LE GRAND VEYMONT SKETCHED BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 

JEAN -BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
Le Grand Veymont (2,341m - 7,680 ft)
France (Vercors)

In Vercors, hiver, paroi, gel (II), lavis, 2019, 16 x 25cm

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind. He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.). He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky". Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France. Exhibited in Galerie Camera
Obscura in Paris. A book was recently published about his work "Le monde nu" Éditions Hartpon.
Contact @jeanbaptiste.nee.
Jean Basptiste Née website

The mountain,
Le Grand Veymont (2,341m - 7,680 ft)( is  a mountain in the district of Gresse-en-Vercors, part of the department of Isère, France, is the highest point of the Massif du Vercors, but not the highest of the Vercors Regional Natural Park (which is the Rocher Rond at 2,453m).  It has a prominence of 1165 metres and an isolation of 26.88 kilometres. It is situated between le Pas de la Ville to the north and le Pas des Chattons to the south, and is part of the eastern edge of the high plateau of the Massif du Vercors.  It is preceded to the north by (north to south) "le Rocher de Séguret" (the Rock of Séguret, 2051 metres), "Roche Rousse" (Red Rock, 2105 metres), and "le Sommet de Pierre-Blanche" (the Summit of White Rock, 2106 metres)  and followed to the south (north to south) by Petit Veymont or Aiguillette (little Veymont or small needle, 2120 metres) and Mont Aiguille (Mount Needle, 2085 metres). Due to its location in the Parc du Vercors, it is far from any paved road. A moderately easy route to the summit involves walking about 10 km, hiking through the backcountry.
On 10 February 2007, a twin-engine light aircraft flying from London to Cannes disappeared in a snowstorm over le Grand Veymont, crashing into the mountainside and killing all three people aboard. The bodies and wreckage were recovered less than 24 hours later, at around 1960 metres above sea level, close to the Pas de la Ville, after a rescue operation involving more than one hundred policemen, firemen, mountain rescue specialists, and three helicopters equipped with infra-red cameras.

THE WATERBERG PAINTED BY JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF

 

 

JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF (1886-1957)
The Waterberg (1, 830 m - 6, 003 ft)
South Africa (Limpopo)

In Bushveld, 1942, watercolor

The Mountains 

The Waterberg (1,830 m - 6,003 ft) (Thaba Meetse) is a mountainous massif of approximately 654,033 hectare in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is located just north of the mountain range. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion to yield diverse bluff and butte landform. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld. Within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans. Waterberg is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

The painter
Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef) was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distinctive style is widely recognized and his work was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.
Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. This resulted in formalised, ordered and often-monumental view of the South African landscape, uninhabited and with dramatic light and colour.
Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery.

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CATHEDRAL PEAK PAINTED BY JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF

JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF (1886-1957)
Cathedral Peak (3,004 m - 9,856 ft)
South Africa (Natal)

The mountain
Cathedral Peak is a mountain in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is a 3,004 m (9,856 ft) high free standing mountain in the Drakensberg. The mountain is also known as Mponjwana (Little Horn) by the local Amangwanepeople. Cathedral Peak is part of the Cathedral Ridge which is at right angles to the main range. Other peaks in the spur are the Twins, also known as the Triplets, (2,899 m or 9,510 feet), the Bell (2,930 m or 9,800 feet), the Outer (3,006 m or 9,860 feet) and Inner (3,005 m or 9,858 feet) Horns, the Chessmen (2,987 m or 9,800 feet) and Mitre Peak (3,023 m or 9,919 feet).
Cathedral Peak was first climbed by D.W. Basset-Smith and R.G. Kingdon in 1917, via the gully.


The painter
Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef) was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distinctive style is widely recognized and his work was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.
Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. This resulted in formalised, ordered and often-monumental view of the South African landscape, uninhabited and with dramatic light and colour.
Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery.

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SCOTT BY HERBERT PONTING IN 1911

HERBERT PONTING (1870-1935)

Mount Scott (880 m-2,887 ft)

Antarctica (Grahamland)

In  Berg with Dog Sledge, September 17, 1911,  Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

The mountain
Mount Scott (880 m - 2,887 ft) is a mountain in Grahamland in Antarctica. The mountain is a horseshoe-shaped massif on the Kiev Peninsula on the west coast of Grahamland, which on the southwest side is in open communication with Girard Bay and the northwestern side with Lemaire Channel. The mountain was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic expedition from 1897-1899. The mountain was mapped by Jean-Baptiste Charcot, leader of the French Antarctic Expedition in 1908-1910, and named after Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

The photographer 
Herbert George Ponting  is  known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this role, he captured some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
During the 1911 winter, Ponting took many flash photographs of Scott and the other members of the expedition in their Cape Evans hut. With the start of the 1911–12 sledging season, Ponting's field work began to come to an end. As a middle-aged man, he was not expected to help pull supplies southward over the Ross Ice Shelf for the push to the South Pole. Ponting photographed other members of the shore party setting off for what was expected to be a successful trek. After 14 months at Cape Evans, Ponting, along with eight other men, boarded the Terra Nova in February 1912 to return to civilization, arrange his inventory of more than 1,700 photographic plates, and shape a narrative of the expedition. Ponting's illustrated narrative would be waiting for Captain Scott to use for lectures and fundraising in 1913.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT ZEIL PAINTED BY ALBERT NAMATJIRA

 

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959)
Mount Zeil (1,531 m - 5,023 ft)
Australia

In Mount Hermannsburg Finke River,  watercolor c 1946- National Gallery of Australia

The mountain
Mount Zeil (1,531 m or 5,023 ft) is a mountain in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Mount Zeil in the western MacDonnell Ranges . It is the highest peak in the Northern Territory, and the highest peak on the Australian mainland west of the Great Dividing Range. Hermannsburg lies on the Finke River within the rolling hills of the MacDonnell Ranges in the southern Central Australia region of the Northern Territory.

The painter
Albert Namatjira born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.
Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australia—indeed, reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nation—and he was publicly regarded as a model Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.
Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style, Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Ghost gums with luminous white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school. Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on the banks of the Finke River, west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Namatjira learnt watercolour technique from the artist, Rex Battarbee.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

AI PETRI PAINTED BY ARKHIP KUINDZHI

 

ARKHIP KUINDZHI (1841-1910)

Ai-Petri (1,234.2 m - 4,049 ft)
Russia - Crimea

In  Ai-Petri. Crimea, 1908, Oil on canvas (39 × 53 cm) 

State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The mountain 
Ai-Petri (1,234.2 m - 4,049 ft) meaning Saint Peter in Greek, is a peak in the Crimean Mountains. For administrative purposes it is in the Yalta municipality of Crimea. Ai-Petri is one of the windiest places in Crimea. The wind blows for 125 days a year, reaching a speed of 50 m/s (110 mph). The peak is located above the city of Alupka and the town of Koreiz. There is a cable car that takes passengers from a station near Alupka to the main area in Ai-Petri.

The painter
The very important Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi (Архи́п Ива́нович Куи́нджиwas) was born in 1842 (1841?) in a very poor emigrants family from Greece, in Mariupol, Russian Empire (nowadays Ukraine) but spent his youth in the city of Taganrog.
Arkhip was six years old when he lost his parents and had no other choice than to work at a church building site or grazing domestic animals. He received the rudiments of an education from a Greek friend of the family who was a teacher and then went to the local school. During the five years from 1860 to 1865, Arkhip Kuindzhi worked as a retoucher in the photography studio of Simeon Isakovich in Taganrog. He tried to open his own photography studio, but without success. After that Kuindzhi left Taganrog for Saint Petersburg.
More about the painter

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

OL-OLOKWE PAINTED BY PILLY TURNER

PILLY TURNER (active 1955-1970)

Ol- Olokwe (1,934m  - 6,345 ft) 

Kenya

In Mount 0l Olokwe, watercolour - N.F.P. Kenya Card,  East Africa Women's League

The mountain 
Ol- Olokwe (1,934m  - 6,345 ft)  meaning Sacred Mountain, is a flat topped mountain located in the NFD of Kenya, a few kilometres north of the Samburu National Park. Rising out of the northern rift valley it is one of the most striking natural features in Kenya and well worth the visit. "Ol- Olokwe, a huge, square-shaped mountain, beckoned us and, as we drew closer, its magnificence increased... The enormity of the cliff face was so awe inspiring, and the colors of the granite were a deep tan splashed with orange and streaked with black and white - the white being bird of prey droppings" 
The hiking takes about 3-5 hours with an option of camping on the top. In the nearby area there is the Samburu National Park, the Matthews range and the small town of Archers Post (last stop for supplies).

The artist
Pilly Turner is a kenyan watercolourist, active during the 1955-1970 's. The watercolor she painted are always very realistic, and  with exemples of wild life animals and animals of the country. There are no other information available about this artist and only a few amount of paintings on the art market  (more than 10).

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TSURUGI SAN / TOKUSHIMA / 剣山 BY HIROSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 博

HIROSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 博 (1876-1950),

Mount Tsurugi or Tokushima / 剣山  (1,954m - 6, 413ft)

Japan 

In Tsurugi san,  woodblock Print,  c. 1936 

The mountain
Mount Tsurugi   or Tokushima  (1,954m - 6, 413ft)  ( in japanese 剣山 Tsurugi-san), meaning sword, is a mountain on the border of Miyoshi, Mima and Naka in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. This mountain is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. Mount Tsurugi is the second highest mountain on the island of Shikoku, and also the second highest mountain west of Mount Haku, which is on the border of Ishikawa and Gifu prefectures in central Japan.
Mount Tsurugi is an important object of worship in this region and one of the centers of Shugendō, a sect of mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism. On the top of the mountain, there is a small shrine called ‘Tsurugi Jinja’. The area around Mount Tsurugi is a major part of Tsurugi Quasi-National Park.

The painter 

Hiroshi Yoshida / 吉田 博(not to be confused with Toshi Yoshida) was born in 1876. He began his artistic training with his adoptive father in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. Around the age of twenty, he left Kurume to study with Soritsu Tamura in Kyoto, subsequently moving to Tokyo and the tutelage of Shotaro Koyama. Yoshida studied Western-style painting, winning many exhibition prizes and making several trips to the United States, Europe and North Africa selling his watercolors and oil paintings. In 1902, he played a leading role in the organization of the Meiji Fine Arts Society into the Pacific Painting Association. His work was featured in the exhibitions of the state-sponsored Bunten and Teiten. While highly successful as an oil painter and watercolor artist, Yoshida turned to printmaking upon learning of the Western world’s infatuation with ukiyo-e.

Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Yoshida embarked on a tour of the United States and Europe, painting and selling his work. When he returned to Japan in 1925, he started his own workshop, specializing in landscapes inspired both by his native country and his travels abroad. Yoshida often worked through the entire process himself: designing the print, carving his own blocks, and printing his work. His career was temporarily interrupted by his sojourn as a war correspondent in Manchuria during the Pacific War. Although he designed his last print in 1946, Yoshida continued to paint with oils and watercolors up until his death in 1950.

Yoshida was widely traveled and knowledgeable of Western aesthetics, yet maintained an allegiance to traditional Japanese techniques and traditions. Attracted by the calmer moments of nature, his prints breathe coolness, invite meditation, and set a soft, peaceful mood. All of his lifetime prints are signed “Hiroshi Yoshida” in pencil and marked with a jizuri (self-printed) seal outside of the margin. Within the image, most prints are signed “Yoshida” with brush and ink beside a red “Hiroshi” seal.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

STELLENBOSCH MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF

 JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF (1886-1957)

 Stellenbosch mountain  (1,156 m - 3,792 ft)

 South Africa

The mountain 
The peak of Stellenbosch Mountain   (1,156 m- 3,792 ft) also called Stellenbosberg or Die Groteberg   is a mountain forming a prominent landmark, par of The Hottentots Holland Mountains, overlooking the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape Province  (South Africa). The mountain forms part of the Coetsenburg Estate, the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, the Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve and the larger Hottentots-Holland Mountains Catchment Area.
The source of the Blaauwklippen  River is near the peak. The range is primarily composed of Table Mountain Sandstone. The climate is typically Mediterranean; warm and temperate. However, it is generally much cooler and more verdant than other areas in the Western Cape. Snow is not unusual on the peak during winter. The surrounding lowlands have rich alluvial soils supporting viticulture and other deciduous fruit farms.

The painter 
Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef)  was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distinctive style is widely recognized and his work was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.
Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. This resulted in formalised, ordered and often-monumental view of the South African landscape, uninhabited and with dramatic light and colour.
Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TUNK MOUNTAIN BY JOHN MARIN

JOHN MARIN (1870-1953)

Tunk Mountain (1,845m- 6,053ft) 

United States of America

In Tunk Mountains, Autumn, Maine, 1945 watercolor, The Phillips collection.

The mountain 

Tunk Mountain (1,845m- 6,053ft)  is a mid-elevation peak located in Okanogan County, Washington State. The peak is most famous for its fire lookout tower which still exists today. In addition, the mountain is important to peakbaggers due to its status as one of the most prominent peaks in Washington. With 2013' of clean prominence, Tunk Mountain is the 140th-most prominent peak in Washington, one of only 144 peaks with at least 2000' of clean prominence.

The summit originally had a lookout tower built during 1933 by the United States Forest Service, but its primary purpose was as a detection point rather than a fire lookout. The original lookout tower was a 40' tall pole tower with L-4 cab. The U.S. Forest Service later transferred ownership of the tower to the State of Washington. During 1966, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) destroyed the original lookout tower. The organization replaced it with another 40' tall tower but with a live-in cab included. After many years the lookout tower was no longer officially used by DNR, and the organization sold the tower to private ownership during the mid-1990s. The private group has a special use permit allowing the tower to remain on-site, and volunteers maintain the structure. 

The Tunk Mountain lookout tower is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register.

The painter 
John Marin was a seminal American modernist painter. He was one of the first Americans to employ techniques of abstraction in his calligraphic depictions of landscapes and city streets. Along with Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe, Marin helped introduce a new aesthetic model for American painters. “I must for myself insist that when finished, that is when all the parts are in place and are working, that now it has become an object and will therefore have its boundaries as definite as the prow, the stern, the sides, and bottom bound as a boat” he once reflected.
Marin started his career in art later in life, graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1901 at the age of 30. In 1905, he travelled to Europe, lived in Paris (1905-1909) where he developed his signature watercolor technique and met the artist Edward Steichen. It was Steichen that introduced his work to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who mounted Marin’s first solo show in 1909, and financially supported the artist over the remainder of his career.
Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
He developed a more dynamic, fractured style from 1912 to depict the interaction of conflicting forces, and gradually evolved summary ways of rendering his vivid impressions of sea, sky, mountains or the skyscrapers of Manhattan. In the 1920s worked almost exclusively in watercolour; after 1930 painted largely in oils.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

AI-PETRI PAINTED BY IVAN AIVAZOVSKY

IVAN AIVAZOVSKY (1817-1900)

Ai-Petri  (1,234.2 m - 4,049 ft)

Crimea - Russia 

In Pushkin at Ai-Petri Peak during sunrise, watercolour 

 The mountain 

Ai-Petri  (1,234.2 m - 4,049 ft) meaning  Saint Peter in Greek,  is a peak in the Crimean Mountains. For administrative purposes it is in the Yalta municipality of Crimea.  Ai-Petri is one of the windiest places in Crimea. The wind blows for 125 days a year, reaching a speed of 50 m/s (110 mph). The peak is located above the city of Alupka and the town of Koreiz. There is a cable car that takes passengers from a station near Alupka to the main area in Ai-Petri.

The painter 

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Ива́н Константи́нович Айвазо́вский)  was a Russian Romantic painter. Despite he is considered one of the greatest marine artists in history, he painted a few mountains landscapes.  Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia and was mostly based in his native Crimea.  Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and lived briefly in Italy in the early 1840s. He then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and often attended military maneuvers. He was sponsored by the state and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The saying "worthy of Aivazovsky's brush", popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for "describing something ineffably lovely." One of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. The vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovsky's works are kept in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums as well as private collections.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT NEBO (UTAH) PHOTOGRAPHED BY WILLIAM BELL

 WILLIAM BELL (1830-1910)

Mount Nebo (3,637 m - 11,933 ft) 

United States of America (Utah) 

 In Mount Nebo taken in a hurricane of dust and wind, in 1872, NARA, College Park

The mountain 
Mount Nebo  (3,637 m - 11,933 ft) is the southernmost and highest mountain in the Wasatch Range of Utah (United States of America). Named after the biblical Mount Nebo situated in Jordan and  overlooking Israel, which is said to be the place of Moses' death, it is the centerpiece of the Mount Nebo Wilderness, inside the Uinta National Forest. Mount Nebo has two summits, with the North summit reaching 11,933 feet (3,637 m). The southern summit reaches 11,882 feet (3,622 m)  Original surveys placed the southern peak as the highest. The mountain was resurveyed in the 1970s and the North peak was found to be the highest. The mountain is partially or completely covered in snow from mid-October until July. Nearby towns include Payson, Nephi and Provo.
A substantial trail leads to the south summit, accessible from starting points on the East or West of the mountain. Another trail accesses the North peak, starting Northeast of the mountain. A 'bench trail' runs along the east side of the mountain from North to South at roughly 9,000' feet elevation. All of these trails are popular, although strenuous, destinations for hikers; and many are dangerous places for horseback riders. One old-time local rider warns: "There's dead horses in every canyon on that mountain!"
The Mount Nebo Scenic Byway, a National Scenic Byway, departs I-15 at Payson and climbs to over 9,000 feet before rejoining the interstate at Nephi. The route features panoramic views of Mount Nebo and the Utah Valley and Utah Lake far below. There are numerous trailheads along the route for the hiking enthusiast including a short walk to the "Devil's Kitchen", an area which has been described as a "mini Bryce Canyon".

The photographer 
William H. Bell was an English-born American photographer, active primarily in the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered for his photographs documenting war-time diseases and combat injuries, many of which were published in the medical book, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, as well as for his photographs of western landscapes taken as part of the Wheeler expedition in 1872.  In his later years, he wrote articles on the dry plate process and other techniques for various photography journals.
His career spanning six decades, Bell worked in nearly every major early photographic process, including daguerreotype, collodion processes, albumen prints, stereo cards, and early film.  He was considered a pioneer of the dry plate and lantern slide processes, and experimented with night photography, using magnesium wire for lighting.  He wrote technical articles on topics such as gelatine emulsions,  the use of pyrogallic acid to recover gold from waste solutions, and the development of isochromatic plates.
For his Wheeler Survey photographs, Bell used two cameras– an 11-inch (280 mm) x 8-inch (200 mm) for large prints, and an 8-inch (200 mm) x 5-inch (130 mm) for stereo cards.  He used both wet and dry collodion processes on this expedition, and his photographs are characterized by dark foregrounds with elements becoming increasingly lighter in tone as distance increases.
Landmarks photographed by Bell include the Grand Canyon, the Marble Canyon, the Paria River, Mount Nebo (above) , and the early Mormon settlement of Mona, Utah.
Bell's work was exhibited at the Vienna Universal Exposition and the Louisville Industrial Exposition in 1873, and at the Centennial Exposition in 1876.  His photographs are now included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,  the National Museum of Health and Medicine,  the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Division, and the George Eastman House.

MOUNT ST HELENA / KANAMOTA BY THOMAS HILL

THOMAS HILL (1829-1908) 

 Mount St. Helena / Kanamota  (1, 323 m - 4,342 ft)  

United States of America  (California) 

 In Mount St. Helena, Napa Valley, 1887, oil on canvas, Private Collection  

The mountain
Mount Saint Helena or  Kanamota  (1, 323 m - 4,342 ft)   which means "Human Mountain", not to be confused with the volcano Mount St Helens (Washington State) is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall during the winter.
The mountain has five peaks, arranged in a rough "M" shape. Its highest point, North Peak, is in Sonoma County. The second-tallest, immediately east of the main summit, is the highest point in Napa County.
Mount Saint Helena has had an explosive history of pyroclastic flows that resulted in The Petrified Forest. Mount Saint Helena was originally named Mount Mayacamas, but the name was changed after a Russian survey party ascended the peak in 1841 and left a copper plate on the summit inscribed with the date of their visit. The plate also bore the name of Princess Helena de Gagarin, wife of Count Alexander G. Rotchev, the commanding officer of Fort Ross.
Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne spent the summer of 1880 honeymooning in an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. Stevenson's book The Silverado Squatters includes his experiences while living there.
 The mount is also described by Ambrose Bierce in his ghost story The Death of Halpin Frayser.
The peak is reachable by hiking trails leading from Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. The trails are approximately 6 miles long.

The painter
Thomas Hill was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature. For Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley and the White Mountains of New Hampshire were his sources of inspiration to begin painting and captured his direct response to nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works.
In plein air means to “paint outdoors and directly from the landscape”,[ which Hill incorporated into many of his paintings. Hill’s landscape paintings demonstrate how he combined his powers of observation with powerful motifs in each painting.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000.  Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

PROFITIS ELIAS BY CARL ROTTMANN

CARL ROTTMANN (1797-1850)

Profitis Elias  / Mount Taygetus  (2,404m- 7,887ft)

Greece

In Mount Taygetus, oil on canvas

The mountain 

Profitis Elias (2,404m - 7,887ft) or "Prophet Elias", mentioned  in Antique Greece by Pausanias as Taleton is the highest summit of Mount Tageytus also called  Taugetus, Taygetos, a mountain range in the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The name is one of the oldest recorded in Europe, appearing in the Odyssey.  In classical mythology, it was associated with the nymph Taygete. During Byzantine times and up until the 19th century, the mountain was also known as Pentadaktylos (Greek for five-fingered, a common name during that period). The Taygetus Massif is about 100 km (62 mi) long, extending from the center of the Peloponnese to Cape Matapan, its southernmost extremity.
The summit is an ultra prominent peak. It is prominent above the Isthmus of Corinth, which separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece, rises only to approximately 60 m (200 ft). Numerous creeks wash down from the mountains and the Evrotas river has some of its headwaters in the northern part of the range. The western side of the massif houses the headwaters of the Viros gorge, which carries winter snowmelt down the mountain, emptying into the Messenian Gulf in the town of Kardamili.
The peak known as Taleton, above Bryseae, was 'dedicated' to Helios, the Sun, to whom horses were sacrificed. Taleton was also 'dedicated' to Zeus. Today, the mountain is closely associated with the holy Prophet Elias, and every year on the 20th of July (the Greek Orthodox name day for the Prophet Elias), the small chapel at the peak holds a large festival, including a massive bonfire in commemoration of the Prophet Elias, as he is believed to have ascended up into heaven in a chariot of fire. The bonfire can be seen from anywhere with clear view of the summit, and it is for this reason that the town of Kardamyli is a local gathering point for those who wish to view the fire without having to climb the mountain.
The slopes of Taygetus have been inhabited since at least Mycenean times. The site of Arkina, near the village of Arna, contains three beehive tombs and is still unexplored. Taygetus was important as one of Sparta's natural defenses. The Spartans threw criminals and "unfit" (weak, sickly, deformed, or mentally retarded) infants into a chasm of Taygetus known as Ceadas or Caeadas (Καιάδας). In antiquity, Spartan newborns were abandoned there if deemed unfit after examination for vitality. Recent evidence, found by the University of Athens, discovered remains of adult individuals which appeared to confirm that Ceadas was mainly a place of punishment for criminals, traitors and captives. During the era of barbarian invasions, Taygetus served as a shelter for the native population. Many of the villages in its slopes date from this period. In Medieval times, the citadel and monastery of Mystras was built on the steep slopes, and became a center of Byzantine civilizations and served as the capital of the Despotate of the Morea. Mystras remains occupied by a tiny religious community. The buildings are remarkably well-preserved and a major tourist attraction in the region.
 It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The mountain is a popular hiking destination and is part of the European walking route E4. The view from the top includes most of the Evrotas valley and the Parnon range to the east, while the view towards the west includes Kalamata and the eastern half of Messenia. Most of the southwestern part of Arcadia can also be seen from the summit.

The painter 
Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann was a German landscape painter and the most famous member of the Rottmann family of painters. Rottmann belonged to the circle of artists around the Ludwig I of Bavaria, who commissioned large landscape paintings exclusively from him. He is best known for mythical and heroising landscapes. The landscape painter Karl Lindemann-Frommel belonged to his school. Rottmann  received his first drawing lessons from his father, Friedrich Rottmann, who taught drawing at the university in Heidelberg. He formed himself chiefly through the study of nature and of great masterworks. In his first artistic period, he painted atmospheric phenomena. After gaining prominence with Heidelberg at Sunset (a water color), and Castle Eltz, he settled in Munich in 1822 and devoted himself to Bavarian scenery. Here his second period began, and in 1824 he married Friedericke, the daughter of his uncle, Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, who served as an attendant at court. Through this connection, he made the acquaintance of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who in 1826/27 sponsored his travels in Italy in order to widen his repertoire, which up to that point consisted solely of domestic, German, landscapes. In Italy, Rottmann made sketches for the 28 Italian landscapes in fresco which he was commissioned to paint in the arcades of the Hofgarten at Munich. The cycle, completed in 1833, gave visual expression to Ludwig’s alliance with Italy, and raised the genre of landscape painting to the height of history painting, the preferred mode of the King’s other great commissions for monumental painting. The frescos unfortunately deteriorated under climatic influences. The cartoons for them are in the Darmstadt Gallery.
In 1834 Rottmann traveled to Greece to prepare for a commission from Ludwig for a second cycle; one might mark here the beginning of his third period. At first also intended for the Hofgarten arcade, the 23 great landscapes were eventually installed in the newly built Neue Pinakothek where they were given their own hall.