DJEBEL ABIODH & KSAR BENI BARKA PHOTOGRAPHIÉS PAR LEO WEHRLI

LEO WEHRLI (1870–1954)
Djebel Abiodh & Ksar Beni Barka (300m env.)
Tunisie

 In Ksar Beni Barka von Norden, autochrome 1923, Tunisia

 

Le photographe
Leo Wehrli était un géologue, professeur et explorateur suisse. Après des études de musique, de botanique, de chimie, de minéralogie, de pétrographie et de géologie à Berlin et à Zurich. Immédiatement après avoir terminé sa thèse, il part pour l'Argentine avec le célèbre Carl Emanuel Burckhardt en 1896. Accrédité par le Musée de La Plata et le gouvernement argentin, il explore les Andes qu'il traverse au moins cinq fois au cours d'un séjour de deux ans. Ses travaux furent plus particulièrement orientés sur la délimitation de la frontière entre l'Argentine et le Chili après l'accord signé entre ces deux pays en 1881 et sur la détermination de la propriété des sommets des montagnes, des lignes de crêtes et des versants des bassins.
Après son retour en Suisse, il travaille entre 1900 et 1935 comme professeur puis chargé de cours au Geol. Centralblatt à Berlin ; entre 1901 et 1912, il écrit près de 500 articles. Il effectue d'autres voyages à travers l'Europe et l'Afrique du Nord (Egypte, Tunisie, Lybie) avant de retourner de nouveau en Argentine en 1938. Il a résumé les résultats de ses recherches dans de nombreux articles, notamment dans le Lexique géographique de la Suisse. Il participa à la fondation du Centre de formation des adultes de Zurich et y donna des conférences de 1921 à 1953. De 1931 à 1951, il fut membre de la commission du Club alpin suisse (CAS) pour la Bibliothèque centrale et en fut président pendant 14 ans.
Wehrli a laissé une collection de 15 000 plaques photographiques et photos, dont certaines ont été coloriées à la main par son épouse, née Anna Frey. Une grande partie des œuvres est mise en ligne par les archives photographiques de l'ETH-Bibliothek de Zurich.

La colline
Ksar Beni Barka (300 m) ou Ksar Béni Barka est un ksar de Tunisie,  situé dans le gouvernorat de Tataouine, sur une colline isolée du djebel Abiodh, dominant la vallée de l'oued Zonndag.
Il est considèré comme « l'un des plus anciens et des plus grands » ksour du pays, abandonné au début du protectorat français. Un ksar ou ighrem, est un village fortifié d'architecture berbère que l'on trouve en Afrique du Nord. Il s'agit d'une forteresse, toujours située dans un emplacement spectaculaire, soit perchée sur un promontoire escarpé accroché à une paroi rocheuse soit dressée au-dessus d'une oasis. Le 10 janvier 2020, le gouvernement tunisien propose le site pour un futur classement sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco. Le 21 janvier 2021, un arrêté en fait un monument classé
Le ksar, de forme ovale, compte de nombreuses habitations troglodytes dont le nombre est  incertain variant de 400 à 750 selon les sources. Elles s'élevaient sur trois à quatre étages. Huit anciennes huileries, une mosquée, le marabout Moula Edda et le mausolée de Bou Hjar s'y trouvent.
De nos jours, le complexe est complètement en ruines et ne subsiste que le relief de la colline

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2023 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

DJEBEL BOUKORNINE (2) PAINTED BY ALBERT MARQUET

 

ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)
DJebel Boukornine (546 m -1791 ft)
Tunisia

In Sidi Bou Saïd-palmier, oil on canvas, private collection

The mountain
DJebel Boukornine (جبل بوقرنين‎), also spelled Jebel Bou Kornine or Mount Bou Kornine, is a 576-meter mountain in northern Tunisia, overlooking the Gulf of Tunis and Hammam Lif city.
It consists of folded and faulted outcrops of Jurassic limestone. Its name "bou kornine" comes from Tunisian Arabic meaning "the one with two horns", originally from the punic language as "ba'al kornine", meaning "lord with two horns". It owes its name to the two highlights of altitude 576 and 493 meters at the top. During the times of ancient Carthage, the mountain was considered sacred and religious rituals were conducted there.
The massif is part of Boukornine National Park, covering area of 1939 ha and protecting many species of plants and animals. The mountain slopes are covered Aleppo pine and cedar. Djebel Ressas about 30 km to the southwest is a taller peak at 795 m.

The painter
Albert Marquet  was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water. During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.
Matisse said : "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him". 

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

JEBEL BOUKORNINE BY ALBERT MARQUET

 ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)

Jebel Boukornine (546 m -1791 ft) 

Tunisia

In  Le canal de Tunis, oil on canvas, private collection 

The mountain
Jebel Boukornine (جبل بوقرنين‎), also spelled Djebel Bou Kornine or Mount Bou Kornine, is a 576-meter mountain in northern Tunisia, overlooking the Gulf of Tunis and Hammam Lif city.
It consists of folded and faulted outcrops of Jurassic limestone.  Its name "bou kornine" comes from Tunisian Arabic meaning "the one with two horns", originally from the punic language as "ba'al kornine", meaning "lord with two horns". It owes its name to the two highlights of altitude 576 and 493 meters at the top. During the times of ancient Carthage, the mountain was considered sacred and religious rituals were conducted there.
The massif is part of Boukornine National Park, covering area of 1939 ha and protecting many species of plants and animals. The mountain slopes are covered Aleppo pine and cedar. Djebel Ressas about 30 km to the southwest is a taller peak at 795 m.

The painter
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work.  Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water. During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.
Matisse said : "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CAPE BON / RAS EL DAR BY ALBERT MARQUET

ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)

Cape Bon  / Ras El Dar (637m -2,089ft) 

Tunisia 

1. In Vue de  la Falaise rouge de Sidi Bou Said, Cap Bon et le golfe de Tunis, watercolour, 

2. In Vue de  la Falaise rouge de Sidi Bou Said, , watercolour

3. In Cap Bon vu de  la VIlla Erlanger  watercolour 

The mountains
Cape Bon  (637m -2,089ft)  ("Good Cape" in french)  refers to either a peninsula in far northeastern Tunisia, also known as Watan el-Kibli (الرأس الطيب‎), administered as the country's Nabeul Governorate, or the northernmost point on the peninsula, also known as Ras ed-Dar.
Settlements on the peninsula include Nabeul, El Haouaria, Kelibia, Menzel Temime, Korba, and Beni Khalled.  Mountains include Kef Bou Krim (237 m -778 ft), Kef er-Rend (637 m - 2,090 ft), Jebel Sidi Abd er-Rahmane (602 m-1,975 ft), Jebel Hofra (421 m -1,381 ft), and Jebel Reba el-Aine (328 m -1,076 ft). Besides Cape Bon, other headlands on the peninsula are Ras Dourdas and Ras el-Fortass on the northern shore, Ras el-Melah on the short eastern shore, and Ras Mostefa and Ras Maamoura on the southern shore. The ruins of the Punic town Kerkouane are also located here. Djebel Mlezza ("Mt Mlessa") has tombs from the time of Agathocles, which were excavated just before the First World War. Cape Bon  and the Gulf of Tunis are visible from the little town of Sidi Bou Saïd, like  the painter Albert  Marqet painted it  (see above)

The painter 
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water.  During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.

Matisse said ; "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

JEBEL BOU KORBOUS BY ALBERT MARQUET

ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)

Jebel Bou Korbous (401 m - 1314 ft)

Tunisia

 In Paysage de Sidi Bou Said, watercolour, 1923, Private collection 

The hill
Jebel Bou Korbous  (401 m - 1314 ft) is a mountain located in the Korbous massif, east of Jebel Douela and west of El Bredj, in the Gulf of Tunis in Tunisia. It can be seen from the hill of Sidi Bou Saïd (like in thus painting). From Tunis, in good weather conditions, one can easily see  these mountains that flow into the sea on the other side of the Gulf of Tunis, home to several hot springs.
Many activities are possible: hiking, swimming, diving, hydrotherapy ... Particularity of the massif: tiny caves formed in the sandstone blocks. Under the effect of wind and rain, some blocks partially disintegrated, forming these small natural shelters.

The painter 
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water.  During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.

Matisse said ; "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau