________________________________________
2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau