LE WATZMANN PEINT PAR ADALBERT STIFTER

ADALBERT STIFTER (1805-1868),
Le Watzmann (2,713m - 8,901ft)
Allemagne (Alpes bavaroises)

In Der Königsee mit dem Watzmann,1837, huile sur toile

La montagne
Le Watzmann (2,713m - 8,901ft)) est massif montagneux  des Alpes bavaroises situé au sud de Berchtesgaden. C'est le troisième plus haut d'Allemagne et le plus élevé qui soit entièrement situé sur le territoire allemand. Il se compose de trois principaux sommets  disposés sur un axe Nord-Sud : le Hocheck (2651 m),  le Mittelspitze (2713 m) et  le Südspitze ( 2712 m). Le massif de Watzmann comprend également cinq sommets inférieurs situés entre les sommets principaux : le Watzmannfrau (2307 m), le  Watzmann Wife, également connu sous le nom de Kleiner Watzmann ou Petit Watzmann), et le Watzmannkinder (Les enfants Watzmann). Cet alignement sur modèle d'une famille comme une famille qui serait en rang.doit son origine à une légende selon laquelle le pays aurait été autrefois dominé par un cruel roi nommé Watzmann qui répandait avec sa femme et ses enfants la peur et l'effroi parmi les paysans. Alors que le roi rossait un paysan, la femme de celui-ci leur jeta un sort et aussitôt, la terre s'ouvrit, cracha du feu et transforma le roi et sa famille en pierres. La légende dit aussi que le Königssee et l'Obersee sont remplis du sang de la cruelle famille royale.

L'ensemble du massif est aujorud 'hui portégé  à l'intérieur du Parc national de Berchtesgaden. Le glacier du Watzmann situé sous la célèbre face-est du Watzmann dans le cirque de Watzmann, est entouré par l'arête du Watzmanngrat, le Watzmannkindern et le Kleiner Watzmann. La première ascension du sommet central (Mittelspitze) a été réalisée en 1799 ou août 1800 selon les sources par le slovène Valentin Stanic. La première ascension des trois pointes (Hocheck, Mittelspitze, Südspitze) a été réalisée en 1868 par le guide de Ramsau am Dachstein Johann Grill et Johann Punz. La face orientale du Watzmann (paroi la plus haute des Alpes orientales) a été également conquise pour la première fois par Johann Grill en 1881.

L'artiste
Adalbert Stifter, est un écrivain, peintre et pédagogue autrichien, l'un des auteurs les plus remarquables de la période Biedermeier. Fils d'un tisseur, Adalbert Stifter est né sur la Moldau, en Bohême méridionale. L'année suivant la mort accidentelle de son père en 1817, il commence ses études à l'école latine de l'abbaye bénédictine de Kremsmünster en Haute-Autriche, où l'enseignement et la formation sont imprégnés de l'esprit du siècle des Lumières. Après avoir accompli sa scolarité en 1826, il entreprend des études de droit à l'université de Vienne. Stifter  hésite d'abord entre la peinture et la littérature, mais la publication de sa première nouvelle Der Kondor le rend tout de suite célèbre. Il vit alors de sa plume, tout en donnant des leçons particulières. Cependant il restera toujours partagé entre ses deux passions la littérature et la peinture d'un style très romantique proche de celui de Caspar Freidrich.   Selon Michel Foucault, c'est Stifter qui aurait écrit le plus beau livre de la langue allemande : L'Arrière-saison.  Thomas Bernhard par contre détestait Stifter, qu'il  trouvait bavard et  insupportable et s'exprimant avec un style négligé : « La prose de Stifter, qui est réputée précise et concise, est en réalité vague, impuissante et irresponsable, et d'une sentimentalité et d'une lourdeur  petite-bourgeoise »
 En 1868, Stifter se tranchéela gorge à Linz.

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

THE DACHSTEIN PAINTED BY KONRAD PETRIDES

KONRAD PETRIDES (1864-1944)
Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft)
Austria  

In Dachstein mit Gosausee, 1899,  Private collection

The mountain  

The Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor.
The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.
Being the highest point of two different Bundesländer, the summit is a popular goal in both summer and winter. In fine weather as many as 100 climbers may be attempting the ascent, leading to congestion at key sections of the climb.

The artist
Konrad Petrides was a Viennese landscape and stage painter in the studio Hermann Burghart, where the painters Anton Brioschi, Josef Kautsky, Georg Jany and Leopold Rothaug also worked. He also painted many veduras, especially from Lower Austria and East Tyrol. Petrides was a member of the Dürer League, in whose exhibitions he participated and whose silver medal he received in 1919. In 1904 he also received the gold medal at the World's Fair in St. Louis, USA.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE DACHSTEIN PAINTED BY FERDINAND GEORG WALDMÜLLER

 

FERDINAND GEORG WALDMÜLLER (1793-1865)

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft)

 Austria 

In The Dachstein, 1835, oil on canvas, Belvedere Museum, Vienna

The mountain
Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor.
The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.
Being the highest point of two different Bundesländer, the summit is a popular goal in both summer and winter. In fine weather as many as 100 climbers may be attempting the ascent, leading to congestion at key sections of the climb.

The painter
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller was an Austrian writer and one of the most important painters of the Biedermeier period. Whether it was the conquest of the landscape and thus the convincing rendering of closeness or distance, the accurate characterisation of the human face, the detailed and refined description of textures, or the depiction of rural everyday life: his works – brilliant, explanatory, moralising, and socially critical – influenced a whole generation of artists. Being an advocate of natural observation and plein air painting, as well as a critic of academic painting, Waldmüller was far ahead of his time.

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Wandering Vertexes 2020
A blog by Francis Rousseau

HOHER DACHSTEIN BY RUDOLF SWOBODA THE ELDER

RUDOLF SWOBODA THE ELDER  (1819-1859) 

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995 m - 9,826 ft)
Austria 

 In Festlicher Almabtrieb im Hochgebirge, oil on canvas, 1840,  Private collection

The mountain 
Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9,826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor (see above).
The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.

The painter  
Rudolf Swoboda the elder or Senior (1819-1859) was a landscape and animal painter, coming from a Vienna family of artists  with his niece Josefine Swoboda (1861-1924) ans his nephew Rudolf Swoboda the younger or Junior (1859-1914) famous to have painted Indian portraits for Queen Victoria. Rudolf Swoboda the elder  received numerous orders from the Austrian imperial house and other noble houses in Vienna which made him one of the most active Vienna landscapists.  His landscapes often includes  scenes with farmers playing music and dancing or animals depictions in a gentle and naive atmosphere.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MITTAGSKOGEL / KEPA PAINTED BY MARCUS PERNHART

MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871)

Mittagskogel / Kepa (2,145 m - 7,037 ft)

Austria, Slovenia border

In Mittagskogel ud Villacher Becken vom Dobratsch gegen Osten, oil on canvas, 1850 

The mountain 

The Mittagskogel in Austrian or Kepa in Slovenian ( 2,145 m- 7,037 ft) is the third highest mountain in the Karawanks range, after Hochstuhl/Stol and the Vertratscha/Vrtača. It is located on the border between Slovenia and Austria.

The massif consisting of main dolomite and Dachstein limestone beds rises between the Slovene Sava valley in the south and the Austrian Drau basin in the north. Its steep northern face, resembling a rocky pyramid with a rounded summit is a landmark in Carinthia.

The mountain is usually climbed from the village of Belca on its Slovenian side.  An Alpine club hut, the Berta Hut, located at an elevation of 1,567 m (5,141 ft), can be reached from the Austrian municipality of Finkenstein; from here, the normal route leads to the summit.

Mentioned as Copan mons in a 1650 map, the German oronym Mittagskogel (Midday Peak) denotes the position of the sun above the summit at noon.

The painter 

Markus Pernhart was a Carinthian Slovenian / Austrian painter. He is considered the first Slovene realistic landscape painter. Early on, he began to paint panels ans humorous works, offered at Klagenfurt weekly market. At  barely 12 years, he painted the guest rooms of Krajcar Restaurant between Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt. The innkeeper made, the bishop's chaplain Henr. Hermann discovered the talented boys. At 15, he trained in painting first with Andreas Hauser in Klagenfurt.  Soon after, he got contact with the Viennese art scene, particularly to Franz Steinfeld, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was forwarded to the Munich Academy, but soon returned to Carinthia. There he was promoted by his stage name Pernhart the famous landscape painter of his time.

When Pernhart's drawing style had fully developed, he was asked by Max Moro to draw all Castles Carinthia. The idea was to these buildings if they could often for financial reasons can not be obtained, at least to preserve the picture, thereby preserving from decay. Markus Pernhart does not disappoint its customers and held in pencil drawings smallest details of the well-preserved, but also the already partly decayed plants firmly. Already in 1853, he produced 40 drawings followed by 198 others, he property of the Historical Association for Carinthia. In 1855  he gave the Carinthian estates Empress Elisabeth, an album of 21 drawings to which Max Moro contributed. Entitled images from Carinthia  appeared  in 1863-1868 in deliveries as steel engravings with accompanying. After his death appeared 5 lithographic panoramic images (Klagenfurt in 1875 and 1889). 

His entire painted oeuvre consists of approximately 1,200  paintings, drawings and engravings that delight even after his death a large appreciation. Pernhart presented landscapes, preferably lakes and high mountain motifs or castles, but also animals and still life subjects, in an idyllic and pathetic style. His works can be seen against the background of an incipient leisure society, they lead before the regional status objects of his home.

THE HOHER DACHSTEIN PAINTED BY TONI HALLER

TONI HALLER (1907-1944)

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9,826ft)

 Austria 

In Lake Gosau with the Dachstein, oil on canvas, private collection 

The painter 

Toni Haller, also known as Hans Sterbik, was an Austrian painter  born in 1907. Not a lot of informations about his life are available except he lived and worked in Vienna.  His work comprises landscapes and predominantly mountains landcapes. He found his motifs in Tyrol, the Salzkammergut, and the Dolomites.  Many works by Toni Haller have been sold at auction, including 'Winter in den Dolomiten' sold in 2011 for $7,563. The artist died in 1944.

The mountain 
Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9,826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor (see above).
The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.

HOHER DACHSTEIN PAINTED BY RUDOLF VON ALT

RUDOLF VON ALT (1812-1905)
Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft)

 Austria 

In  Hoher Dachstein from lower Gosau, 1838, watercolour

The mountain 

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9, 826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor.

The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.

Being the highest point of two different Bundesländer, the summit is a popular goal in both summer and winter. In fine weather as many as 100 climbers may be attempting the ascent, leading to congestion at key sections of the climb.

The painter

Rudolf Ritter von Alt  was an Austrian landscape and architectural painter. Born as Rudolf Alt, he could call himself von Alt and bear the title of a Ritter (knight) after he gained nobility in 1889.

Born in Vienna, he was the son of the lithographer Jakob Alt (1789–1871) and the brother of the painter Franz Alt (1821–1914). He studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. Hiking-trips through the Austrian Alps and northern Italy awoke a love for landscapes, and he painted with his brush using watercolors in a very realistic and detailed style. In 1833, inspired by a visit to Venice and neighbouring cities, he also made a number of architectural paintings.

Rudolf von Alt demonstrated a remarkable talent for expressing certain peculiarities in nature. He managed to paint nature authentically by focusing on the different hues of sky, the colour-tone of the air and the vegetation. His later works came closer to Impressionism. 

He visited and worked for a while in Rome and Naples; after that he visited the lakes of Lombardy, then Galicia, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Bavaria and then returned multiple times to Italy. In 1863 he went to the Crimea to paint some views of an estate of the Empress, and in 1867 he went to Sicily.

 Most of his paintings are held by various museums in Vienna. The Albertina in Vienna hosted a retrospective exhibition from September 2005 to January 2006.

HOHER DACHSTEIN BY CARL ROTTMANN

CARL ROTTMANN (1797-1850) 

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9,826ft)

 Austria 

In Dachstein from the South, 1839, oil on canvas, Pushkin Museum

The mountain 

Hoher Dachstein (2, 995m - 9,826ft) is a strongly karstic Austrian mountain, and the second highest mountain in the Northern Limestone Alps. It is situated at the border of Upper Austria and Styria in central Austria, and is the highest point in each of those states. Parts of the massif also lie in the state of Salzburg, leading to the mountain being referred to as the Drei-Lander-Berg ("three-state mountain"). The Dachstein massif covers an area of around 20x30 km with dozens of peaks above 2,500 m, the highest of which are in the southern and south-western areas. Seen from the north, the Dachstein massif is dominated by the glaciers with the rocky summits rising beyond them. By contrast, to the south, the mountain drops almost vertically to the valley floor (see above).

The summit was first reached in 1832 by Peter Gappmayr, via the Gosau glacier, after an earlier attempt by Erzherzog Karl via the Hallstätter glacier had failed. Within two years of Gappmayr's success a wooden cross had been erected at the summit. The first person to reach the summit in winter was Friedrich Simony, on 14 January 1847. The sheer southern face was first climbed on 22 September 1909 by the brothers Irg and Franz Steiner.
Being the highest point of two different Bundesländer, the summit is a popular goal in both summer and winter. In fine weather as many as 100 climbers may be attempting the ascent, leading to congestion at key sections of the climb.

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

THE KRIPPENSTEIN PAINTED BY JOSEF THOMA

JOSEF THOMA (1828-1899)

 The Krippenstein  (2,108 m - 6,916 ft) 

Austria 

In view from the  Pfaffengföll over Lake Hallstätt, with the Krippenstein in the background.

The mountain 
The Krippenstein (2,108 m - 6,916 ft) is a popular mountain on the northern edge of the Dachstein mountain range in Upper Austria. The Krippenstein has the form of a double summit: the high Krippenstein is located at a distance of 500 meters (1,640ft)  from a very rocky summit of 2,034 m, (667 3ft) which hosts a mast and a pioneer cross. Not far from the main peak, a mountain chapel has been built. The lime floor of the mountain rises directly above Lake Hallstatt (508 m), with a difference in altitude of 1600m over the lake. It was the first of the 2 thousands peaks in Austria where a cable car was developed(in 1947;  the center station of the cable car  going from Obertraun to the southern part of the Dachstein range. In 2007, the two sections between Obertraun and the Krippenstein (Mittelstation Schönbergalm) were renewed for a cost of 10 million euros. The official opening of the renewed Dachstein-Krippensteinbahn took place on 12 January 2008.
In connection with the appointment of the Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut region as an UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, some new facilities were also built on the Krippenstein. The view over the Dachstein peaks was declared as "World Heritage Views". At the top of the main peak of the Krippenstein, an observation deck was built with a spiral staircase, the "World Heritage Spiral". It has the shape of a ship and is surrounded by sun loungers.

The painter 
Not a lot of  biographical details about this Austrian painter who used to signed his paintings Josef Thoma the Younger or  Josef the Younger Thoma. Josef Thoma was born in 1828 and died in 1899. Many works by the artist have been sold at auction,  at Christie's New York ($15,000), in France, Austria and all over Europe. A pupil of his father and at the Vienna Academy, Josef Thoma was a painter of scenes of hunting, animated landscapes, urban landscapes and mountain. He likes to include water in his compositions. Many of his works, typical of the 19th century Austrian academic style are in the Vienna Museum.

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