MOUNT HADDINGTON BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859),

Mount Haddington (1,630 m - 5,350 ft) 

Antarctica  (Ross Island) 

In Mount Haddington and Cape Gage from Views of Polar region, Watercolor and graphite, 
Yale Center for British Arts

The mountain 
Mount Haddington  (1,630 m - 5,350 ft) is a massive  high shield volcano comprising much of James Ross Island in Graham Land, Antarctica.  Mount Haddington was discovered on December 31, 1842 by the Ross expedition, a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic from 1839 to 1843 led by James Clark Ross. Ross named the mountain after the Earl of Haddington, then First Lord of the Admiralty.
Mount Haddington is 60 km (37 mi) wide and has had numerous subglacial eruptions throughout its history, forming many tuyas. Some of its single eruptions were bigger in volume than a whole normal-sized volcano. Old eruption shorelines are widespread on the volcano's deeply eroded flanks.
Haddington formed along the Larsen Rift dominantly during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs but more recent eruptions have produced tuff cones on its slopes. The youngest tuff cones and pyroclastic cones on the eastern slope are situated below the summit icecap and may have formed in the last few thousand years. Effusive eruptions have created large deltas composed of hyaloclastite breccia and lava flows.

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 (68watercolors) , 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 TheNatural history of dogs.

Quite a productive fellow ! 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

HEIRDUBREIT SKETCHED BY AASMUND FRISAK

AASMUND FRISAK (1852 – 1935) 

Herdubreit  (1,682 m - 5,518 ft)

Iceland

 In Herdubreit as seen from  Mördrudal, The British Library

The mountain 
Herdubreit  (1,682 m - 5,518 ft)   (Herðubreið in idelandic)) is a tuya in north-east Iceland.
A tuya is a type of distinctive, flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are somewhat rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period.
Discovering and dating the lava flows in a tuya has proven useful in reconstructing past glacial ice extents and thicknesses.
Herdubreit  is situated in the Highlands of Iceland at the east side of the Ódáðahraun desert and close to Askja volcano. The desert is a large lava field originating from eruptions of Trölladyngja and other shield volcanoes in the area. Herðubreið was formed beneath the icesheet that covered Iceland during the last glacial period. Due to the mountain's steep and unstable sides, the first ascent was in 1908 despite centuries of knowledge of its existence. Near the mountain lies an oasis called Herðubreiðarlindir with a campground and hiking trails. In former times, outcasts who had been excluded from Icelandic society because of crimes they had committed lived at the oasis.[citation needed] One such outlaw was Fjalla-Eyvindur, who lived there during the winter of 1774–1775.

The artist 
Aasmund Frisak (20 March 1852 – 1935) was a Norwegian naval officer and politician for the Conservative Party. He graduated from the Norwegian Naval Academy in 1872. After running the sailors' school in Fredrikshald from 1878 to 1887 he returned to Horten as teacher at the Norwegian Naval Academy from 1891 to 1897. In 1897 he was hired at the Karljohansvern shipyard. He held the ranks of Captain from 1894 and Commander from 1899. He was also a local bank director. From 1901 to 1904 he served as mayor of Horten municipality, and he was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1903, representing the rural constituency of Jarlsberg og Larviks Amt.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau