HALF DOME / TIS-SA-ACK PAR ANSEL ADAMS

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Half Dome / Tis-sa-ack (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)
Etats-Unis d'Amérique (Californie)

 

In Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California 1960, printed 1974 Gelatin silver print
The MET, New York

Le photographe
Ansel Easton Adams est un photographe et écologiste américain, connu pour ses photographies en noir et blanc de l'Ouest américain, notamment dans la Sierra Nevada, et plus particulièrement du parc national de Yosemite. Une de ses plus célèbres photographies s'intitule Moonrise, Hernandez, Nouveau-Mexique. En collaboration avec Fred Archer, Adams développa le zone system, procédé qui permet de déterminer l'exposition correcte ainsi que l'ajustement du contraste sur le tirage final. La profondeur et la clarté qui en résultent sont la marque de fabrique des photographies d'Ansel Adams et de ceux à qui il a enseigné la technique. Dans un premier temps, Adams utilisera des appareils photographiques grand format (plus que 4 × 5 pouces), qui malgré leur taille, leur poids, le temps de mise en place et le prix des films sont un bon moyen, de par leur résolution élevée, de s'assurer du piqué de l'image. Adams fonda le Groupe f/64 avec ses amis photographes Edward Weston et Imogen Cunningham, qui à leur tour, mettront en place le département de la photographie au sein du Museum of Modern Art. Les photographies intemporelles et visuellement saisissantes d'Ansel Adams sont de nos jours encore reproduites sur une grande variété de supports : calendriers, posters, livres, faisant de ses clichés des images célèbres et reconnaissables. Une réserve de nature sauvage porte désormais son nom, au sud du parc national de Yosemite, en Californie.

La montagne
Half Dome / Tis-sa-ack (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) « Demi Dôme » en anglais, " roche fendue » en langage amérindien, est un dôme granitique situé à l’extrémité est de la vallée de Yosemite, sans doute l’élément le plus célèbre de la vallée. Le sommet se situe à plus de 1 440 mètres au-dessus du niveau de la vallée. Half Dome est un excellent exemple de dôme d'exfoliation. Il ne fut probablement jamais un dôme complet et rond. Quand le Half Dome s’est formé, il avait déjà des fractures dans le granite. L’eau s’infiltra dans les fractures et gela, cassant la roche. Des glaciers érodèrent la base du dôme. Finalement, environ 20 % du dôme fut emporté par le glacier Tenaya, laissant derrière lui une paroi presque verticale.
Jusque dans les années 1870, on considérait que le Half Dome ne pouvait être grimpé. De nos jours, des milliers de randonneurs atteignent le sommet chaque année par la « voie normale avec les câbles ». Un itinéraire qui part du fond de la vallée et fait 13,5 kilomètres (8,5 miles) pour 1 500 mètres de dénivelé positif, avec une difficulté de « randonnée alpine » (T4). Les derniers 200 mètres d'ascension sont une dalle très inclinée (30°) équipée de câbles métalliques (posés en 1919).
D’autre part, il existe une douzaine de voies d’escalade qui mènent de la vallée au sommet à travers la face verticale nord-ouest du Half Dome. D’autres itinéraires escaladent la paroi sur la face sud et la paroi ouest. La première voie ouverte était la voie Regular Northwest Face (voie normale de la face nord-ouest), grimpée pour la première fois en 1957 par Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick et Jerry Gallwas. Cette ascension dura 5 jours et fut la première voie de niveau VI aux États-Unis. Depuis, cette montagne f  a été le témoin d'un autre grand exploit sportif. Le 6 septembre 2007, la jeune figure montante de l'escalade en solo, Alex Honnold, a grimpé le Regular Northwest Face (voie de plus de 700 mètres (23 longueurs de corde) cotée 5.12a) sans aucune protection en seulement 2 heures et 50 minutes.
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2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
            Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
            Un blog de Francis Rousseau

HALF DOME PEINT PAR WAYNE THIEBAUD

 

WAYNE THIEBAUD (1920-2021)
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)
United States of America (California)

In Yosemite Rock Formation, Memory Mountains  huile sur toile 80,x 60 cm, 2012

A propos de la série Memory Mountains
Memory Mountains, se compose de 31 peintures et 17 œuvres sur papier qui occupe les deux étages de la Galerie Paul Thiebaud. à San Fransisco. A propos de la peinture de montagnes Watne Thiebaud au Hufftington Post :  " Un jour je me suis demandé ce qui se passerait si on essayait de voir les montagnes sous un autre angle que l'angle habituel.   En effet, en peinture,  nous les voyons le plus souvent  de loin, à moins que nous ne les escaladions. Face à cette tendance à toujours représenter les montagnes vues de loin, j'ai pris le parti dans ma série Memory Mountains,  de m'en rapprocher le plus possible pour les peindre. "

 

La montagne
Half Dome (2 695 m - 8 844 pieds) est un dôme de granit situé à l'extrémité est de la vallée de Yosemite dans le parc national de Yosemite, en Californie, qui fait partie de la chaîne de montagnes de la Sierra Nevada. C'est une formation rocheuse bien connue dans le parc, nommée pour sa forme particulière la faisant apparaître comme un dôme coupé en deux. La crête de granit s'élève à plus de 4 737 pieds (1 444 m) au-dessus du fond de la vallée. L'impression ressentie du fond de la vallée qu'il s'agit d'un dôme rond qui a perdu sa moitié nord-ouest est une illusion. De Washburn Point, Half Dome peut être vu comme une mince crête de roche, une arête orientée nord-est-sud-ouest, avec son côté sud-est presque aussi raide que son côté nord-ouest à l'exception du sommet. Jusque dans les années 1870, Half Dome était décrit comme "parfaitement inaccessible" par Josiah Whitney du California Geological Survey. Le sommet a finalement été conquis par George G. Anderson en octobre 1875, via un itinéraire élaboé en forant et en plaçant des boulons en fer dans le granit lisse.
Aujourd'hui, Half Dome peut  être escaladé de plusieurs manières différentes. Des milliers de randonneurs atteignent le sommet chaque année en suivant un sentier de 13,7 km depuis le fond de la vallée. Après une approche rigoureuse de 3,2 km (2 mi), comprenant plusieurs centaines de pieds d'escaliers en granit, la pente finale de la face est escarpée mais quelque peu arrondie du pic est montée à l'aide d'une paire de câbles en acier tressé montés sur poteau construits à l'origine près de la route Anderson en 1919.
Plus d'une douzaine de voies d'escalade mènent de la vallée à la face verticale nord-ouest du Half Dome. La première ascension technique a eu lieu en 1957 via un itinéraire lancé par Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick et Jerry Gallwas, aujourd'hui connu sous le nom de Regular Northwest Face. Leur épopée de cinq jours a été la première ascension de grade VI aux États-Unis. Leur route a maintenant été parcourue en solo plusieurs fois en quelques heures.

 Le peintre
Morton Wayne Thiebaud était un peintre américain connu pour ses œuvres colorées représentant des objets du quotidien  - tartes, rouges à lèvres, pots de peinture, cornets de crème glacée, pâtisseries et hot-dogs - ainsi que pour ses paysages et ses peintures de personnages. Thiebaud est associé au mouvement pop art en raison de son intérêt pour les objets de la culture de masse, bien que ses premières œuvres, exécutées dans les années cinquante et soixante, soient antérieures aux œuvres des artistes pop classiques. Thiebaud a utilisé des pigments lourds et des couleurs exagérées pour représenter ses sujets, et les ombres bien définies caractéristiques des publicités sont presque toujours incluses dans son travail.
Thiebaud était opposé aux étiquettes telles que « beaux-arts » par opposition à « art commercial » et se décrivait comme « juste un peintre à l'ancienne ». Il n'aimait pas les peintures "plates" et "mécaniques" d'Andy Warhol et ne se considérait pas comme un artiste pop.
En plus des pâtisseries, Thiebaud a peint des personnages tels que Mickey Mouse ainsi que des paysages, des paysages de rue et des paysages urbains, qui ont été influencés par le travail de Richard Diebenkorn. Ses peintures telles que Sunset Streets (1985) et Flatland River (1997) sont réputées pour leur hyper réalisme et ont été comparées au travail d'Edward Hopper, un autre artiste fasciné par les scènes banales de la vie quotidienne américaine.
En 1962, le travail de Thiebaud a été inclus, avec Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine et Robert Dowd, dans la "Nouvelle peinture d'objets communs" historiquement importante et révolutionnaire organisée au Pasadena Art Museum. Cette exposition est considérée comme l'une des premières expositions de Pop Art aux États-Unis. Ces peintres faisaient partie d'un nouveau mouvement, à une époque de troubles sociaux, qui a choqué les États-Unis et le monde de l'art.

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2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau   

MONT DIABLO PEINT PAR WILLIAM KEITH

WILLIAM KEITH (1838-1911)
Mont Diablo (1 ,173m - 3,648 ft)
Etats-Unis (Californie)

In Sunset on Mount Diablo, 1877 Huile sur toile, 100.7 cm x 151.5 cm.
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto CA

Le peintre
William Keith était un peintre américano- écossais célèbre pour ses paysages californiens. Il est associé au tonalisme et à l'Ecole de Barbizon. Bien que la majeure partie de sa carrière se soit déroulée en Californie, il a c effectué deux longs voyages d'études en Europe et a eu un studio à Boston en 1871-72 et un à New York en 1880.
Dans les années 1870, Keith est arrivé en Californie, dans la vallée de Yosemite, avec une lettre de recommandation auprès de John Muir. Les deux hommes sont devenus de grands amis et cette amitié a perduré les 38 années du reste de leur vie . Tous deux étaient nés en Écosse la même année et partageaient un amour pour les montagnes de Californie. James Mitchell Clarke a décrit leur amitié comme une amitié "dans laquelle une affection et une admiration profondes s'exprimaient à travers une sorte de joute verbale, permanente ".
Au cours des années 1870, Keith a peint un certain nombre de grandes œuvres panoramiques dont Kings River Canyon (Oakland Museum) et California Alps (Mission Inn, Riverside). Ces oeuvre voulaient directement rivaliser avec celles de sujet similaires peint par Albert Bierstadt ou Thomas Hill.
"Mes images sont celles qui viennent de l'intérieur.de moi. Je ressens une émotion et je peins immédiatement une image qui l'exprime. Le sentiment est la valeur réelle dans mes images, et seules quelques personnes comprennent cela. Quiconque sait utiliser de la peinture et des pinceaux peut peindre une vraie scène de la nature - c'est une image objective. Mais pour un artiste digne de ce nom, tout doit cela doit venir de l'intérieur de lui même " .

La montagne
Le mont Diablo (1 ,173m - 3,648 ft) est une montagne située dans le comté de Contra Costa dans la région urbaine de San Francisco, au sud de la ville de Clayton et au nord-ouest de Danville. Ce sommet isolé est visible de l'ensemble de la baie de San Francisco et de nombreux endroits de la Californie du Nord. Le mont Diablo ressemble à une double pyramide sous de nombreux angles, et inclut plusieurs sommets secondaires, le plus important et le plus proche étant celui de l'autre moitié de ladite double pyramide, North Peak. Le sommet du mont Diablo est accessible aux véhicules motorisés, randonneurs ou cyclistes. Par temps clair, il est possible du sommet d'apercevoir le massif montagneux de la Sierra Nevada et la montagne de l'extrémité sud de la chaîne des Cascades, le volcan du pic Lassen, à environ 290 kilomètres. Le mont Shasta reste invisible du fait de la courbure terrestre, mais le Half Dome du parc national de Yosemite est lui visible par temps exceptionnellement clair grâce à un télescope.

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

MOUNT TARAWERA (2) PAINTED BY CHARLES BLOMFIELD

 

CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848-1926)

Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) 

New Zealand (North Island)

  In  White Terraces, oil on canvas, 1882, Museum of New Zeland Te Papa Tongarewa 

The full extraordinsary story  of this unbelievable volcano  in paintings is HERE

 

The mountain 
Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) is the volcano responsible for one of New Zealand's largest historic eruptions. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which killed an estimated 120 people. These fissures run for about 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome, Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These lakes include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Rotokakahi (Green Lake). The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
Main eruptions 
- 1315 : Mount Tarawera erupted for the fist time on modern history. The ash thrown from this event may have affected temperatures around the globe and precipitated the Great Famine of 1315–17 in Europe.
- 1886 : Shortly after midnight on the morning of 10 June 1886, a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and an unusual sheet lightning display was observed from the direction of Tarawera. At around 2:00 am a larger earthquake was felt and followed by the sound of an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky (see painting above). At around 3.30 am, the largest phase of the eruption commenced; vents at Rotomahana produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius, and the Pink and White Terraces appeared to be obliterated.
The eruption was heard clearly as far away as Blenheim and the effects of the ash in the air were observed as far south as Christchurch, over 800 km away. In Auckland the sound of the eruption and the flashing sky was thought by some to be an attack by Russian warships.
Although the official contemporary death toll was 153, exhaustive research by physicist Ron Keam only identified 108 people killed by the eruption. Much of the discrepancy was due to misspelled names and other duplications. Allowing for some unnamed and unknown victims, he estimated that the true death toll was 120 at most.  Some people claim that many more people died.
The eruption also buried many Māori villages, including Te Wairoa which has now become a tourist attraction (Buried Village of Te Wairoa) and the world-famous Pink and White Terraces were lost. A small portion of the Pink Terraces was rediscovered under Lake Rotomahana 125 years later. Approximately 2 cubic kilometres of tephra was erupted, more than Mount St. Helens ejected in 1980. Many of the lakes surrounding the mountain had their shapes and areas dramatically altered, especially the eventual enlargement of Lake Rotomahana, the largest crater involved in the eruption, as it re-filled with water.
Legend
One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom canoe. Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre eruption fissures had freed a burial waka (canoe) from its resting place. Traditionally dead chiefs were tied in an upright position. A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.
Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signaled by the reappearance of the canoe.

The painter 

 Charles Blomfield  was a New Zealand decorator, artist and music teacher born in London, England.

A widow, Blomfield's mother brought her family to New Zealand in the 1860's intending to settle in Northland as part of a settlement called Albertland. On arrival in Auckland they decided not to proceed on Northland to become farmers but to pursue urban trades in Auckland. The family remained in Auckland after that and many of the descendants of the various children still reside in the Auckland area.

Charles Blomfield lived in Freeman's Bay - 40 Wood Street, in a house built by his brother and allegedly made out of the timber from one large Kauri tree. As well as an exhibiting easel painter Blomfield worked as a sign-writer and interior decorator; for this trade he maintained studios in shops at various times. These were usually on Karangahape Road, one of these was shared with his daughter who made a living painting floral pieces which she also exhibited at the Auckland Society of Arts.

Blomfield travelled throughout the centre of the North Island on several occasions in the 1870s and 80s creating many landscape paintings of the New Zealand countryside, often for sale to visitors to New Zealand. He was fortunate to view the famed Pink and White Terraces several times and paint them before they were destroyed by the eruption of Tarawera in 1886. His meticulous sketches and finished paintings are some of the main records of them (see above).  For the remainder of his life he was probably able to rely on new versions of his classic views of them to supplement his income.

His paintings are widely regarded as the epitome of 19th century New Zealand landscape art, although his work, like many of his contemporaries, fell out of fashion during the 20th century, only to be re-evaluated in the 1970s. He was unable to come to terms with developments in art and remained staunchly conservative and hostile to 'modern art'. In his later years he found himself increasingly sidelined by the artistic circles in Auckland which he had previously shone in and was probably embittered by this.

Blomfield died at his residence in Wood Street in 1926. He was survived by several children. One of his brothers, William, was a noted newspaper cartoonist.

 Source : 

- Museum of New Zeland Te Papa Tongarewa

 

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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT TARAWERA AND LAKE PAINTED BY KENNETT WATKINS

KENNETT WATKINS (1847-1933)
Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft)
New Zealand (North Island)

In The Phantom Canoe - A Legend of Lake Tarawera , oil on canvas Auckland Art Gallery

The Legend
One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption  of Mount Tarawera is that of the phantom canoe. Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre eruption fissures had freed a burial waka (canoe) from its resting place. Traditionally dead chiefs were tied in an upright position. A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.
Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signaled by the reappearance of the canoe.

 
The mountain  and the lake
Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) is the volcano responsible for one of New Zealand's largest historic eruptions. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which killed an estimated 120 people. These fissures run for about 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome, Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These lakes include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Rotokakahi (Green Lake). The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
Main eruptions
- 1315 : Mount Tarawera erupted for the fist time on modern history. The ash thrown from this event may have affected temperatures around the globe and precipitated the Great Famine of 1315–17 in Europe.
- 1886 : Shortly after midnight on the morning of 10 June 1886, a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and an unusual sheet lightning display was observed from the direction of Tarawera. At around 2:00 am a larger earthquake was felt and followed by the sound of an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky (see painting above). At around 3.30 am, the largest phase of the eruption commenced; vents at Rotomahana produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius, and the Pink and White Terraces appeared to be obliterated.
The eruption was heard clearly as far away as Blenheim and the effects of the ash in the air were observed as far south as Christchurch, over 800 km away. In Auckland the sound of the eruption and the flashing sky was thought by some to be an attack by Russian warships.
Although the official contemporary death toll was 153, exhaustive research by physicist Ron Keam only identified 108 people killed by the eruption. Much of the discrepancy was due to misspelled names and other duplications. Allowing for some unnamed and unknown victims, he estimated that the true death toll was 120 at most. Some people claim that many more people died.
The eruption also buried many Māori villages, including Te Wairoa which has now become a tourist attraction (Buried Village of Te Wairoa) and the world-famous Pink and White Terraces were lost. A small portion of the Pink Terraces was rediscovered under Lake Rotomahana 125 years later. Approximately 2 cubic kilometres of tephra was erupted, more than Mount St. Helens ejected in 1980. Many of the lakes surrounding the mountain had their shapes and areas dramatically altered, especially the eventual enlargement of Lake Rotomahana, the largest crater involved in the eruption, as it re-filled with water. 

The painter
Kennett Watkins was born in India in 1847, the son of Major John Watkins and Martha Jane Simons; he was Christened on 21 July 1847 in Ootacamund, Madras, India. His father died some time before 1861. In the UK Census of 1861 he was recorded in the household of his widowed grandmother Sarah Simons at 59 Marine Parade, Brighton, Sussex, England. Aged 13 and a scholar. Also in the household was his widowed mother Martha, his three siblings Lydia, Edward and John, 23 year old cousin Lieut. William Ker and two servants. He was educated in England and, as an artist, in France and Switzerland.
Kennett Watkins migrated from England to New Zealand. He emigrated from England to New Zealand in 1873, where he married Clara Eliza Alice Davis in 1876.
He was a photographer, painter of lndscapes (oil and waterolors) and teacher in Auckland.
He passed away in 1933 at age 86 and was buried in the Mercury Bay Cemetery in Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato, New Zealand.
The earliest auction registered for Kenneth Watkins pianitngs is in1992 for a toal 57 worksoffered for sale of which 29 ( 51%) weresold. The highest price recorded wis $ 136,450 for Maro family Canoeing on the Waokato River.

HALF DOME PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 THOMAS HILL (1829-1908),

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)

United States of America (California)

In Royal Arches And Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, Private collection

The mountain
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.
Today, Half Dome may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from the valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of granite stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted braided steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919.
Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face. Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free soloed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder.

The painter
Thomas Hill was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature. For Thomas Hill, Yosemite Valley and the White Mountains of New Hampshire were his sources of inspiration to begin painting and captured his direct response to nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works. In plein air means to “paint outdoors and directly from the landscape”,[ which Hill incorporated into many of his paintings. Hill’s landscape paintings demonstrate how he combined his powers of observation with powerful motifs in each painting.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000. Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNTAINS OF YOSEMITE VALLEY PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 

THOMAS HILL (1829-1908)  

Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m - 6,648 ft)

El Capitan (2,309 m - 7,573 ft)

Sentinel Dome (2,477 m - 8,127 ft)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844  ft)

United States of America (California)

In View of Yosemite Valley oil on canvas, 1885, (92.1 x 137.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (not on view)



Mountains of Yosemite Valley
The Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m- 6,648 ft)  (on right in the painting above with the cascades) is a prominent rock face on the south side of Yosemite Valley, California.
El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) (on left in the painting above) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers. The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when it explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah". It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In modern times, the formation's name is often contracted to "El Cap", especially among rock climbers and BASE jumpers.
Sentinel Dome (2,477m - 8,127ft) (behind Cathedral rock in the painting above) is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, United States. It lies on the south wall of Yosemite Valley, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Glacier Point and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of Profile Cliff. Sentinel Dome is known for a Jeffrey Pine that grew from its peak (see photograph above). The pine was photographed as early as 1867 by Carleton Watkins, and was the subject of the well-known photograph by Ansel Adams. The pine died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003. The original Native American name of Sentinel Dome, in the Southern Sierra Miwok language, was "Sakkaduch". The Bunnell survey named it "South Dome", but the Whitney survey renamed it Sentinel Dome (from its likeness to a watch-tower). The view from the top offers a 360 degree view of Yosemite Valley and surroundings. One can see Half Dome,Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, North Dome, Basket Dome, and much more.
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) (behind Sentinel Dome in the painting above) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.


The painter
Thomas Hill produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000. Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CATHEDRAL ROCK, EL CAPITAN, SENTINEL DOME AND HALF DOME BY DAVID HOCKNEY

 

DAVID HOCKNEY (bn. 1937)

Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m - 6,648 ft)

El Capitan (2,309 m - 7,573 ft)

Sentinel Dome (2,477 m - 8,127 ft)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844  ft)

United States of America (California)

In Yosemite I, October 16, 2011, 

iPad drawing printed on four sheets of paper, mounted on four sheets of Dibond, Private collection

Mountains of Yosemite Valley
The Middle Cathedral Rock (2,026 m- 6,648 ft)  (on right in the painting above with the cascades) is a prominent rock face on the south side of Yosemite Valley, California.
El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) (on left in the painting above) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers. The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when it explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah". It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In modern times, the formation's name is often contracted to "El Cap", especially among rock climbers and BASE jumpers. 
Sentinel Dome (2,477m - 8,127ft)  (behind Cathedral rock in the painting above) is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, United States. It lies on the south wall of Yosemite Valley, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Glacier Point and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of Profile Cliff. Sentinel Dome is known for a Jeffrey Pine that grew from its peak (see photograph above). The pine was photographed as early as 1867 by Carleton Watkins, and was the subject of the well-known photograph by Ansel Adams. The pine died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003. The original Native American name of Sentinel Dome, in the Southern Sierra Miwok language, was "Sakkaduch". The Bunnell survey named it "South Dome", but the Whitney survey renamed it Sentinel Dome (from its likeness to a watch-tower). The view from the top offers a 360 degree view of Yosemite Valley and surroundings. One can see Half Dome,Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, North Dome, Basket Dome, and much more.
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft) (behind Sentienl Dome in the painting above) is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half.  The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.

The artist
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. An important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.
At the Royal College of Art, Hockney featured in the exhibition Young Contemporaries—alongside Peter Blake—that announced the arrival of British Pop art. He was associated with the movement, but his early works display expressionist elements, similar to some works by Francis Bacon. When the RCA said it would not let him graduate in 1962, Hockney drew the sketch The Diploma in protest. He had refused to write an essay required for the final examination, saying he should be assessed solely on his artworks. Recognising his talent and growing reputation, the RCA changed its regulations and awarded the diploma. After leaving the RCA, he taught at Maidstone College of Art for a short time. A visit to California, where he subsequently lived for many years, inspired him to make a series of paintings of swimming pools in the comparatively new acrylic medium rendered in a highly realistic style using vibrant colours. The artist moved to Los Angeles in 1964, returned to London in 1968, and from 1973 to 1975 lived in Paris.
Hockney has a home and studio in Kensington, London and two residences in California, where he has lived on and off for over 30 years: one in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, and an office and archives on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

EL PANECILLO & EL PINCHICHA BY RAFEAL SALAS

 

RAFAEL SALAS (1824-1906)

 El Panecillo  (3,016 m - 9,895 ft)

El Pinchicha (4,784 m -15,696 ft)

Ecuador

In Vista de Quito, con la Colina de El Panecillo y el volcàn Pinchacha. oil on canvas, 1849,  

Museo Arocena, Mexico

About the painting
This painting shows in the foreground the old city of Quito (Ecuador) as it was during the first part of the19th century. In the second plan, in the middle of the composition, onecan see the hill of El Panecillo, at the top of which we sat the satute of the virgin of Quito. On the right,  one can see the Pincahacha volcano...

The mountains
El Panecillo  (3,016 m - 9,895 ft)  from Spanish: "bun" is a hill overlooking Quito at the top of which is the statue of the welle known Virgin of Quito. El Panecillo can be seen at the south end of Venezuela Street, one of the longest in the old town. From its summit, one can see the historic battlefield where Marshal Sucre defeated the Spanish in the decisive battle of independence in 1822 on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano to the west.
El Pichincha (4,784 m -15,696 ft) is an active stratovolcano situated in Ecuador. The two highest peaks of the mountain are Wawa Pichincha (Hispanicized spelling Guagua Pichincha meaning child, baby or small and Ruku Pichincha (Hispanicized Rucu Pichincha meaning old person, in Kithwa rujku langage) (4,698 metres (15,413 ft)). The active caldera is in Wawa Pichincha on the western side of the mountain.
Both peaks are visible from the city of Quito and both are popular acclimatization climbs.
In October 1999, the volcano erupted and covered the city with several inches of ash. Prior to that, the last major eruptions were in 1553 and during the Plinian eruption of 1660, when about 30 cm of ash fell on the city of Quito.
In 1737 several members of the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, including Charles-Marie de La Condamine, Pierre Bouguer and Antonio de Ulloa, spent 23 days on the summit of Rucu Pichincha as part of their triangulation work to calculate the length of a degree of latitude.
On 17 June 1742, during the same mission, La Condamine and Bouguer made an ascent of Guagua Pichincha and looked down into the crater of the volcano, which had last erupted in 1660. La Condamine compared what he saw to the underworld.
On May 24, 1822, General Sucre's southern campaign, in the context of the Spanish-America war of independence, came to a climax when patriot forces defeated the Spanish colonial army on the south-east slopes of this volcano. The engagement, known as the Battle of Pichincha, secured the independence of the territories of present-day Ecuador.
The most recent significant eruption was in August 1998. On March 12, 2000, a phreatic eruption killed two volcanologists who were working on the lava dome.

The painter
Rafael Salas was an important Ecuadorian landscape and genre painter of nineteenth century South America neoclassicism. He was the last son of the famous Salas artists dynasty among which his half brother Ramon Salas ( 1815-1880), the fist professor a t Academy of fine Arts of Quito and responsive for the taste of Costumbrismo; and above all their father Antonio Salas (1795-1860) a colonial artist specialized in religious themes like La Muerte de San José and La Negacion de San Pedro in the Cathedral of Quito
  
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes 
Un blog de Francis Roussea

MOUNT TARAWERA / PINK TERRACES BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913)

Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) 

New Zealand

In Mount Tarawera with Maori Figures Camping in the Foreground, oil on canvas

The mountain
Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) is the volcano responsible for one of New Zealand's largest historic eruptions. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which killed an estimated 120 people. These fissures run for about 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome, Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These lakes include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Rotokakahi (Green Lake). The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom canoe. Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre eruption fissures had freed a burial waka (canoe) from its resting place. Traditionally dead chiefs were tied in an upright position. A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.
Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signaled by the reappearance of the canoe.

The Painter
John Barr Clark Hoyte was born in England, probably in London, Nothing is known of Hoyte's education and artistic training and we are reduced to the obvious deduction that he was heir to the English tradition of topographic draughtsmanship and watercolour painting. Firm drawing underlies his landscapes, making it appropriate to group him with colonial surveyor–architect artists such as Edward Ashworth, Edmund Norman and George O'Brien.
During his years in New Zealand John Hoyte travelled assiduously in search of new scenes to exploit. His pictorial exploration of the colony's principal dramatic landscapes was completed when he took a cruise circumnavigating the South Island in early 1877, exploring the coast of Fiordland with particular attention. New Zealand subjects would continue to inspire his production long after he had settled in Australia, where they shared his attention with coastal and mountain views drawn chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sydney.
Despite his apparent commercial success, however, Hoyte's standing, like that of George O'Brien, waned in the 1870s: a decade which marked a major shift in New Zealand colonial taste as the Turnerian Romantics such as Gully, J. C. Richmond and W. M. Hodgkins moved into greater prominence. They and their style were to dominate the following decades.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LA SOUFRIÈRE BY AUGUSTE LACOUR

AUGUSTE LACOUR (1805-1869)

La Soufrière (1, 467m - 4, 813ft)

France - Guadeloupe

In La Soufrière - Histoire de la Guadeloupe, Basse-terre, 1857

The mountain 

La Soufrière (1, 467m - )  in Guadeloupean Creole "vié madanm la", (literally "the old lady" in French) is a volcano in activity located on the territory of the commune of Saint-Claude in Guadeloupe, in the national park of the same name, in the south of the island of Basse-Terre. 

It is the only active volcano on the island, since the last 10,000 years, currently in a state of eruptive rest.The Soufrière is part of a volcanic ensemble comprising several eruptive mouths.  Surrounding the main eruptive mouth, other structures formed during eruptions. These are lava domes (Morne Amic, Morne Dongo, Madeleine), volcanic cones (Le Morne Carmichael, La Citerne, L'Echelle, La Grande Découverte, Le Gros Fougas, Le Morne Lenglet) and small craters on the main dome (Amic, gouffres Dupuis et Tarissan, Le cratère Napoléon)

The summit of LA Soufrière is called La Découverte ; it is the highest peak of Guadeloupe and the Lesser Antilles. This lava dome takes the form of a truncated cone 900 meters in diameter at its base. There is no real crater but several eruptive mouths, chasms from which sulphurous vapors escape and deep gashes. The landscape is rocky and chaotic, almost lunar, bristling with pitons. 

It is often covered with mists. 

Several marked trails run through the volcanic summit.

It is an active volcano of the Pelican type - explosive with fiery clouds -, therefore very dangerous, and of recent formation (100 000 to 200 000 years). Its activity is marked by fumaroles, sulphurous vapors and hot springs on different points of the summit. 

The first explosive magmatic eruption of the Soufrière is established around the fifteenth century2,4 or perhaps around 1530 with more or less 30 years of uncertainty5.

The first description of the Soufrière is the fact of the father Jacques Du Tertre in The General History of the Antilles inhabited by the François published in 1667-1671.

In 1797, an important phreatic eruption took place. It can not be ruled out that this eruption was also that of a captive sheet and not of a water table, that is to say put at atmospheric pressure. 

An other minor phreatic eruption occurred in 1956.

The last eruption of the Soufrière dates from 1976; it was a phreatic eruption. It led to the evacuation of the southern part of Basse-Terre and the prefecture, 73,600 people over three and a half months. No deaths were deplored.

The artist

Born in Guadeloupe, Auguste Lacour studied law in Paris and obtained a degree in September 1828. He entered the magistracy and was appointed provisional auditor judge, at Basse-Terre, on October 2, 1830. He held, in turn, the functions of public prosecutor, lieutenant of judge at Marie-Galante and Martinique.  In 1839 he returned to Basse-Terre as a Royal judge.

Under the Second Empire, he was appointed advisor to the Imperial Court of Guadeloupe.

Between 1855 and 1860, Auguste Lacour took advantage of the leisure hours left to him by his duties as Imperial Court Adviser to write and illustrate with unpublished documents, a "Histoire de  Guadeloupe", in four volumes, since the time of its discovery until 1830.

This work was needed, and, in publishing it, Auguste Lacour rendered a true service to his country. Today one always consult with interest those volumes which, with time, have become very rare.

 "L'Impremerie du gouvernement"  (nowadays "Imprimerie Nationale")  in France was responsible for publishing the book in 1857 with some remarquables illustrations including the one above. 

Auguste Lacour obtained, in August 1864, the Corix de Chevalier de la Legion d'HOnneur (Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor).  

He died at the age of sixty-four,  in Guadeloupe,  leaving manuscripts that his heirs refused to publish.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

HALF DOME PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANSEL ADAMS

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)  

United States of America (California) 

In  Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1960 

The mountain
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)   is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.
Today, Half Dome may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from the valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of granite stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted braided steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919.
Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face. Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free soloed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder.

 The photographer
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist.
His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, books, and the internet. Adams and Fred Archer developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. He primarily used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. Adams founded the photography group known as Group f/64, along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham.
In September 1941, Adams contracted with the Department of the Interior to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations for use as mural-sized prints for decoration of the Department's new building. Part of his understanding with the Department was that he might also make photographs for his own use, using his own film and processing.
Full entry Wanderingvertexes

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

SENTINEL DOME & JEFFREY PINE BY ANSEL ADAMS

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984) 

Sentinel Dome  (2,477m - 8,127ft)

United States of America (California)  

In Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1940

The mountain  and the pine 

Sentinel Dome  (2,477m - 8,127ft) is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, United States. It lies on the south wall of Yosemite Valley, 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of Glacier Point and 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of Profile Cliff.

Sentinel Dome is known for a Jeffrey Pine that grew from its peak (see photograph above). The pine was photographed as early as 1867 by Carleton Watkins, and was the subject of the well-known photograph above  by Ansel Adams. The pine died during the drought of 1976, but remained standing until August 2003.

The original Native American name of Sentinel Dome, in the Southern Sierra Miwok language, was "Sakkaduch". The Bunnell survey named it "South Dome", but the Whitney survey renamed it Sentinel Dome (from its likeness to a watch-tower). The view from the top offers a 360 degree view of Yosemite Valley and surroundings. One can see Half Dome,Yosemite Falls, El Capitan,  North Dome, Basket Dome, and much more. 

The trail to the base of Sentinel Dome is a relatively easy 1.1-mile (1.8 km) hike. The trailhead, the same as the Taft Point trailhead, is located 6 miles (9.7 km) from Bridalveil Creek on the Glacier Point road. Once at the base, hikers traverse the less imposing northeast granite slope to the summit.In winter, Sentinel Dome can be reached from Badger Pass by a 10-miles ski tour.

The photographer 
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist.
His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, books, and the internet. Adams and Fred Archer developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. He primarily used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. Adams founded the photography group known as Group f/64, along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham.
In September 1941, Adams contracted with the Department of the Interior to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations for use as mural-sized prints for decoration of the Department's new building. Part of his understanding with the Department was that he might also make photographs for his own use, using his own film and processing. Although Adams kept meticulous records of his travel and expenses, he was less disciplined about recording the dates of his images, and neglected to note the date of Moonrise, so it was not clear whether it belonged to Adams or to the U.S. Government. But the position of the moon allowed the image to eventually be dated from astronomical calculations, and it was determined that Moonrise was made on November 1, 1941, a day for which he had not billed the Department, so the image belonged to Adams. The same was not true for many of his other negatives, including The Tetons and the Snake River, which, having been made for the Mural Project, became the property of the U.S. Government.
When Edward Steichen formed his Naval Aviation Photographic Unit in early 1942, he wanted Adams to be a member, to build and direct a state-of-the-art darkroom and laboratory in Washington, D.C. In February 1942, Steichen asked Adams to join. Adams agreed, with two conditions: He wanted to be commissioned as an officer, and he also told Steichen he would not be available until July 1. Steichen, who wanted the team assembled as quickly as possible, passed Adams by, and had his other photographers ready to go by early April.
Adams was distressed by the Japanese American Internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack. He requested permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, at the foot of Mount Williamson. The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans. He also contributed to the war effort by doing many photographic assignments for the military, including making prints of secret Japanese installations in the Aleutians. " It was met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal." Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships during his career, the first in 1946 to photograph every National Park. This series of photographs produced memorable images of Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Teton (above), and Mount McKinley....
Full entry Wanderingvertexes

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT TARAWERA / PINK TERRACES BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913)

Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) 

 New Zealand

In The pink terraces, Mount Tarawera, oil on canvas

The mountain 
Mount Tarawera (1, 111m - 3,645ft) is the volcano responsible for one of New Zealand's largest historic eruptions. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua in the North Island, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886, which killed an estimated 120 people. These fissures run for about 17 kilometres northeast-southwest.
The volcano's component domes include Ruawahia Dome, Tarawera Dome and Wahanga Dome. It is surrounded by several lakes, most of which were created or drastically altered by the 1886 eruption. These lakes include Lakes Tarawera, Rotomahana, Rerewhakaaitu, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Rotokakahi (Green Lake). The Tarawera River runs northeastwards across the northern flank of the mountain from Lake Tarawera.
Main eruptions 
- 1315 : Mount Tarawera erupted for the fist time on modern history. The ash thrown from this event may have affected temperatures around the globe and precipitated the Great Famine of 1315–17 in Europe.
- 1886 : Shortly after midnight on the morning of 10 June 1886, a series of more than 30 increasingly strong earthquakes were felt in the Rotorua area and an unusual sheet lightning display was observed from the direction of Tarawera. At around 2:00 am a larger earthquake was felt and followed by the sound of an explosion. By 2:30 am Mount Tarawera's three peaks had erupted, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky (see painting above). At around 3.30 am, the largest phase of the eruption commenced; vents at Rotomahana produced a pyroclastic surge that destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius, and the Pink and White Terraces appeared to be obliterated.
The eruption was heard clearly as far away as Blenheim and the effects of the ash in the air were observed as far south as Christchurch, over 800 km away. In Auckland the sound of the eruption and the flashing sky was thought by some to be an attack by Russian warships.
Although the official contemporary death toll was 153, exhaustive research by physicist Ron Keam only identified 108 people killed by the eruption. Much of the discrepancy was due to misspelled names and other duplications. Allowing for some unnamed and unknown victims, he estimated that the true death toll was 120 at most.  Some people claim that many more people died.
The eruption also buried many Māori villages, including Te Wairoa which has now become a tourist attraction (Buried Village of Te Wairoa) and the world-famous Pink and White Terraces were lost. A small portion of the Pink Terraces was rediscovered under Lake Rotomahana 125 years later. Approximately 2 cubic kilometres of tephra was erupted, more than Mount St. Helens ejected in 1980. Many of the lakes surrounding the mountain had their shapes and areas dramatically altered, especially the eventual enlargement of Lake Rotomahana, the largest crater involved in the eruption, as it re-filled with water.
Legend
One legend surrounding the 1886 eruption is that of the phantom canoe. Eleven days before the eruption, a boat full of tourists returning from the Terraces saw what appeared to be a war canoe approach their boat, only to disappear in the mist half a mile from them. One of the witnesses was a clergyman, a local Maori man from the Te Arawa iwi. Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years. It is possible that the rise and fall of the lake level caused by pre eruption fissures had freed a burial waka (canoe) from its resting place. Traditionally dead chiefs were tied in an upright position. A number of letters have been published from the tourists who experienced the event.
Though skeptics maintained that it was a freak reflection seen on the mist, tribal elders at Te Wairoa claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom. It has been suggested that the waka was actually a freak wave on the water, caused by seismic activity below the lake, but locals believe that a future eruption will be signaled by the reappearance of the canoe.

The Painter 
John Barr Clark Hoyte was born in England, probably in London,  Nothing is known of Hoyte's education and artistic training and we are reduced to the obvious deduction that he was heir to the English tradition of topographic draughtsmanship and watercolour painting. Firm drawing underlies his landscapes, making it appropriate to group him with colonial surveyor–architect artists such as Edward Ashworth, Edmund Norman and George O'Brien.
During his years in New Zealand John Hoyte travelled assiduously in search of new scenes to exploit.   His pictorial exploration of the colony's principal dramatic landscapes was completed when he took a cruise circumnavigating the South Island in early 1877, exploring the coast of Fiordland with particular attention. New Zealand subjects would continue to inspire his production long after he had settled in Australia, where they shared his attention with coastal and mountain views drawn chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sydney.
Despite his apparent commercial success, however, Hoyte's standing, like that of George O'Brien, waned in the 1870s: a decade which marked a major shift in New Zealand colonial taste as the Turnerian Romantics such as Gully, J. C. Richmond and W. M. Hodgkins moved into greater prominence. They and their style were to dominate the following decades.

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT EREBUS BY HERBERT PONTING

HERBERT PONTING (1870-1935) 

Mount Erebus  (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica (Ross Island)

In Mt. Erebus and a Dome Cloud, Scott Expedition, Antarctica 1911

The photographer 

Herbert George Ponting, FRGS  was a professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this role, he captured some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

As a member of the shore party in early 1911, Ponting helped set up the Terra Nova Expedition's Antarctic winter camp at Cape Evans, Ross Island. The camp included a tiny photographic darkroom. Although the expedition came more than 20 years after the invention of photographic film, Ponting preferred high-quality images taken on glass plates.

Ponting was one of the first men to use a portable movie camera in Antarctica. The primitive device, called a cinematograph, could take short video sequences. Ponting also brought some autochrome plates to Antarctica and took some of the first known color still photographs there.

The expedition's scientists studied the behavior of large Antarctic animals, especially killer whales, seals, and penguins. Ponting tried to get as close as possible to these animals, both on the Terra Nova in the sea ice and later on Ross Island, and narrowly escaped death on one occasion in early 1911 when a pod of eight killer whales broke up the ice floe in McMurdo Sound on which he was standing.

During the 1911 winter, Ponting took many flash photographs of Scott and the other members of the expedition in their Cape Evans hut. With the start of the 1911–12 sledging season, Ponting's field work began to come to an end. As a middle-aged man, he was not expected to help pull supplies southward over the Ross Ice Shelf for the push to the South Pole. Ponting photographed other members of the shore party setting off for what was expected to be a successful trek. After 14 months at Cape Evans, Ponting, along with eight other men, boarded the Terra Nova in February 1912 to return to civilization, arrange his inventory of more than 1,700 photographic plates, and shape a narrative of the expedition. Ponting's illustrated narrative would be waiting for Captain Scott to use for lectures and fundraising in 1913.

The catastrophic end of "Scott's Last Expedition" also affected Ponting's later life and career. When the Terra Nova had sailed south in 1910, it had left massive debts behind. It was expected that Scott would return from the South Pole as a celebrity and that he could use moving images from his expedition in a one-man show. Ponting's cinematograph sequences, pieced out with magic lantern slides, were to have been a key element in the expedition's financial payback.

However, when the bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered in their tent on the Ross Ice Shelf in November 1912, their diaries and journals were also found. These records described the explorers' final days while suffering from exposure and malnutrition, and their desperate effort to get to a depot of food and fuel that could have saved them. Scott knew he was doomed, and used his final hours to write pleas to his countrymen to look after the welfare of the expedition's widows and survivors.

The eloquent appeals, upon publication in the British press, wrung massive donations from the public. The gifts repaid the entire cost of the expedition, provided large annuities (carefully doled out by expedition status and rank) for the widows and survivors, and left a substantial surplus for eventual use as the startup endowment of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), an affiliate of Cambridge University.

Under these conditions, Ponting's Antarctic work took on a tragic overtone and became a memorial to Scott and his companions rather than a celebration. It was, however, used extensively in the press and exhibited at the Fine Art Society, Bond Street, shown in venues all over Britain and used in numerous lectures by Ponting and other expedition members (including at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall). When World War I began Ponting tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the War Office to make use of his skills as a photographer and war correspondent, but his age was cited as a reason for his being rejected for war service. Copies of his films of Scott were shown to soldiers at the front who were, according to an army chaplain, moved by the heroism of Scott and his men.

With the conclusion of the war, Ponting's archive drew a nibble of interest. He published The Great White South, the photographic narrative of the expedition, in 1921 which was a popular success, and produced two films based upon his surviving cinematograph sequences, The Great White Silence (1924 - silent) and Ninety Degrees South (1933 - sound). He also lectured extensively on the Antarctic. These works brought him little personal recompense but he continued to work on inventions related to the 'movies', including a special effects machine which was used in the English language version of "Emil and the Detectives" (1935). Ponting died in London in 1935; his photographs were sold to raise funds to pay for medical and other expenses.

The Scott Polar Research Institute purchased the Ponting Collection in 2004 for Ј533,000.

 In 2009, SPRI and publisher Salto Ulbeek platinum-printed and published a selection of the Collection. The Great White Silence was restored by the British Film Institute and re-released in 2011. During the period of the Scott expedition centenary (2010-3) his work was widely published and exhibited, reaching new audiences.

In addition, one of Ponting's photographic darkrooms was reconstructed in the collections of the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The mountain 

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes:  Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.

The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus is a dark region in Hades in Greek mythology. Present with Ross on the Erebus was the young Joseph Hooker, future president of the Royal Society and close friend of Charles Darwin. Erebus was an Ancient Greek primordial deity of darkness, the son of Chaos.

The mountain was surveyed in December 1912 by a science party from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition who also collected geological samples. Two of the camp sites they used have been recognised for their historic significance:

- Upper “Summit Camp” site (HSM 89) consists of part of a circle of rocks, which were probably used to weight the tent valances.

- Lower “Camp E” site (HSM 90) consists of a slightly elevated area of gravel as well as some aligned rocks, which may have been used to weight the tent valances.

They have been designated Historic Sites or Monuments following a proposal by the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

Mount Erebus is classified as a polygenetic stratovolcano. The bottom half of the volcano is a shield and the top half is a stratocone. The composition of the current eruptive products of Erebus is anorthoclase-porphyritic tephritic phonolite and phonolite, which are the bulk of exposed lava flow on the volcano.  Erebus is the world's only presently erupting phonolite volcano.

Researchers spent more than three months during the 2007–08 field season installing an unusually dense array of seismometers around Mount Erebus to listen to waves of energy generated by small, controlled blasts from explosives they buried along its flanks and perimeter and to record scattered seismic signals generated by lava lake eruptions and local ice quakes. By studying the refracted and scattered seismic waves, the scientists produced an image of the uppermost (top few km) of the volcano to understand the geometry of its "plumbing" and how the magma rises to the lava lake. These results demonstrated a complex upper-volcano conduit system with appreciable upper-volcano magma storage to the northwest of the lava lake at depths hundreds of meters below the surface.

Mount Erebus' summit crater rim was first achieved by members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party; Professor Edgeworth David, Sir Douglas Mawson, Dr Alister Mackay, Jameson Adams, Dr Eric Marshall and Phillip Brocklehurst (who did not reach the summit), in 1908.

Its first known solo ascent and the first winter ascent was accomplished by British mountaineer Roger Mear on 7 June 1985, a member of the "In the Footsteps of Scott" expedition.

On January 19–20, 1991, Charles J. Blackmer, an iron-worker for many years at McMurdo Station and the South Pole, accomplished a solo ascent in approximately seventeen hours completely unassisted via snow mobile and on foot.

In 1992 the inside of the volcano was explored by Dante I, an eight legged tethered robotic explorer. Dante was designed to acquire gas samples from the magma lake inside the inner crater of Mount Erebus.  Unfortunately, Dante I had not yet reached the bottom of the crater and so no data of volcanic significance was recorded.