LE MONT HOFFMANN PEINT PAR THOMAS COLE

THOMAS COLE (1801-1848)
Mont Hoffmann (3,307 m)
Etats Unis d'Amérique (Californie)

In View of Schroon Mountain, Essex County, New York, After a Storm , oil on board, 1898,

 160 cm x 99 cm, Cleveland Museum of Art

A propos de ce tableau

Grand défenseur de la nature sauvage américaine, Cole a déclaré : « Nous sommes toujours ici dans l' Eden » dans son Essai sur le paysage américain, publié deux ans avant de peindre cette vue des Adirondacks. L'artiste a esquissé la scène au début de l'été, mais lorsqu'il a créé le tableau dans son atelier, il l'a rendu avec l'éclat spectaculaire de couleurs automnales. Un tel choix avait probablement des connotations nationalistes ; il a un jour proclamé que l'automne était « une saison où la forêt américaine surpasse le monde entier en beauté ». Cole a inclus deux autochtones dans le feuillage du premier plan droit du tableau. À cette époque, les Adirondacks étaient encore le foyer de nombreux Amérindiens longtemps après que la plupart aient été expulsés de force des terres à l'est du fleuve Mississippi. Tout en continuant à vivre, chasser et pêcher dans la région, ces peuples algonquins et iroquois ont été contraints d'adapter considérablement leur existence au milieu de la colonisation et des industries forestières, minières et touristiques qui en découlèrent.

La montagne
Le mont Hoffmann (3,307m ) est un sommet de la Sierra Nevada, aux États-Unis.- dans le comté de Mariposa, en Californie, au sein de la Yosemite Wilderness, dans le parc national de Yosemite. Dans Un été dans la Sierra, paru en 1911, John Muir indique avoir randonné jusqu'au sommet du « mont Hoffman » le 26 juillet 1869-. Thomas Cole le surnomme Schrroon Mountain dans ce tableau. 

Le peintre
Thomas Cole, est un artiste américain, considéré comme le fondateur de la Hudson River School, école de peinture qui s'épanouit aux États-Unis dans la seconde moitié du A9^e siècle. Les œuvres de Cole et ses amis se caractérisent par leur rendu réaliste et minutieux des paysages américains, notamment des régions sauvages, et témoignent à la fois de l'influence du romantisme et du naturalisme.  Cole fut avant tout paysagiste, il se consacre également à la peinture allégorique. La plus célèbre de ces allégories est un ensemble de cinq toiles, Le Cours de l'Empire (ou Destin des Empires), qui retrace l'évolution d'un même lieu de l'état sauvage à la naissance de la civilisation, son développement son déclin et sa mort. Cole a été inspiré par la lecture de l'Histoire de la décadence et de la chute de l'Empire romain d'Edward Gibbon, publié entre 1776 et 1778. L'œuvre se trouve dans la collection de la Société d'Histoire de New York.  En 1827, Cole ouvre un studio dans une ferme à Cedar Grove dans la ville de Catskill, état de New-York. Il exécutera une grande partie de son œuvre dans ce lieu. En 1828, Cooper lui commande un paysage inspiré de ses romans, « sans les feuilles d’automne » du Paysage avec une scène du Dernier des Mohicans dont il juge l'effet trop voyant. Entre 1829 et 1832, il effectue un premier séjour en Europe, visitant notamment Londres, Paris et l'Italie. À Londres, il est attiré par les œuvres des paysagistes Turner et Constable. À Paris, il découvre les paysages classiques du 17e siècle et sera influencé par les œuvres de Claude Lorrain. En 1836, Cole épouse Maria Bartow, une des nièces de son propriétaire, faisant de Catskill son lieu de résidence principal. La jeune femme avait alors 23 ans et lui 35. Cole, qui s'intéressait également à l'architecture à une époque où cette profession était moins réglementée qu'aujourd'hui, participe au concours organisé en 1838 pour la construction du siège de l'exécutif à Columbus. Son projet obtint la troisième place et le monument final est une synthèse entre les projets des trois premiers lauréats. Le premier fils du couple, Theodore Alexander Cole, est né le 1er janvier de cette même année. L'année suivante naît Mary Bartow Cole, le 23 septembre 1839. Cole effectue alors un second séjour européen, d-e 1841 à 1842, accumulant les dessins et les esquisses dont il tirera les tableaux peints plus tard dans son studio de Catskill. Il exerce une influence significative sur ses pairs, notamment sur Asher Brown Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey et Frederic Edwin Church. Ce dernier fut d'ailleurs son élève de 1844 à 1846. 

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

MONT KATAHDIN PEINT PAR MARSDEN HARTLEY

 

 

 

 

 

MARSDEN HARTLEY (1877-1943)
Mount Katahdin (1,605 m - 5,267ft)
United States of America (Maine)

In Mt. Katahdin Oil on fiberboard, 55.9 x 71.1 cm. (1941) Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

La montagne
Le Mont Katahdin (1,605 m) est la plus haute montagne de l'État du Maine et le terminus nord du sentier des Appalaches. La montagne, située à un mile au-dessus du niveau de la mer, domine les lacs et les forêts du Maine. Nommé Katahdin par les Indiens Penobscot, ce qui signifie « la plus grande montagne », Katahdin est la pièce maîtresse du parc d'État de Baxter. Le nom officiel est "Mont Katahdin", comme l'a décidé le Conseil américain des noms géographiques en 1893. Parmi certains Amérindiens, Katahdin était considéré comme la demeure du dieu de la tempête Pamola, et donc une zone à éviter.
Il était connu des Amérindiens de la région et des Européens au moins depuis 1689. Il a inspiré des randonnées, des escalades, des récits, des peintures et même une sonate pour piano. La zone autour du sommet fut protégée par le gouverneur Percival Baxter à partir des années 1930. Katahdin est situé à proximité de la Hundred-Mile Wilderness.
La première ascension enregistrée du « Catahdin » a été réalisée par les géomètres du Massachusetts Zackery Adley et Charles Turner, Jr. en août 1804. Dans les années 1840, Henry David Thoreau gravit Katahdin, qu'il écrivait « Ktaadn » ; son ascension est enregistrée dans un chapitre bien connu de The Maine Woods. Quelques années plus tard, Theodore Winthrop a écrit sur l'ascension qu'il fit dans Life in the Open Air. Les peintres Frederic Edwin Church et Marsden Hartley ont souvent peint des paysages de Katahdin.

Le peintre
Marsden Hartley était un peintre, poète et essayiste moderniste américain.
Hartley a commencé sa formation artistique au Cleveland Institute of Art après que sa famille ait déménagé à Cleveland, Ohio, en 1892. En 1898, à 22 ans, il s'installe à New York pour étudier la peinture à la New York School of Art sous la direction de William Merritt Chase, puis fréquente la National Academy of Design. Hartley était un grand admirateur d'Albert Pinkham Ryder et visitait son studio de Greenwich Village aussi souvent que possible. Son amitié avec Ryder, ainsi que les écrits de Walt Whitman et des transcendantalistes américains Henry David Thoreau et Ralph Waldo Emerson, ont largement inscliné Hartley à considérer l'art comme une quête spirituelle. Hartley voyage pour la première fois en Europe en avril 1912 et fait la connaissance du cercle d'écrivains et d'artistes d'avant-garde de Gertrude Stein à Paris. Stein, avec Hart Crane et Sherwood Anderson, encouragéèrent Hartley à écrire ainsi qu'à peindre. En 1913, Hartley s'installe à Berlin, où il continue à peindre et se lie d'amitié avec les peintres Vassily Kandinsky et Franz Marc. Il collectionnait également l'art populaire bavarois. Son travail durant cette période était une combinaison d’abstraction et d’expressionnisme allemand, alimenté par sa marque personnelle de mysticisme. À Berlin, Hartley développa une relation étroite avec un lieutenant prussien, Karl von Freyburg. Les références à Freyburg sont un motif récurrent dans l'œuvre de Hartley, notamment dans Portrait d'un officier allemand (1914). La mort de Freyburg pendant la guerre a durement frappé Hartley. Hartley retourna aux États-Unis au début de 1916 mais Il vécut de nouveau en Europe entre 1921 et 1930, avant de retourner définitivement aux États-Unis. Il peignit alors dans tout le pays, au Massachusetts, au Nouveau-Mexique, en Californie et à New York. Il retourna dans le Maine en 1937, après avoir déclaré vouloir devenir « le peintre du Maine » et dépeindre la vie américaine locale. Il s'alignait ainsi sur le mouvement régionaliste, un groupe d'artistes actifs du début au milieu du 20e siècle qui tentaient de représenter un « art américain » distinct. Il continua à peindre dans le Maine, principalement des scènes autour de Lovell, jusqu'à sa mort à Ellsworth en 1943. La plupart de ses peintures de montagnes du Maine font aujourd'hui partie des collections du MET. 

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

SLIDE MOUNTAIN (CATSKILLS) PEINTE PAR FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)
Slide Mountain (1,279 m - 4,180 ft)
United States of America (New York State)

In "Catskills at sunset", 1882, oil on cardboard, Smithsonian / Cooper Hewitt Museum

 

La montagne
Slide Mountain (1,279 m - 4,180 ft) est le point culminant du chaînon Burroughs, dans les montagnes Catskill dans l’État de New York. Les montagnes Catskill  ou simplement les Catskills, sont une région de reliefs  située au nord de la ville de New York et au sud d'Albany. En dépit de leur nom, les Catskills ne sont pas des montagnes au sens géologique du terme, mais plutôt un plateau érodé, constitué de plateaux et de collines ayant subi une érosion intense. Elles constituent le prolongement vers l'est, ainsi que les plus hauts sommets, du plateau des Allegheny. Elles sont parfois considérées comme une partie de la chaîne des Appalaches, même si les deux chaînes ne sont pas géologiquement liées. Les Catskills sont situées à l'ouest du fleuve Hudson (Hudson River) et traversent cinq comtés : l'Ulster, le Greene, le Sullivan, le Delaware et le Schoharie.
Les Catskills sont le lieu de légendes traditionnelles remontant aux tribus amérindiennes et aux premiers colons néerlandais, qui baptisent les montagnes « Kaatskil » au xviiie siècle. Washington Irving y situe son histoire de Rip Van Winkle, en lien avec le navigateur Henry Hudson. Au 19e siècle, les Catskills deviennent une destination de vacances pour les riches New-yorkais. Le bois est exploité à grande échelle, des fermes s'installent et la région perd de sa forêt sauvage. En 1885, une loi, votée par l'État de New York, délimite la Catskill and Adirondack Forest Preserve dans le but de préserver l'état sauvage de la région, et en 1904, le Catskill Park, un parc naturel, est créé.
La réputation des Catskills comme lieu de vacances continue et pendant la première partie du 20e siècle de nombreux groupes ethniques, dont les Allemands, les Tchèquesy installent des hôtels, des centres de vacances, des campings, notamment au sud dans les Shawangunk Ridge, près de la ville de New Paltz. Les plus grands hôtels et centres de séjours d'été juifs (comme Kutsher's, Brown's, et Grossinger's) deviennent alors connus collectivement comme la Borscht Belt (la « ceinture du bortsch »), certains faisant référence à la région comme les « Alpes juives ». De nombreux artistes et musiciens font leurs débuts dans ces hôtels souvent somptueux. Cette tradition « ethnique » a quasiment disparu depuis les années 1960, bien que l'histoire de la « Borscht Belt » fasse toujours partie de l'héritage de la région, et les Catskills continuent de prospérer grâce à leurs hôtels et lodges traditionnels.
Les Catskills étaient aussi la « maison d'été » de milliers d'enfants qui y venaient pour passer leurs colonies de vacances (« camps »). Les plus connus étaient les Camp Ma-Ho-Ge et Camp Diana Damalqua. Récemment, quelques petits hôtels se sont réinstallés dans la région, satisfaisant les aventuriers et les amateurs de sports d'hiver. Les Catskills sont également une destination de randonnée, en particulier pour les adeptes du peak bagging qui essaient d'atteindre les principaux sommets de la chaîne.
Pendant le week-end du 15 août 1969, les Catskills furent le théâtre du festival de Woodstock.

Le peintre
Frederic Edwin Church, est un peintre paysagiste américain. Il est une figure centrale de « l'Hudson River School » qui regroupait des paysagistes américains.
L'aisance financière de son père,  orfèvre et horloger  permet à Frederic Edwin Church de se consacrer précocement à l'art. Dès l'âge de 18 ans, le jeune Frederic devient, à Catskill, une petite localité de l'État de New York, l'unique élève de Thomas Cole le fondateur de l'Hudson River School. Plus tard, Church sera considéré comme le chef de file de la seconde génération de ce mouvement artistique américain.
En 1849, Frederic Edwin Church est élu à l'Académie américaine des beaux-arts, devenant ainsi le plus jeune membre de ce cénacle. Peu après, il vend sa première œuvre d'importance au Wadsworth Atheneum de Hartford.
Il s'installe vers 1850 à New York, où il a un premier élève, William James Stillman, et continue de peindre des paysages de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. À cette époque, il a pour coutume, du printemps jusqu'à l'automne, de voyager, souvent à pied, tout en dessinant. Chaque hiver, il s'installe dans son atelier afin de se servir de ses esquisses pour peindre des tableaux de très grands formats, et les vendre pour des sommes de plus en plus importantes. Cette première période de l'œuvre de Church doit encore beaucoup au style de son maître Thomas Cole, mais percent déjà quelques singularités de son tempérament. Contrairement à Cole qui privilégie les compositions éthérées, presque mythologiques, dans ses paysages, Church préfère les scènes où sont associées vie et fantaisie dans un décor où l'artiste fait usage d'une riche palette chromatique, ayant recours à des rouges, des violets et des oranges qui donnent à ses tableaux une tension presque dramatique.
Devenu bientôt célèbre en Amérique pour ses paysages colossaux, Church cherche toutefois à se démarquer des autres peintres en diversifiant son inspiration, souvent grâce à la conception de paysages évoquant des lieux exotiques. Il entreprend à deux reprises des voyages de plusieurs mois en Amérique du Sud, et séjourne principalement à Quito, capitale de l'Équateur.
Son premier voyage a lieu en 1853. À ce moment de sa carrière, Church est influencé par les théories du grand penseur et géographe prussien Alexandre von Humboldt sur la terre, la matière et l'espace. Humboldt avait ainsi mis au défi les artistes de pouvoir parvenir à représenter la « physionomie » singulière de la cordillère des Andes. Church va s'y employer, voyageant littéralement sur les traces de Humboldt, puisqu'il a demeuré dans la vieille maison où Humboldt avait résidé à Quito.
Quand Church retourne en Amérique du Sud pour son deuxième voyage en 1857, il a des vues moins nobles. L'artiste est alors financé par l'homme d'affaires américain Cyrus Field qui cherche à utiliser la renommée du peintre pour attirer l'attention des investisseurs sur ses entreprises sud-américaines. Le tableau Le Cœur des Andes, aujourd'hui propriété du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York, est issu du second voyage. La toile, qui mesure plus d'un mètre cinquante en hauteur et près de trois en largeur, est dévoilée en 1859 à New York devant un public ébahi. Church l'installe dans une pièce spécialement éclairée, munie de rideaux et de frondes de palmiers, et fait payer l'entrée au public. Tout doit servir à créer un événement sensationnel. Et c'est un succès immédiat. Church vend ensuite l'œuvre pour 10 000 $, ce qui, à l'époque, est le prix le plus élevé jamais atteint par un tableau d'un peintre américain vivant. Il est alors surnommé le « Michel-Ange du paysage. »
En 1860, son aisance financière permet à Church d'acheter une vaste ferme à Greenport, près de Hudson,
En 1870, il commence la construction, sur une colline de sa propriété, d'une maison d'inspiration persane où il s'installe à l'été 1872. Les premiers plans sont signés par l'architecte Richard Morris Hunt,  qui a également travaillé en France aux travaux d'agrandissement du Louvre en 1854 ; mais Church l'écartera du projet pour le confier à l'architecte anglais Calvert Vaux après un long voyage en Europe et au Proche-Orient pendant lequel, fidèle à ses habitudes, il ramène plusieurs dessins dont certains serviront de base à des œuvres peintes.
Au cours des vingt dernières années de sa vie, Church consacre une grande partie de son énergie à embellir sa maison d'Olana.

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

 

L 'ACROPOLE D'ATHÊNES PEINT PAR FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

 

 

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)

L'Acropole d'Athènes (156m -512ft)

Grèce

In Acropolis od Athens,  oil on canvas, The MET

La colline
L'Acropole d'Athènes (156m -512ft) (Ακρόπολη Αθηνών) est situé sur un plateau rocheux calcaire dont le sommet plat mesure environ 270 mètres d'est en ouest et 85 mètres du nord au sud, s'élargissant jusqu'à près de 150 mètres grâce au travaux faits au  Ve siècle avant l'ère chrétienne. Le terme d"acropole" (ἀκρόπολις / akrópolis) vient de l'adjectif ἄκρος (ákros "haut") et du nom πόλις (pólis, "ville, ville"), signifiant ainsi  la "ville haute".
Il est accessible du côté ouest par une pente raide menant aux Propylées. Le plateau peut être aussi atteint par deux failles creusées par l'érosion sur la  face nord . Les faces est et sud  sont aussi inaccessibles. C'est même par le côté est, jugé trop escarpé et donc non surveillé, que les Perses pénétrèrent dans la forteresse en 480 avant l'ère chrétienne.
Le sanctuaire de l'Acropole d'Athènes s'organise autour de la statue de la divinité tutélaire de la ville. Cette statue d'Athéna Polias n'est connue que par quelques textes. Ce devait être un Xoanon, une sorte de poutre en bois d'olivier, presque aniconique.   Elle devait être plutôt debout : une poutre est difficile à asseoir et ressemble plus à un personnage debout qu'assis ; il n'y a pas non plus de mention de trône dans les textes ; enfin, Athéna est le plus souvent représentée debout.
Chaque année, la statue était lavée, ses péplos changés et sa parure (bijoux et accessoires) nettoyée. Ses bijoux étaient des boucles d'oreilles, une bordure sur le cou et cinq colliers. Ses accessoires, tout en or, étaient une chouette, une égide, une gorgone et une phiale. Elle n'avait pas d'armes : elle n'était donc pas la déesse guerrière des statues les plus célèbres par la suite (Athéna Parthénos et Athéna Promachos de Phidias). Ces bijoux et accessoires pourraient dater de la "restructuration" de la statue primitive par Endoios. Il aurait fait de la poutre une corée en y fixant un bras (et une main tenant la phiale)

Le peintre
Frederic Edwin Church  est un peintre américain dont l'œuvre constitue l'expression la plus originale et la plus complète du romantisme dans la peinture américaine. Church a le paysage pour domaine. Élève de Thomas Cole entre 1844 et 1846, il commence par recueillir les formules ambiguës de son maître et sa vision d'un immense paysage dramatisé. Mais, tandis que chez la plupart des peintres de l'école de l'Hudson l'exemple de Cole aboutit à un type de paysage composé, tout de poncifs, Church le renouvelle par une étude passionnément objective de la nature. À partir de 1890 environ, il entreprend de grands voyages à travers le continent américain, accumulant des études sur le motif, où l'action de la lumière est notée avec une précision quasi photographique. Ces études s'apparentent à celles d'Asher B. Durand, par exemple, et, comme lui, Church les utilise pour de grands paysages composés. Mais au lieu d'« idéaliser » l'observation initiale suivant les vieux procédés du paysage classique, il rejoint plutôt la jeune tradition « luministe » américaine, son hyperréalisme de la lumière qui donne la même intensité à tous les détails. Les motifs de prédilection de Church, inspirés par les terribles magnificences de la nature — montagnes, forêts vierges, glaciers, chutes d'eau (Le Niagara, 1857, Cocoran Gallery of Art, Washington ; Le Cœur des Andes, 1859, Metropolitan Museum, New York ; Le Cotopaxi, collection Aston, New York) —, rejoignent le répertoire du grand romantisme européen (Caspar David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner...) et contiennent le même pouvoir de suggestion, le même symbolisme élémentaire et puissant. À un moment où le romantisme ne s'exprime plus guère dans la peinture européenne que sous une forme dérisoire, l'œuvre de Church constitue une réalisation saisissante du rêve exprimé par Baudelaire, qui, dans le Salon de 1859, regrettait que l'imagination doive fuir le paysage et évoquait avec nostalgie « le paysage romantique et même le paysage romanesque ».

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

THE CASTKILL MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY THOMAS COLE

 

THOMAS COLE (1801-1848)
Catskill Mountains (1,279 m - 4,180 ft)
United States of America (New York State)

In Castkill Mountains House, The 4 elements, oil on canvas, 1843-44. private collection

The mountains
The Catskill Mountains (1,279 m - 4,180 ft) also known as The Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park, a 700,000-acre (2,800 km2) forest preserve forever protected from many forms of development under New York state law.
Geologically, the Catskills are a mature dissected plateau, a once-flat region subsequently uplifted and eroded into sharp relief by watercourses. The Catskills form the northeastern end of the Allegheny Plateau (also known as the Appalachian Plateau).
The Catskills are well known in American culture, both as the setting for many 19th-century Hudson River School paintings and as the favored destination for vacationers from New York City in the mid-20th century. The region's many large resorts gave countless young stand-up comedians an opportunity to hone their craft. In addition, the Catskills have long been a haven for artists, musicians, and writers, especially in and around the towns of Phoenicia and Woodstock.

The painter
Thomas Cole (1801– 848) was an American artist known for his landscape and history paintings. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century. Cole's work is known for its romantic portrayal of the American wilderness.
In New York, Cole sold five paintings to George W. Bruen, who financed a summer trip to the Hudson Valley where the artist produced two Views of Coldspring, the Catskill Mountain House and painted famous Kaaterskill Falls and the ruins of Fort Putnam. Returning to New York, he displayed five landscapes in the window of William Colman's bookstore; according to the New York Evening Post Two Views of Coldspring were purchased by Mr. A. Seton, who lent them to the American Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition in 1826. This garnered Cole the attention of John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand, and William Dunlap. Among the paintings was a landscape called "View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna". Trumbull was especially impressed with the work of the young artist and sought him out, bought one of his paintings, and put him into contact with a number of his wealthy friends including Robert Gilmor of Baltimore and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford, who became important patrons of the artist.
Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846. Cole spent the years 1829 to 1832 and 1841 to 1842 abroad, mainly in England and Italy.
Thomas Cole died at Catskill on February 11, 1848. The fourth highest peak in the Catskills is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor. 

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

CHIMBORAZO PAINTED BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)
El Chimborazo (6,263 m -20,548 ft)
Ecuador

In Mount Chimborazo Shown From Riobamba, Ecuador, 1857, Brush and oil on thin board,
29.1 x 44.1 cm (11 7/16 x 17 3/8 in.) Smithsonian/ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

 

The mountain
Chimborazo (6,263 m -20,548 ft) is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes ans the highest mountain in Ecuador and the Andes north of Peru ; it is higher than any more northerly summit in the Americas. Chimborazo is not the highest mountain by elevation above sea level, but its location along the equatorial bulge makes its summit the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center. Chimborazo is at the main end of the Ecuadorian Volcanic Arc, north west of the town of Riobamba. Chimborazo is in la Avenida de los Volcanes (the Avenue of Volcanoes) west of the Sanancajas mountain chain. Carihuairazo, Tungurahua, Tulabug, and El Altar are all mountains that neighbor Chimborazo. The closest mountain peak, Carihuairazo, is 5.8 mi (9.3 km) from Chimborazo. There are many microclimates near Chimborazo, varying from desert in the Arenal to the humid mountains in the Abraspungo valley. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around A.D. 550. Until the beginning of the 19th century, it was thought that Chimborazo was the highest mountain on Earth (measured from sea level), and such reputation led to many attempts on its summit during the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1746, the volcano was explored by French academicians from the French Geodesic Mission. Their mission was to determine the sphericity of the Earth. Their work along with another team in Lapland established that the Earth was an oblate spheroid rather than a true sphere. They did not reach the summit of Chimborazo. In 1802, during his expedition to South America, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by Aimé Bonpland and the Ecuadorian Carlos Montufar, tried to reach the summit. From his description of the mountain, it seems that before he and his companions had to return suffering from altitude sickness they reached a point at 5,875 m, higher than previously attained by any European in recorded history. (Incans had reached much higher altitudes previously; see Llullaillaco). In 1831, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Colonel Hall reached a new "highest point", estimated to be 6,006 m. On 4 January 1880, the English climber Edward Whymper reached the summit of Chimborazo. The route that Whymper took up Chimborazo is now known as the Whymper route. Edward Whymper, and his Italian guides Louis Carrel and Jean-Antoine Carrel, were the first Europeans to summit a mountain higher than 20,000 feet. As there were many critics who doubted that Whymper had reached the summit, later in the same year he climbed to the summit again, choosing a different route (Pogyos) with the Ecuadorians David Beltrбn and Francisco Campaсa.

The painter
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes. Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes. Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases. Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.
Church, like most second generation Hudson River School painters, used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings. Romanticism was prominent in Britain and France in the early 1800s as a counter-movement to the Enlightenment virtues of order and logic. Artists of the Romantic period often depicted nature in idealized scenes that depicted the richness and beauty of nature, sometimes also with emphasis on the grand scale of nature.
This tradition carries on in the works of Frederic Church, who idealizes an uninterrupted nature, highlighted by creating excruciatingly detailed art. The emphasis on nature is encouraged by the low horizontal lines, and preponderance of sky to enhance the wilderness; humanity, if it is represented, is depicted as small in comparison with the greater natural reality. The technical skill comes in the form of Luminism, a Hudson River School innovation particularly present in Church's works. Luminism is also cited as encompassing several technical aspects, which can be seen in Church’s works. One example is the attempt to “hide brushstrokes” which makes the scene seem more realistic and lessen the artist’s presence in the work. Most importantly is the emphasis on light (hence luminism) in these scenes. The several sources of light create contrast in the pictures that highlights the beauty and detailed imagery in the painting.
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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SINAÏ / JABAL MUSA PAINTED BY EDWARD LEAR

EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888)
Mount Sinaï / Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft)
Egypt

In View of Mount Sinai, Watercolor,with some white tempera, over pencil, on cream-colored wove paper.
(178 x 376 mm) Purchased as the gift of Mrs. Vincent Astor,  The Morgan Library & Museum

The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinaï.
The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and in the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments (depicted in the Jean-Léon Gérôme painting above).
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments

The painter
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
Lear was already drawing "for bread and cheese" by the time he was aged 16.
In 1842, Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments. Of particular interest in Lear was the Abruzzo, which he visited in 1843, through the Marsica (Celano, Avezzano, Alba Fucens, Trasacco) and the plateau of Cinque Miglia (Castel di Sangro and Alfedena), by an old sheep track of the shepherds.
Among his travels, he visited Greece and Egypt during 1848-49, and toured India and Ceylon during 1873–75. While travelling he produced large quantities of coloured wash drawings in a distinctive style, which he converted later in his studio into oil and watercolour paintings, as well as prints for his books. His landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour. Between 1878 and 1883 Lear spent his summers on Monte Generoso, a mountain on the border between the Swiss canton of Ticino and the Italian region of Lombardy. His watercolor Mount Olympus dated 1849 in in the MET in New York City. His oil painting The Plains of Lombardy from Monte Generoso is in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford (UK).

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE PIC DU MIDI D'OSSAU BY THOMAS ALLOM

THOMAS ALLOM (1804-1872)
Le Pic du Midi d'Ossau  (2, 848m-9,462 ft)
France ( Pyrénées)

In "Les Eaux Bonnes dans les Pyréneées ",vers 1840, Lithographed by J. Kernot

The mountain
The Pic du Midi d'Ossau (2, 848m-9,462 ft) not to be confused with the Pic du Midi de Bigorre is a mountain rising above the Ossau Valley in the French Pyrenees. Despite possessing neither a glacier nor, in the context of the range, a particularly high summit, its distinctive shape makes it a symbol of the French side of the Pyrenees. This familiar shape also makes it easily recognisable from afar, and it is particularly distinctive from the Boulevard des Pyrénées in Pau, some 55 km to the north.
The Pic du Midi d'Ossau lies within the commune of Laruns, in the département of Pyrénées Atlantiques and the Aquitaine region of France. It lies within the fully protected area of the Pyrenees National Park. As normally seen from the north, the mountain presents itself as having two distinct peaks, although from the south two other summits are also visible. It stands separate from any surrounding peaks, being largely surrounded by the valleys of the Gave de Bious, to the west, and the Gave du Brousset, to the east. These two mountain streams come together in the hamlet of Gabas at the foot of the mountain's northern slopes, to form the Gave d'Ossau.
The valley of Ossau is placed in the Béarnaises Pyrénées, between la vallée d'Aspe and the Vallée de Gavarnie, from Rébénacq to the French-Spanish frontier (Col du Portalet). The Col d'Aubisque closes the valley to the east. The villages (from N to S) of the high Ossau are: Bilhères, Bielle, Béon, Bélesten, Gère-Bélesten, Aste-Béon, Louvie-Soubiron, Béost, Assouste, Aas, Laruns, Eaux-Bonnes, Gourette, Eaux-Chaudes, Goust, Gabas, Arouste-Fabréges and Pont de Camps.
The Pic du Midi d'Ossau was reputedly first climbed in 1552 by an expedition led by François de Foix-Candale, later to become the Bishop of Aire. Although the success of this first climb is disputed, it is known that the mountain had been successfully climbed by 1787 when a military surveyor noted that a triangulation cairn had been built on the summit. The first fully recorded climb was by Guillaume Delfau accompanied by Mathieu (a shepherd from Eaux-Bonnes) on October 2, 1797.
The mountain offers many routes of ascent; the voie normale is a serious scramble and rock climb with a grading of PD, II+, 550 m. It approaches the summit via the Refuge de Pombie, a Club Alpin Français owned mountain hut situated at 2,031 m - 6,663 ft, and requires most of a day to execute.
Two others refuges : Cabane Pyrenea Sports belonging to Société Pyrénées Sports at Pau, 25 places located on the NE shore of Lac de Bious-Artigues, and Cabane de Peyreget (1.950 m)
non guarded, 4 places located near Lac de Peyreget and W of Peyreget' little peak ridge.

 The artist
Thomas Allom was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many buildings in London, including the Church of St Peter's and parts of the elegant Ladbroke Estate in Notting Hill. He also worked with Sir Charles Barry on numerous projects, most notably the Houses of Parliament, and is chiefly known for his numerous topographical works, which were used to illustrate books on travel. From the 1820s onwards, he travelled extensively through the UK and mainland Europe. In 1832 he published Westmorland, Durham and Northumberland Illustrated from Original Drawings (three volumes). In 1834 Allom arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, and produced hundreds of drawings during journeys through Anatolia, Syria and Palestine. The results of this expedition were published in 1838 in Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor published in two volumes with text by Robert Walsh.  He is also remembered for numerous illustrations of China, published in China Illustrated in 1845. He also provided illustrations for "Family Secrets" by Mrs Ellis (1841) and E W Brayley's "A topographical history of Surrey" (1850).

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SINAÏ / JABAL MUSA PAINTED BY J.M.W. TURNER

J.M.W. TURNER  (1775–1851)
Mount Sinaï / Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft)
Egypt 

In "Mount Sinai, the valley in which the Children of Israel were encamped",
pencil, pen, ink and watercolor on paper, 12.7 x 20.2 cm.
Private collection ( Christie's London/ 06/07/2010)

About this Painting
It descibes the moment Moses have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496 ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region.
It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629 m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

The painter
The english painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence in the history of painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.
In his thirties, Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to Venice. Turner's talent was recognized early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." Turner was recognized as an artistic genius: influential English art critic John Ruskin described him as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature."
Turner's major venture into printmaking was the Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies), seventy prints that he worked on from 1806 to 1819. The Liber Studiorum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. The idea was loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth), where Lorrain had recorded his completed paintings; a series of print copies of these drawings, by then at Devonshire House, had been a huge publishing success. Turner's plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorized the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a museum is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints.
Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking or working or walking in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God – a theme that romanticist artists and poets were exploring in this period. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.
Turner used pigments like carmine in his paintings, knowing that they were not long-lasting, despite the advice of contemporary experts to use more durable pigments. As a result, many of his colours have now faded greatly.
John Ruskin says in his "Notes" on Turner in March 1878 : "His true master was Dr Monro; to the practical teaching of that first patron and the wise simplicity of method of watercolour study, in which he was disciplined by him and companioned by Girtin, the healthy and constant development of the greater power is primarily to be attributed; the greatness of the power itself, it is impossible to over-estimate. "

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT TARANAKI / EGMONT SKETCHED BY GEORGINA BURNE HETLEY

 

 

GEORGINA BURNE HETLEY (1832-1898)
Mount Taranaki/ Mount Egmont (2,518 m - 8,261 ft)
New Zealand (North Island)

In "New Plymouth and Mt Taranaki/Egmont in background ", ink and watercolor,
Alexander Turnbull LIbrary.

The mountain
Taranaki or Mount Egmont (2,518 m - 8,261 ft is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand Geographic Board. The mountain is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak or Panitahi in Māori (1,966 m - 6,450 ft), on the south side. Because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji, Taranaki provided the backdrop for the movie The Last Samurai.
For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki by Māori. The Māori word tara means mountain peak, and naki is thought to come from ngaki, meaning "shining", a reference to the snow-clad winter nature of the upper slopes. It was also named Pukehaupapa and Pukeonaki by Iwi who live in the region in ancient times.
According to Māori mythology, Taranaki once resided in the middle of the North Island, with all the other New Zealand volcanoes. The beautiful Pihanga was coveted by all the mountains, and a great battle broke out between them. Tongariro eventually won the day, inflicted great wounds on the side of Taranaki, and causing him to flee. Taranaki headed westwards, following Te Toka a Rahotu and forming the deep gorges of the Whanganui River, paused for a while, creating the depression that formed the Te Ngaere swamp, then heading north. Further progress was blocked by the Pouakai ranges, and as the sun came up Taranaki became petrified in his current location. When Taranaki conceals himself with rainclouds, he is said to be crying for his lost love, and during spectacular sunsets, he is said to be displaying himself to her. In turn, Tongariro's eruptions are said to be a warning to Taranaki not to return.
Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont on 11 January 1770 after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty who had supported the concept of an oceanic search for Terra Australis Incognita. Cook described it as "of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow" surrounded by a "flat country ... which afforded a very good aspect, being clothed with wood and verdure".
When Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne made landfall off Taranaki on 25 March 1772 he named the mountain Pic Mascarin. He was unaware of Cook's earlier visit. It appeared as Mount Egmont on maps until 29 May 1986, when the Minister of Lands ruled that "Mount Taranaki" would be an alternative and equal official name. The Egmont name still applies to the national park that surrounds the peak and geologists still refer to the peak as the Egmont Volcano.
Taranaki is geologically young, having commenced activity approximately 135,000 years ago. The most recent volcanic activity was the production of a lava dome in the crater and its collapse down the side of the mountain in the 1850s or 1860s. Between 1755 and 1800, an eruption sent a pyroclastic flow down the mountain's northeast flanks, and a moderate ash eruption occurred about 1755, of the size of Ruapehu's activity in 1995/1996. The last major eruption occurred around 1655. Recent research has shown that over the last 9,000 years minor eruptions have occurred roughly every 90 years on average, with major eruptions every 500 years.

The Artist
Georgina Burne Hetley was a New Zealand artist and writer. Her book The Native Flora of New Zealand was published in English and French. Hetley was born in Battersea, Surrey, England on 27 May 1832. The family moved to Madeira, Portugal when Hetley was around 10 years old, leaving in 1852 for New Zealand when her father died. Annette McKellar, her children and two servants arrived in New Plymouth on the St Michael in December 1853.  Annette McKellar bought a block of about fifty acres of land at Omata, six miles south of New Plymouth. She called their farm Fernlea.  Hetley subsequently married a fellow settler Charles Hetley in the Omata church on 2 June 1856 and moved to Brookwood farm. Just prior to their first wedding anniversary Charles died, leaving Hetley with a newborn son, Charles Frederick Hetley.  This led to Hetley selling her farm two years later and returning to Fernlea to live with her mother. Hetley lived in Taranaki until 1860 when the First Taranaki War broke out.  The conflict led to Annette McKellar moving her family to New Plymouth. Fernlea was burnt down in the ensuing conflict, although the family rebuilt it later.  While in Taranaki, Hetley began drawing sketches and watercolours of the farm and surrounding landscapes. She continued this practice after the move to New Plymouth, painting the urban scenes in New Plymouth, Waikato and Auckland. Between 1863 and the late 1870s, she travelled to Queensland and sketched local stations.  She and her son moved to Auckland by 1879.  Hetley went to England to seek a publisher, receiving assistance along the way from authorities at Kew, and the chromolithographs were ultimately produced in 1888 by Leighton Brothers. The plates also had the distinction of being published in a French edition a year later.  Without the work of botanical artists such as Hetley there would be no record of what this plant truly looked like.  While in London, her work was exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition.  Hetley returned to New Zealand in 1889 and exhibited her New Zealand flora at the General Assembly Library in Wellington. She also held another major exhibit, 150 paintings in all, at Auckland Museum. Hetley lived in Auckland for the rest of her life, dying there after a long illness, on 29 August 1898.
In 2017, Hetley was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

GIEWONT PAINTED BY ALEKSANDER KOTSIS

ALEKSANDER KOTSIS (1836-1877)
Giewont Massif (1, 895 m- 6, 217 ft)
Poland

 In Giewont (oil on canvas, 39,5 x 55,5 cm, 1870, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie.

 
The  painter
Aleksander Kotsis  was a Polish painter. He created landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes in a combination Romantic and Realistic style. Most of his paintings are small. He grew up just outside Kraków, where his family had a small farm. They moved into Kraków in 1846 to become merchants and he began his studies in 1850 at the Academy of Fine Arts with Wojciech Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz. His father was not supportive of his studies, so he had to continue working in their shop and taking his lessons intermittently. In 1857, he began exhibiting with the Society of Friends of Fine Arts.  Finally he sold some paintings and, with the assistance of Stattler, obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Religion and Education which enabled him to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, where he studied with Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, among others. He returned to Kraków in 1862 and became involved with a patriotic group that met in the studio of the sculptor, Parys Filippi, which was located in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Although this group became involved in the January Uprising, Kotsis spent most of the years 1862 to 1864 painting church murals.
After receiving another scholarship in 1866, he moved to Warsaw, then to Paris in 1867, followed by Brussels. When he returned home, he established a studio and worked constantly, spending his summers painting en plein aire in the Tatra mountains. He also began exhibiting extensively throughout Poland and Northern Europe. After 1870, he travelled frequently and, from 1871 to 1875, lived primarily in Munich, where he often exhibited with the Kunstverein München.  He shared a studio with his friends, Antoni Kozakiewicz and Franz Streitt, and went on painting excursions to the Bavarian Alps with them. In 1875, he received an offer of a professorial chair at his alma mater but, that same year, was diagnosed with an incurable brain disorder. He was forced to refuse the chair and was unable to continue working.[ He died two years later.

The mountain
Giewont is a mountain massif in the Tatra Mountains of Poland. It is 1,895 m - at its highest.The massif has three peaks (all m/metres in AMSL):
- Great Giewont - Wielki Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft)
- Long Giewont - Długi Giewont (1,867 m- 6, 125 ft)
- Small Giewont - Polish Mały Giewont (1,728 m - 5,669 ft)
There is a mountain pass located between Great and Long Giewont, known as Szczerba (1,823 m- 5, 980 ft). Long Giewont and Great Giewont are situated at a higher altitude than the nearby town of Zakopane, making them clearly visible from that city.
On Great Giewont, there is a 15 m steel cross (erected in 1901) - the site of religious pilgrimages. The area is notorious for its hazardous nature during thunderstorms, so this should be taken into consideration when approaching the summit.
The first recorded ascent to Giewont's summit was undertaken in 1830 by Franciszek Herbich and Aleksander Zawadzki (a19th century explorer). The first winter ascent of Giewont occurred in 1904 by a group of five mountaineers led by Mariusz Zaruski. Nowadays the climbing on Giewont is strictly banned. On the other hand, hiking on the hiking trails is allowed and the access (except the winter) is not difficult hence Giewont is a very popular destination among amblers and Sunday tourists. In the summer up to few thousands tourists a day ascend the top.

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

DEDO DE DEUS (2) PAINTED BY ELISEU VISCONTI

 

ELISEU VISCONTI (1866-1944)
Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft)
Brazil

About this mainting
Eliseu Visconti painted a lot of times,the Dedo De Deus mountain in the Serra de Orgaos, in any season and in all possible light, at any time of day. It is THE  repetitive motif in his work, a bit like the Montagne Sainte-Victoire for Paul Cézanne or  the volcano Chimborazo for Frederic Edwin Church or Mount Everest for Nicholas Roerich.

The mountain
Dedo de Deus (The Finger of God) (1,682m - 5,551ft) is a peck whose outline resembles a hand pointing the index finger to the sky. It is one of the several geological monuments of Serra dos Órgãos which is located in Serra do Mar, between the cities of Petrópolis, Guapimirim and Teresópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The mountaineering in Brazil is closely linked to the achievement of the Dedo de deus. The peak is a state symbol Rio de Janeiro, appearing on its flag and coat of arms. As for the coat of arms of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the first section, occupying the upper half, is blue, representing the sky and symbolizing justice, truth and loyalty, with the silhouette of the Serra dos Órgãos, highlighting the Dedo de Deus. The symbol was created by the 1892 State Constitution and made official under the government of José Tomás da Porciúncula, with small differences over time. In 1912, José Guimarães Teixeira, Raul Carneiro and the brothers Américo, Alexandre and Acácio de Oliveira, all from Teresópolis, were the first to step on top of the rock formation.


The artist
Eliseu Visconti, born Eliseo d'Angelo Visconti was an Italian-born Brazilian painter, cartoonist, and teacher. He is considered one of the very few impressionist painters of Brazil. He is considered the initiator of the art nouveau in Brazil.
Thanks to a prize received in 1892, Visconti travelled to Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux Arts the following year. He also took classes at the Académie Julian and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, where he was a pupil of art nouveau master Eugène Grasset. He was accepted at the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts and at the Salon of the Société of des Artistes Français. As one of the Brazilian representatives to the Exposition Universelle 1900 he exhibited the paintings Gioventú and Oréadas, for which he received a silver medal. Back in Brazil, Visconti exhibited in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and obtained the first place in a contest for the drawing of postal stamps for the Brazilian Casa da Moeda. He traveled again to Europe, where he exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1905 the portrait of the artist Nicolina Vaz de Assis now at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. In this same year, he was invited to paint the stage curtain for the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro which he completed in his studio in Paris.
Decorative schemes executed for the National Library or Biblioteca Nacional in (Rio de Janeiro) date from this period as does another gold medal he received at the International Exhibition of Saint-Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition), in 1904, for the painting Recompensa de São Sebastião (see external links). The museum of Santiago of the Chile acquired his Sonho Místico (Mystical Dream) in 1912. In 1913, Visconti returned to Europe in order to paint large scale panels for the "foyer" of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. His plans to return were interrupted by the First World War so he stayed in France until 1920. The resulting paintings for the "foyer" were sent to Brazil during the war, in 1915. In 1922 his triptych "Lar" gained him the Medal of Honor in a large exhibition created in Rio de Janeiro to commemorate the first centennial of Brazilian Independence, the Exposição do Centenário. The following year Visconti painted the mural decoration of Rio de Janeiro's municipal council hall. In 1924, he painted the panel depicting the signature of the first Republican Constitution, for the old federal court, also in Rio de Janeiro.
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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SINAÏ/ JABAL MUSA IMAGINED BY FRA ANGELICO

 

FRA ANGELICO (1395-1455)
Mount Sinaï / Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft)
Egypt

In Fuga in egitto, 1450, toile 38,5x37cm, Museo di San Marco, Firenze, 

 

The painter
Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent".  He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence. He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One);  the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official.  Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar,  and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed 'the Angelic' ".
Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."

 

The mountain 

Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab  : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinaï. 

The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and in the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments (depicted in the Jean-Léon Gérôme painting above).

Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt. 

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.

The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT KATAHDIN (3) PAINTED BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)
Mount Katahdin (1,605 m - 5,267ft)
United States of America (Maine)

In Mt. Katahdin from Lake Katahdin,  Medium/ Brush and oil, pencil on cardboard,1860–70, 28.4 x 30.6 cm ,Smithsonian/ Cooper Hewitt,

About this painting
Frederic Edwin Churh painted Mt Katahdin several times. Two of those paintings has already peen publish in this blogs. : 13 Decembeer 2016 and 7 may 2018   very often at sunset but  never with the golden light we can see on the canvas above...

The mountain
Mount Katahdin (1,605 m - 5,267 feet) is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The mountain, being a mile above sea level, towers above the comparatively low Maine lakes and forests. Named Katahdin by the Penobscot Indians, which means "The Greatest Mountain", Katahdin is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park. The official name is "Mount Katahdin" as decided by the US Board on Geographic Names in 1893. Among some Native Americans, Katahdin was believed to be the home of the storm god Pamola, and thus an area to be avoidedIt is a steep, tall mountain formed from a granite intrusion weathered to the surface.
Katahdin was known to the Native Americans in the region, and was known to Europeans at least since 1689. It has inspired hikes, climbs, journal narratives, paintings, and a piano sonata. The area around the peak was protected by Governor Percival Baxter starting in the 1930s. Katahdin is located near a stretch known as the Hundred-Mile Wilderness.
Katahdin is referred to 60 years after Field’s climb of Agiokochuk (Mount Washington) in the writings of John Gyles, a teenage colonist who was captured near Portland, Maine in 1689 by the Abenaki. While in the company of Abenaki hunting parties, he traveled up and down several Maine rivers including both branches of the Penobscot, passing close to “Teddon”. He remarked that it was higher than the White Hills above the Saco River.
The first recorded climb of "Catahrdin" was by Massachusetts surveyors Zackery Adley and Charles Turner, Jr. in August 1804.[14] In the 1840s Henry David Thoreau climbed Katahdin, which he spelled "Ktaadn"; his ascent is recorded in a well-known chapter of The Maine Woods. A few years later Theodore Winthrop wrote about his visit in Life in the Open Air. Painters Frederic Edwin Church and Marsden Hartley are well-known artists who created landscapes of Katahdin.
In the 1930s Governor Percival Baxter began to acquire land and finally deeded more than 200,000 acres (809 km2) to the State of Maine for a park, named Baxter State Park after him. The summit was officially recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names as "Baxter Peak" in 1931.

The painter

Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes. Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes.  Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases.  Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.

Church, like most second generation Hudson River School painters, used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings. Romanticism was prominent in Britain and France in the early 1800s as a counter-movement to the Enlightenment virtues of order and logic. Artists of the Romantic period often depicted nature in idealized scenes that depicted the richness and beauty of nature, sometimes also with emphasis on the grand scale of nature.

This tradition carries on in the works of Frederic Church, who idealizes an uninterrupted nature, highlighted by creating excruciatingly detailed art. The emphasis on nature is encouraged by the low horizontal lines, and preponderance of sky to enhance the wilderness; humanity, if it is represented, is depicted as small in comparison with the greater natural reality. The technical skill comes in the form of Luminism, a Hudson River School innovation particularly present in Church's works. Luminism is also cited as encompassing several technical aspects, which can be seen in Church’s works. One example is the attempt to “hide brushstrokes” which makes the scene seem more realistic and lessen the artist’s presence in the work. Most importantly is the emphasis on light (hence luminism) in these scenes. The several sources of light create contrast in the pictures that highlights the beauty and detailed imagery in the painting.

 
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

BLUE MOUNTAIN PEAK PAINTED BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

 

 

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)
Blue Mountain Peak (2,256 m - 7,402 ft)
Jamaica

In Jamaica landscape, West Indies, August 1868, watercolor, Smithsonian/ Cooper Hewitt,  Smithsonian Design Museum

The mountain
Blue Mountain Peak (2,256m - 7401ft) is the highest mountain peak in the Blues mountains, occupying the eastern third of Jamaica. It is also the highest peak in Jamaica.
In May 1655, a British expedition led by Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables seized the island, still sparsely populated, after having failed to take Santo Domingo. The Spaniards flee after having freed their slaves. Scattered in the jungle, they create dozens of secret villages on the northern slope of the Blue Mountains with its peculiar recrystallized and dolomitic limestone soil, and in the "Cockpit country", pierced by bowl-shaped depressions and watered by heavy rainfall. For a century and a half, these two areas will serve, for their many caches, a rear base with numerous revolts of slaves.
The Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, which is grown on the mountain slopes of the same name, is one of the most expensive and one of the best in the world.

The painter
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes. Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes. Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases. Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.
Church, like most second generation Hudson River School painters, used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings. Romanticism was prominent in Britain and France in the early 1800s as a counter-movement to the Enlightenment virtues of order and logic. Artists of the Romantic period often depicted nature in idealized scenes that depicted the richness and beauty of nature, sometimes also with emphasis on the grand scale of nature.
This tradition carries on in the works of Frederic Church, who idealizes an uninterrupted nature, highlighted by creating excruciatingly detailed art. The emphasis on nature is encouraged by the low horizontal lines, and preponderance of sky to enhance the wilderness; humanity, if it is represented, is depicted as small in comparison with the greater natural reality. The technical skill comes in the form of Luminism, a Hudson River School innovation particularly present in Church's works. Luminism is also cited as encompassing several technical aspects, which can be seen in Church’s works. One example is the attempt to “hide brushstrokes” which makes the scene seem more realistic and lessen the artist’s presence in the work. Most importantly is the emphasis on light (hence luminism) in these scenes. The several sources of light create contrast in the pictures that highlights the beauty and detailed imagery in the painting.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau