THE TAIHANG MOUNTAINS / 太行山) BY WANG HUI / 王翬(

 

WANG HUI  / 王翬(1632-1717)

The Taihang mountains  /  太行山  (2,882 m -9,455 f)

China 

 In The colors of Mount Taihang, 1669, handscroll ; ink and color on silk, (29.8 x 883.9 cm), 

The MET museum, NYC

The mountains
The Taihang mountains /太行山 are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 kilometres (250 mi) from north to south and has an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 metres (4,900 to 6,600 feet). The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan (2,882 metres (9,455 feet)). The Taihang's eastern peak is Cangyan Shan in Hebei; Baishi Mountain forms its northern tip. The name of Shanxi Province, meaning west of the mountains" derives from its location west of the Taihang Mountains, as does the name of Shandong Province (east of the mountains).

The artist
Wang Hui, like his teachers, believed that the study of old masters was the correct path to innovation. But, whereas Dong Qichang and Wang Shimin championed the impressionistic, abstract brushwork of Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) painters and their southern forebears, Wang Hui increasingly became interested in northern painters who used detailed, descriptive brushwork. This important handscroll, made in response to a work by Guan Tong (fl. ca. 907–923), signals the beginning of Wang’s intensive exploration of northern painting that would last the rest of his career. Wang believed that reconciling his teachers’ interests and his own would lead to a “great synthesis” in painting.
From The Met notice 

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT BURGESS & EMERALD LAKE BY SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874-1965), 

Mount Burgess (2,599 m - 8,527 ft)

Canada

In  Emerald Lake, Canada, oil on canvas, Private owner 

The Mountain 

Mount Burgess (2,599 m - 8,527 ft) is a mountain in Yoho National Park and is part of the Canadian Rockies. It is located in the southwest buttress of Burgess Pass in the Emerald River and Kicking Horse River Valleys.  It was named in 1886 by Otto Koltz after Alexander MacKinnon Burgess, the Deputy Minister of the Interior at the time.

In 1892, James J. McArthur was the first to ascend this mountain. He was completing a survey of the lands adjacent to the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1909, geologist Charles D. Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale deposit of fossils with fine details on Mount Burgess. The Burgess Shale is a black shale fossil bed (Lagerstätte) named after nearby Burgess Pass, in which are found new and unique species, many in fact constituting entire new phyla of life, and even today some of these unique species have proven impossible to classify. The fossils are especially valuable because they include appendages and soft parts that are rarely preserved.

The mountain has two summits. The lower north summit was named Walcott Peak in his honour.

Between 1954 and 1971, Mount Burgess was featured on the back of the Canadian ten-dollar bill. It is still informally called the "Ten Dollar Mountain" as a result.

In 1984, UNESCO declared the area a World Heritage Site.

The painter
Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was 40 before he discovered the pleasures of painting. The compositional challenge of depicting a landscape gave the heroic rebel in him temporary repose. He possessed the heightened perception of the genuine artist to whom no scene is commonplace. Over a period of forty-eight years his creativity yielded more than 500 pictures. His art quickly became half passion, half philosophy. He enjoyed holding forth in speech and print on the aesthetic rewards for amateur devotees. To him it was the greatest of hobbies. He had found his other world -- a respite from crowding events and pulsating politics....
Full Wandering vertexes entry  =>

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau