LA DENT DU GÉANT PAINTED BY MARCEL WIBAULT

 

 

MARCEL WIBAULT (1904-1998)
La dent du Géant (4,013 m -13,166 ft)
France - Italy

The mountain
The Dent du Géant (4,013 m -13,166 ft) (« Giant's tooth") is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in France and Italy. The Dent du Géant remained unclimbed during the golden age of alpinism, and was a much-coveted peak in the 1870s, repelling many parties who attempted it mostly from the Rochefort ridge. In 1880 the strong team of Albert F. Mummery and Alexander Burgener tried to force a passage via the south-west face but were repelled by a band of slabs, causing Mummery to exclaim 'Absolutely inaccessible by fair means!'
The mountain has two summits, (27m-88 ft) apart and separated by a small col :
- Pointe Sella (4,009 m), first ascent via the south-west face by Jean Joseph Maquignaz with son Baptiste Maquignaz and nephew, Daniel Maquignaz on 28 July 1882.
- Pointe Graham (4,013 m), first ascent by W. W. Graham with guides Auguste Cupelin and Alphonse Payot on 20 August 1882.


The artist
Marcel Wibault is a french painter known especially for his numerous paintings of mountains representing Mont-Blanc, Chamonix, the great peaks of the Alps and their "chalets". He made his débuts in art by ketching soldiers of the 60th Infantry Regiment of Besançon. Later he discovered, as a Member of the French Alpine Club, the Alps and its grandiose landscapes. At the start of the 1930s, he settled in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc and discovered, in these troubled times, the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie. Encouraged by his wife, Marcel Wibault painted the mountain and its surroundings. Living in Chamonix, he travels the surroundings with his painting equipment. He could produce works in one sitting. Commissioned by the Museum of Natural History and the city of Geneva in Switzerland, as a true knowledgeable geologist, he painted numerous rocks. In the 1960s, he also testified, through his painting, of the construction of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel. Marcel Wibault received many commissions from art lovers and was able to live in part from his art. He was also a teacher for his son Lionel Wibault who, too, is a painter. In his Chamonix chalet, Alpenrose, he made some of his furniture and sculpted many characters. 

 

 

 

GRANDES JORASSES, DRUES, DENT DU GEANT PAR ALBANIS BEAUMONT

JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS  BEAUMONT (1753-1812) 

 Les Grandes Jorasses (4,208m -13, 806 ft)
Dent du Géant  (4,013 m -13,166 ft) 
L'Aiguille du Dru  (3,754 m -12,316 ft)

 France - Italy border  

In Grandes Jorasses,  Drues, Dent du Géant et Mer de Glace en 1787, aquatint

The mountain 

The Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m - 13,806 ft) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, on the boundary between Haute-Savoie in France and Aosta Valley in Italy.  Les Grandes Jorasses are, simply speaking, the most strikingly complex and powerful structure of the entire Mont Blanc massif. If Mt. Blanc is the king of the Alps, the Grandes Jorasses complex is truly the queen.
The summits on the mountain (from east to west) are:
- Pointe Walker (4,208 m; 13,806 ft), named after Horace Walker, who made the first ascent of the mountain.
- Pointe Whymper (4,184 m; 13,727 ft), he second-highest summit named after Edward Whymper, who made the first ascent.
- Pointe Croz (4,110 m - 13,484 ft), named after Michel Croz, a guide from Chamonix.
- Pointe Elena (4,045 m -13,271 ft), named after Princess Elena of Savoy.
- Pointe Margherita (4,065 m- 13,337),named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I of Italy
- Pointe Young (3,996 m - 13,110 ft)   named after Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
The first ascent of the highest peak of the mountain (Pointe Walker) was by Horace Walker with guides Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun and Julien Grange on 30 June 1868. The second-highest peak on the mountain (Pointe Whymper )was first climbed by Edward Whymper, Christian Almer, Michel Croz and Franz Biner on June 24, 1865, using what has become the normal route of ascent and the one followed by Walker's party in 1868.

The Aiguille du Dru  (3,754 m -12,316 ft) (also called Les Drus in french) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. It is situated to the east of the village of Les Praz in the Chamonix valley. "Aiguille" means "needle" in French.
The mountain's highest summit is:
- Grande Aiguille du Dru (or the Grand Dru)
- Petite Aiguille du Dru (or the Petit Dru) 3,733 m.
The two summits are located on the west ridge of the Aiguille Verte (4,122 m) and are connected to each other by the Brèche du Dru (3,697 m). The north face of the Petit Dru is considered one of the six great north faces of the Alps. The southwest "Bonatti" pillar and its eponymous climbing route were destroyed in a 2005 rock fall.

The Dent du Géant  (4,013 m -13,166 ft) (« Giant's tooth") is a mountain in the Mont Blanc  massif in France and Italy. The Dent du Géant remained unclimbed during the golden age of alpinism, and was a much-coveted peak in the 1870s, repelling many parties who attempted it mostly from the Rochefort ridge. In 1880 the strong team of Albert F. Mummery and Alexander Burgener tried to force a passage via the south-west face but were repelled by a band of slabs, causing Mummery to exclaim 'Absolutely inaccessible by fair means!'
The mountain has two summits, (27m-88 ft) apart and separated by a small col :
- Pointe Sella (4,009 m), first ascent via the south-west face by Jean Joseph Maquignaz with son Baptiste Maquignaz and nephew, Daniel Maquignaz on 28 July 1882.
- Pointe Graham (4,013 m), first ascent by W. W. Graham with guides Auguste Cupelin and Alphonse Payot on 20 August 1882.

The painter
Sir  Jean-François Albanis Beaumont, draughtsman, aquatint engraver, and landscape painter, was born in Chambery in 1753, but naturalized in England.  He studied classics in Chambéry and when he was 17 years old went to Paris. He studied 4 years at the Royal College of Engineering of Mézières and received several commissions in the Bourbonnais.
Returning in 1775 to Chambéry, he designed the decorations for the celebrations of the marriage of Clotilde de France and Prince Charles-Emmanuel. Engineer Filippo Nicolis di Robilant encouraged him to work for king Victor Amadeus III, who placed him with the chief engineer of the county of Nice, where he took part in the important works underway in Port Lympia. He was inscribed on April 30, 1780, in the class of civil architects of the University of Turin.
He accompanied the Duke of Gloucester, William Frederick of Hanover in his Grand Tour (Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland), who subsequently entrusted him with the education of his children. He then settled in Britain and married an Englishwoman of Protestant religion.
In 1787 he began to publish his first works illustrated with his own drawings "Picturesque travel to the Pennine Alps", "Historical and picturesque journey of the County of Nice", "Journey through the Rhaetian Alps in 1786", "Selected views of antiquities And ports in the south of France "and" Travel through the Maritime Alps".
In 1796, his mission was completed and he could return to Savoie and settle near Genevawhere in 1798 he bought a small agricultural estate on the commune of Thônex with which he planned to enter the  trade of wool. He does not find the success expected and must soon resell everything and resume his work as geographer and traveler.
In 1800, he published "Journey in the Alps Lepontine from France to Italy" and then "Description of the Greek and Cote Alps" (1802 and 1806).
In 1810, he died at the monastery of Sixt of which he became the owner. He had resumed the exploitation of the iron mines, but he faced too many difficulties. He is buried on the spot.
The views of the towns and landscapes he drew are very sought after and give an idea of ​​the appearance of these places at the time.

COL DU GEANT PHOTOGRAPHED BY BISSON FRERES

BISSON FRERES

Louis-Auguste Bisson (1814-1876) and Auguste-Rosalie (1826-1900) Bisson 

 The Col du Géant (3,356m - 11, 010 ft)   

France - Italy border  

Photographed in 1860

The mountain 

The col du Géant  (Pass of  the Giant) (3,356 m) is the main passage of the Mont Blanc massif between Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in the valley of the Arve. On the French side, to the north is the Glacier du Géant which overlooks the Mer de Glace.

The pass is located between the summits of the Tour Ronde and the Dent du Géant. Close to the pass are Helbronner Peak and the Torino refuge, where the Panoramic Mont-Blanc cable car arrives, which joins on one side the Aiguille du Midi and the other La Palud near Entrêves.

About the Col du Géant there is a pending dispute over the course of the frontier between France and Italy, similar to that concerning the summit of Mont Blanc. The Italian make the frontier passing in  the Col du Géant, whereas on French maps the frontier passes a hundred meters to the south, the Col du Géant being entirely in France. This dispute was revived in 2015, following the ban on access to the Géant glacier from the Torino refuge, by the Chamonix town hall authorities, for security reasons. The Italian newspaper La Stampa noted that if this dispute is anachronistic in the context of the European Community, it could nevertheless pose a problem of "criminal and civil liability if incidents were to occur in the icy zone. "

The photographers 

Bisson  Frères (Bisson Brothers) were among the best-known European photographers of the1850s and 1860s.   Louis-Auguste Bisson (1814–1876) was a 19th-century French photographer who opened a photographic studio in early 1841. Soon after, his brother Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (1826–1900) entered into partnership with him. Their studio was in the La Madeleine in Paris, and they became famous as the Bisson Frères. In 1860,  they accompanied the french Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Empress Eugénie, on the occasion of the reunion of Savoy with France. The Bissons  Brothers went to Chamonix to attempt the ascent of Mont-Blanc. They failed to reach the summit but the large glass negatives they produced during the climb were the basis of an album of twenty-four superb Alpine views.  Their most famous body of work is comprised of the high-altitude photographs they made in the Alps during the climbing seasons of 1859-1862. Despite the arduous conditions, the Bissons captured this masterful scene of an epic struggle by men intent on conquering nature--set against a magnificent landscape.Having received an encouraging response to his work, the following year Auguste ascended Mont Blanc, taking with him twenty-five porters to carry his equipment. The photographs were made using the Collodion process, with very large negatives, often up to 30 cm x 40 cm (12" x 16"). The brothers refused to reduce their images to the carte de visite size and, consequently, after four years, they ceased operating their business. One of the most famous works attributed to this artist is his photograph of the writer Honoré de Balzac and the portrait of the  composer Frédéric Chopin. The origin of the portrait of Chopin has never been adequately explained and, subsequently, the image was excluded from the "Les frères Bisson Photographes" exhibition at the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1999 in Paris.