LE MONT GEIKIE PEINT PAR LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN HARRIS (1885-1970)
Mont Geikie (3,298 m )
Canada (Colombie Britannique)

In Mountain, Tonquin Valley, Jasper, Huile sur toile, 1924 26.7 x 35.6 cm

 
La montagne
Le mont Geikie (3 298 m))  prononcé comme « geeky » , est un sommet situé dans le parc provincial du mont Robson en Colombie-Britannique, au Canada. Situé à 28 km (17 mi) au sud-ouest de Jasper , près de la vallée de Tonquin, le mont Geikie est le plus haut sommet des Remparts dans les Rocheuses canadiennes, l'une des plus belles chaines de montagnes au monde. Son sommet le plus proche est le mont Frase , à 8,0 km au sud-est, et la ligne de partage des eaux continentales se trouve à 3,0 km à l'est. Le mont Geikie est composé de quartzite de la période cambrienne. Cette roche a été poussée vers l'est et au-dessus d'une roche plus jeune au cours de l' orogenèse du Laramide. La paroi verticale de sa face nord mesure plus de 1 500 mètres  de hauteur et a été comparée aux autres grandes faces nord des Rocheuses canadiennes telles que North Twin, Alberta et Kitchener.
Le mont Geikie a été nommé en 1898 par JE McEvoy de la Commission géologique du Canada en l'honneur du géologue écossais Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), qui fut directeur général de la British Geological Survey de 1882 à 190. La montagne a été étiquetée sur la carte topographique de 1911 d' Arthur O. Wheeler de la région du mont Robson. Le nom de la montagne a été officiellement adopté en 1951 après approbation par la Commission de toponymie du Canada . [
La première ascension du mont Geikie a été réalisée en 1924 par Val Fynn, MD Geddes et Cyril G. Wates via une route sud-ouest.  La première ascension de la face nord a été réalisée en 1967 par John Hudson et Royal Robbins (classe 5.9 ).  D'autres itinéraires sur la face nord incluent le Lowe/Hannibal  classe 5.10b ) en 1979 par George Lowe et Dean Hannibal,  Hesse-Shilling (5.10) par Mark Hesse et Brad Shilling en août 1994, et Honky Tonquin (VI+ 5.10 A3) par Seth Shaw et Scott Simper en juillet 1999.  La première ascension en solo de la face nord a été réalisée en août 2017 par Tony McLane du Canada. La voie d'escalade normale est la Face Sud-Est (IV, 5.5).

Le peintre
Lawren Harris, est un peintre canadien qui a joué un rôle fondamental dans la création du Groupe des sept, ce cercle de jeunes peintres qui allait bouleverser l'art de la peinture au Canada en quelques années.
Après des études à la Central Technical School et au collège St. Andrew, à Toronto, il part étudier à Berlin où il demeurera de 1904 à 1908. Il s'intéresse alors à la philosophie et plus tard à la théosophie.
En 1911, de retour au pays, il se lie d'amitié avec J. E. H. MacDonald. Ensemble, ils fondent le Groupe des sept. Harris devient le théoricien du groupe de par sa formation universitaire. Il défend les idées du poète irlandais George William Russell sur le rôle social de l'artiste. Un local, le Studio Building, procure à ces artistes un endroit pour vivre et travailler. En 1918 et 1919, Harris finance des voyages pour les artistes du groupe dans la région d'Algoma et au lac Supérieur, en Ontario. Séduit par l'endroit, Harris y retourne annuellement durant plusieurs années. Il développe alors le style qui le caractérise le mieux, couleurs vives et riches appliquées en couches épaisses, technique dite impasto. Harris peint également plusieurs paysages de la baie Géorgienne et plus tard des les montagnes Rocheuses.
Lui et plusieurs membres du groupe, dont Alfred Joseph Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson et Franklin Carmichael feront partie du Canadian Group of Painters.
En 1969, il est reçu compagnon de l'Ordre du Canada.
Il meurt à Vancouver en 1970, où il s'était installé en 1940.
Lawren Harris est considéré comme un des peintres importants du Canada. Plusieurs de ses œuvres ont atteint des prix supérieurs aux estimations, comme en 2001 où sa toile Baffin Island, estimée à 1 million de dollars, a été adjugée pour la somme de 2,2 millions de dollars, ou encore Mountain Forms qui fut adjugé à 11,21 millions de dollars lors d'une vente aux enchères. Cette toile tient à ce jour le record de vente pour une tabelau canadien.

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

MONT GEIKIE & LES REMPARTS PEINTS PAR LAWREN HARRIS

 

 LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Mont Geikie  - Les Remparts (3,298 m - 10, 820 ft)
Canada (Colombie-Britannique)

 

 In The Ramparts Tonquin Valley, Rocky Mountains huile sur panneau, 27,1x37,5cm, 

Fondation Sobey pour les Arts, Canada 

La montagne 

Le mont Geikie  (3,298 m - 10, 820 ft), prononcé comme " geek ", est un sommet montagneux situé en Colombie-Britannique au Canada. Situé à 28 km au sud-ouest de Jasper près de la vallée de Tonquin, le mont Geikie est le plus haut sommet de la chaine des  Remparts (Ramparts) dans les Rocheuses canadiennes, l'une des plus belles destinations de montagne au monde. Son sommet le plus élevé le plus proche est le mont Fraser à 8 km au sud-est ; le Continental Divide se trouve à 3 km à l'est.  Le mont Geikie est composé de quartzite de la période cambrienne, une  roche poussée vers l'est  au-dessus d'une roche plus jeune au cours de l'orogenèse Laramide.  Le mur vertical de sa face nord mesure plus de 1 500 mètresde haut et a été comparé aux autres grandes faces nord des Rocheuses canadiennes telles que North Twin, Alberta et Kitchener. Les  Remparts se trouvent en partie dans le Parc national de Jasper en Alberta et dans le parc provincial du mont Robson en Colombie-Britannique. 10 sommets font partie de cette chaine, dont le plus élevé est le mont Geikie  La plupart ont été nommés par le Club alpin du Canada et portent des noms sur le thème du génie militaire tels que Bastion, Parapet, Redoute et Dungeon.  Ils forment la limite ouest de la vallée de Tonquin. 

 
Le peintre
Lawren S. Harris  est né à Brantford, en Ontario, en 1885. La famille Harris a fondé l’entreprise de machinerie agricole Massey-Harris (aujourd'hui Massey Ferguson). C'est assez dire que les activités artistiques de Harris ne connaîtront jamais d’obstacle financier !  Dès l’enfance, il commence à dessiner et à peindre à l’aquarelle, puis il se rend à Berlin en 1904 pour y faire des études en arts. Harris devient un adepte de la philosophie théosophique, une interprétation mystique de la doctrine religieuse, qui joua un rôle déterminant dans sa vie et dans son oeuvre. Le style impressionniste de Harris utilise des couleurs riches et vives pour illustrer les thèmes récurrents de la beauté de la nature. Au fil des ans, son style évolue vers l’abstraction. Après avoir parcouru l’Europe et le Moyen-Orient, Harris revient au Canada à l’âge de 22 ans et s’établit à Toronto. Il s’investit activement dans l’Arts and Letters Club de Toronto, où il rencontre les autres membres du futur Groupe des Sept et partage avec eux les philosophies artistiques modernes qu’il rapporte de l’étranger. En 1913, de concert avec le Dr James McCallum, il finance la construction du Studio Building, sur la rue Severn, à Toronto, pour offrir à ces artistes un endroit où ils peuvent vivre et travailler ensemble, afin de créer un nouveau genre d’art canadien. Harris finance aussi de nombreux voyages à Algoma, en Ontario, et est considéré comme responsable de la formation officielle du Groupe des Sept. Il meurt en 1970.

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

 

ODORAY MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY J.E.H. MACDONALD

J.E.H. MACDONALD (1873-1932)
Odoray mountain (3,137 m- 10,292 ft)
Canada (British Columbia)

In Mont Odoray, 1930, Huile sur carton, 21,6 x 26,7cm, Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa

The mountain
Odaray Mountain (3,137-m - 10,292 ft) is a summit located west of Lake O'Hara in the Bow Range of Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Huber, 3.86 km (2.40 mi) to the east. The standard climbing route follows the southeast glacier and ridge starting from Elizabeth Parker hut. Pronunciation sounds like the two words "ode array". Odaray Mountain is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny. The first ascent of the mountain was made in 1887 by James J. McArthur, and he named it Odaray which is the expression for "many waterfalls" in the Stoney language. Other reports have it being named in 1894 by Samuel Evans Stokes Allen for the Stoney Indianword for "cone". However, it is possible that McArthur only ascended the lesser secondary summit cone (2965 m) now known as Little Odaray which is southeast of the true summit. The mountain's current name became official in 1952 when the Geographical Names Board of Canada rescinded the name Mount Odaray.

The artist
James Edward Hervey MacDonald RCA was an English-Canadian artist who initiated the first major Canadian national art movement. He was the father of the illustrator Thoreau MacDonald. n 1895, MacDonald took a position as a commercial designer at Grip Ltd, an important commercial art firm, where he further developed his design skills. In the coming years, he encouraged his colleagues—including future artist Tom Thomson—to develop their skills as painters. In 1920, MacDonald co-founded the Group of Seven, which dedicated itself to promoting a distinct Canadian art developed through direct contact with the Canadian landscape. The other founding members were Frederick Varley, A. Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, and Franklin Carmichael. MacDonald had worked with Lismer, Varley, Johnston, and Carmichael at the design firm Grip Ltd. in Toronto. Together they initiated the first major Canadian national art movement, producing paintings directly inspired by the Canadian landscape. Every summer beginning in 1924, MacDonald travelled to the Canadian Rockies to paint the mountainous landscapes that dominated his later work. By this time he had become somewhat alienated from the rest of the Group of Seven, as many of the younger members were beginning to paint in a more abstract manner.  Today, MacDonald is viewed with general admiration for his art, with one writer commenting, "no Canadian landscape painter possessed a richer command of colour and pigment than J. E. H. MacDonald ... His brushwork is at once disciplined and vigorous. His best on-the-spot sketches possess an intensity and freshness of execution not dissimilar from Van Gogh."

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT HUBER PAINTED BY ROBERT GENN

ROBERT GENN (1936-2014)
Mount Huber (3,348 m - 10,984 ft)
Canada (British Columbia)

 In  Chinook over O' Hara, oil on canvas, 1970, Private collection  

The mountain
Mount Huber (3,348 m - 10,984 ft) summit located two kilometers east of Lake O'Hara in the Bow Range of Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Victoria, 1.0 km (0.62 mi) to the north-northeast. Mount Huber is a secondary summit of Mount Victoria which is on the Continental Divide. Named in 1903 by Samuel Allen for Emil Huber, a Swiss climber, who, with Carl Sulzer, were first to climb Mount Sir Donald in the Selkirk Mountains. The first ascent of the Mount Huber was made in 1903 by George Collier, E. Tewes, Christian Bohren, and Christian Kaufmann. The mountain's name became official in 1924 when approved by the Geographical Names Board of Canada. Mount Huber is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny. Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Huber is located in a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers ] Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. Precipitation runoff from Mount Huber drains into tributaries of the Kicking Horse River which is a tributary of the Columbia River.

The painter
Robert Douglas Genn was a Canadian artist, who has gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting. His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank Of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, Glenbow Museum and Government of Belgium.
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Genn has often been compared with members of the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven. In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." Genn said this was "valuable advice", which enabled him "to control the gradation, and work up into the trees in a more abstract manner."
He ran the Painter's Keys web site, a worldwide artists' community, with his staff and volunteers. The web site sends out an erudite free twice-weekly newsletter, which is sent to 135,000 artists in over 100 countries, and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted.
In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website, arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally, without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the African embassy in Ottawa, Genn used his web site to enlist subscribers' support to email objections to the arch-world, resulting within days in over 1,000 online complaints from artists, dealers and politicians to the company and governments. This stimulated a diplomatic protest letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Trading and Law Department from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Genn credited the campaign with the subsequent removal of images by 800 Canadian artists from arch-world, although many works were reinstated on arch-world soon after.
Genn has been a member of the Board of Directors at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.
Genn announced in his Twice-Weekly Letter of 25 October 2013 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died at his Surrey, British Columbia home on 27 May 2014.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

 

PIC ISLAND PAINTED BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970) 

Pic Island (312 m- 1024 ft)

Canada (Ontario) 

 In Pic Island, lake Ontario, oil on beaverboard, 1924, National Gallery of Canada.

The hill 
Pic island ((312 m- 1024 ft) is part of the Neys Provincial Park is a Natural Environment Class provincial park on the north shore of Lake Superior, just west of Marathon, Ontario, Canada. The ghost village of Coldwell, which lies just outside the east boundary of the park, was home to an old railway and fishing community until the 1960s. All that remains of the village now are a few foundations, shipwrecks in the harbour and a cemetery. Within park boundaries is also the muse for Group of Seven member Lawren Harris (see above), who in 1924 painted the now famous image of Pic Island. Only the hardy survive here, including subarctic plants and a rare herd of woodland caribou.

The painter
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic. He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches. "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

 LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970), 

Porcupine mountains or Porkies  (441 m-1,447 ft)

Canada 

In Above Lake Superior, c. 1922, oil on canvas 121.9 x 152.4 cm, 

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. 

The mountain
The Porcupine Mountains or Porkies (441 m -1,447 ft) are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior. The Porcupine Mountains were named by the native Ojibwa people, supposedly because their silhouette had the shape of a crouching porcupine.  They are home to the most extensive stand of old growth northern hardwood forest in North America west of the Adirondack Mountains, spanning at least 31,000 acres (13,000 ha). In these virgin forests, sugar maple, American basswood, eastern hemlock, and yellow birch are the most abundant tree species.  The area is part of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park established since 1972.  This act gave the park the new designation of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

The painter 

Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)

In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

HOWSER SPIRE PAINTED BY ROBERT GENN

ROBERT GENN (1936-2014)

Howser Spire (3,412 m - 11,194 ft) 

Canada (British Columbia) 

In Alpenglow in the Bugaboos, private collection 

The mountain 

Howser Spire (3,412 m-11,194 ft) or Howser Spire Massif, is a group of three distinct granite peaks, and the highest mountain of the Canadian Bugaboo Spires. The mountain is located at the southwest corner of the Vowell Glacier, within the Bugaboo mountain range in the Purcell Mountains, a subrange of British Columbia's Columbia Mountains, The highest of the three spires is the North Tower at (3,412 m -11,194 ft), the Central Tower the lowest, and the South Tower being slightly lower than the North at 3,292 m (10,801 ft).
Howser Spire is named after the town of Howser on Duncan Lake and Howser Creek.
The first ascent of the North Tower was made in August, 1916 by Conrad Kain, Albert MacCarthy, E. MacCarthy, J. Vincent and Henry Frind.[
The Beckey-Chouinard / West Buttress route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.

The painter
Robert Douglas Genn was a Canadian artist, who has gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Genn has often been compared with members of the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven. In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." Genn said this was "valuable advice", which enabled him "to control the gradation, and work up into the trees in a more abstract manner."
His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank Of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, Glenbow Museum and Government of Belgium.
He ran the Painter's Keys website, a worldwide artists' community, with his staff and volunteers. The web site sends out an erudite free twice-weekly newsletter, which is sent to 135,000 artists in over 100 countries, and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted.
In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website, arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally, without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the African embassy in Ottawa, Genn used his web site to enlist subscribers' support to email objections to the arch-world, resulting within days in over 1,000 online complaints from artists, dealers and politicians to the company and governments. This stimulated a diplomatic protest letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Trading and Law Department from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Genn credited the campaign with the subsequent removal of images by 800 Canadian artists from arch-world, although many works were reinstated on arch-world soon after.
Genn has been a member of the Board of Directors at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MANITOU MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY ALFRED-JOSEPH CASSON

ALFRED-JOSEPH CASSON (1898- 1992) 

Manitou Mountain (563 m - 1,847 ft) 

Canada (Ontario) 

 In Algonquin Provincial Park, 1954, Huile sur toile, 113,2 x 208,8 cm, peinture murale principale 

Collection MSTC

About the painting

In 1954 Alfred Joseph Casson was one of eighteen Canadian artists commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to paint a mural for the interior of one of the new park cars entering service on the new Canadian transcontinental train. Each mural depicted a different national or provincial park; Casson's was Algonquin Provincial Park (above) 

Casson chooses to reduce and simplify forms and textures within the landscape while maintaining drama and exploring the theme of the endurance of nature over man. Emphasis on crisp form, luminosity and an exploration of light and shadow are integral to this work. The rolling hills, billowing dramatic clouds hanging low in the sky, and rather barren forest culminate to instill a feeling of the sublime in its true sense. Casson is also very attentive to the details and renders with great precision, as here, the stag and deer that can be seen in the foreground, at the top of the first hill, and which seems to scrutinize the painter with attention. .

The mountain

Manitou Mountain (563m - 1847ft) is located within Algonquin Provincial Park and is the highest point in Haliburton County. The mountain’s name  Manitou is derived from the Native American (Algonquin) word relating to the concept of spirit beings and their interconnection to nature and life.

The artist

Alfred-Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael. Casson is best known for his depictions of landscapes, forests and farms of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.

The first public exhibition of his work was at the Canadian National Exhibition, in 1917. He was hired by the commercial art/ engravers firm Brigden's, owned by George and Fredrick Brigden.

In 1919 Casson moved to Rous and Mann where he was influenced by and assistant to Group of Seven member Franklin Carmichael to sketch and paint on his own. Carmichael and Casson then moved on to the first Canadian silkscreen printing firm, Sampson, Matthews Ltd, founded by artist J. E. Sampson and businessman C. A. G. Matthews. Carmichael introduced Casson to The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, where he met many well-known artists.

In the 1920s, Casson continued to paint during his spare time alone and with the Group of Seven. Alfred enjoyed watercolor.  In 1925 along with Carmichael and F. H. Brigden (Fredrick), he founded the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.  In 1926,  he become member of the Group of Seven and also  became an associate member of the most conservative Royal Canadian Academy.

He and Carmichael left Rous and Mann Ltd. in 1926 to join Sampson Matthews. After Carmichael left in 1932 to teach at the Ontario College of Art, Casson became their Art Director and later their vice-president in 1946.

After the ending of the Group of Seven in 1932, he co-founded the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.

In 1952, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Corresponding member.

Casson developed a painting style with clear colours and background designs.

In 1954 he was one of eighteen Canadian artists commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to paint a mural for the interior of one of the new Park cars entering service on the new Canadian transcontinental train. Each mural depicted a different national or provincial park; Casson's was Algonquin Provincial Park (see above) 

A. J. Casson  "retired" in 1957 at age 60, to paint full-time. He died in 1992, just three months short of his 94th birthday, and is buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, along with six other Group of Seven members.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

BAFFIN MOUNTAINS BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

mountains (2, 147m to 1, 675m - 7, 044ft to 3, 495ft) 

Canada (Nunavut)

The mountains 
The Baffin Mountains are a mountain range composed by 10 peaks running along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada; they are are part of the Arctic Cordillera. The ice-capped mountains are some of the highest peaks of eastern North America. While they could be considered a single mountain range as they are separated by bodies of water to make Baffin Island, this is not true, as they are closely related to the other mountain ranges that make the much larger Arctic Cordillera mountain range.
The highest point is Mount Odin (2,147 m -7,044 ft) while Mount Asgard at (2,015 m -6,611 ft) is perhaps the most famous. The highest point in the northern Baffin Mountains is Qiajivik Mountain (1,963 m -6,440 ft).
Highest Peaks of the Baffin Mountains are :
- Mount Odin (2,147m - 7,044ft)
- Mount Asgard (2,015m - 6,611ft)
- Qiajivik Mountain (1,963m - 6,440ft)
- Angilaaq Mountain (1,951m - 6,401ft)
- Kisimngiuqtuq Peak (1,905m - 6,250ft)
- Ukpik Peak (1,809m - 5,935ft)
- Bastille Peak (1,733m - 5,686ft)
- Mount Thule (1,711m- 5,61ft)
- Angna Mountain (1,710m- 5,610ft)
- Mount Thor (1,675m- 5,495ft)
There are no trees in the Baffin Mountains because the mountains are north of the Arctic tree line. The dominant vegetation in the Baffin Mountains is a discontinuous cover of mosses, lichens and cold-hardy vascular plants such as sedge and cottongrass.
Rocks that comprise the Baffin Mountains are primarily deeply dissected granitic rocks. It was covered with ice until about 1500 years ago, and vast parts of it are still ice-covered. Geologically, the Baffin Mountains form the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield, which covers much of Canada's landscape.
The ranges of the Baffin Mountains are separated by deep fjords and glaciated valleys with many spectacular glacial and ice-capped mountains. The snowfall in the Baffin Mountains is light, much less than in places like the Saint Elias Mountains in southeastern Alaska and southwestern Yukon which are plastered with snow.
The largest ice cap in the Baffin Mountains is the Penny Ice Cap, which has an area of 6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi). During the mid-1990s, Canadian researchers studied the glacier's patterns of freezing and thawing over centuries by drilling ice core samples.
The Auyuittuq National Park was established in 1976. It features many of Arctic wilderness, such as fjords, glaciers and ice fields. In Inuktitut - the language of Nunavut's Aboriginal people, Inuit - Auyuittuq means "the land that never melts". Although Auyuittuq was established in 1976 as a national park reserve, it was upgraded to a full national park in 2000.
There were Inuit settlements in the Baffin Mountains before European contact. The first European contact is believed to have been by Norse explorers in the 11th century, but the first recorded sighting of Baffin Island was Martin Frobisher during his search for the Northwest Passage in 1576.


The Painter
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic. He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

____________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MALIGNE MOUNTAIN BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Maligne Mountain  (3,200m -10,500-ft)  

Canada (Alberta)

 In Mountains East of Maligne Lake, Maligne Mountain,  oil on canvas, 1925

The mountain 
Maligne Mountain  (3,200m -10,500-ft)  is multi-peak massif located east of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Maligne Mountain is surrounded by glaciers, and its nearest higher peak is Monkhead, 7.83 kilometres (4.87 miles) to the south.
The peak was first named by Mary Schäffer in 1911 because she thought one peak should bear the name of Maligne Lake. Mary "discovered" Maligne Lake and she named many of the mountains around it, including Mount Charlton, Mount Unwin, and Mount Warren. The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1946 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.
The first ascent of Maligne Mountain was made in 1930 by W.R. Hainsworth, J.F. Lehmann, M.M. Strumia, and N.D. Waffl.
Based on the Köppen climate classification, Maligne Mountain is located in a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers.Temperatures can drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 degrees Fahrenheit) with wind chill factors below −30 °C (−22 °F).

The painter 

Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)

In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

_______________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SAMPSON PAINTED BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970) 

Mount Sampson  or Samson (2,811 m, 9,222 ft) 

Canada (British Columbia)  

In Mount Sampson, from Maligne Lake, oil on board, 1924, (27,3cm x 35,6cm)  Private owner

The mountain 
 Mount Sampson also named Mount Samson (2,811 m, 9,222 ft)  - not to be confused with Mount Samson in Australia - is a rocky summit, highest of the summits south of the head of the Hurley River and East of North Creek, British Columbia, Canada.
The provincial government names website gives "Sampson" as the gazetted spelling, and notes that "Samson" was formerly official but has been rescinded in favour of the new spelling. The name of the closest neighbouring peak is Delilah, the wife of the biblical Samson. However, Delilah was not named at the same time as Samson was, but later.  Fairley's guide spells it Samson, as that was the official spelling at the time - as do Alpine Select and the Culbert guides.
The Sampson family of Nequatque (near D'Arcy) may be the source of the family name. Ironically, it is probable that if you go back in history far enough, the family name "Sampson" was itself based on the biblical character. As in Samson Narrows at Maligne lake.

The mountain has seen at least two ski descents. The west face, although not a direct line from the summit, was skied solo from the top of the ridgeline. It was approached from Boomerang Glacier and is the closest line from that direction. Since then, at least one BCMC party has skied the south side, approaching from Glacier Pass. The west face is a steep, rewarding descent linking snow patches through rock outcrops.

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

_______________________________

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT LEFROY BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970),

Mount Lefroy (3,423 m -11,230 ft) 

 Canada (Alberta)

 1. In Snow Rocky Mountain Paintings VII, oil on canvas,1929, Thomson Col.

2.  In Mount Lefroy oil on canvas, 1929,  National Gallery of Canada 

The mountain 

Mont Lefroy (3,423 m -11,230 ft)  is a mountain on the Continental Divide, at the border of Alberta and British Columbia in western Canada. The mountain is located on the eastern side of Abbot Pass which separates Lake Louise in Banff National Park from Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park. Mount Victoria lies immediately on the western side of the pass.

The mountain was named by George M. Dawson in 1894 for Sir John Henry Lefroy (1817-1890), an astronomer who had traveled over 8,800 kilometres (5,470 mi) in Canada's north between 1842-44 making meteorological and magnetic observations.

The mountain is the site of the first fatal climbing accident in Canada. In 1896 during a failed summit bid, Philip Stanley Abbot slipped on rocks after just coming off an icy section and plummeted down the rock face to his death.

A prominent painting by Canadian Group of 7 artist Lawren Harris, was painted at this site. It is the second one in this page. 

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

_______________________________

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT GOODSIR PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Mount Goodsir  (3,525 m -11,565 ft)

Canada (British Columbia) 

The mountain 
Mount Goodsir  (2,567m - 11,703ft)  or the Goodsir Towers is the highest mountain in the Ottertail Range, a subrange of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. It is located in Yoho National Park, near its border with Kootenay National Park. The mountain has two major summits, the South Tower (the higher summit) and the North Tower, 3,525 metres (11,565 ft).
The mountain was named by James Hector in 1859 after two brothers, John Goodsir, a professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and Harry Goodsir, a surgeon on the ship HMS Erebus.
The standard route on the South Tower is the southwest ridge, a straightforward but long climb (Grade III), which consists primarily of non-technical terrain, but includes short sections of narrow ridge graded YDS 5.4. Access to any route on either Tower requires a long hike.

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

MOUNT THULE (2) BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS  (1885-1970)

Mount Thule (1, 711m- 5, 614ft)

Canada - Nunavut 

 

In Mont Thule on Bylot Island, oil on canvas, McMichael Canadian Art Collection

The mountain 
Mount Thule (1,711m-  5, 614ft )  is a mountain on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada. It is located 38 km (24 mi) north of Pond Inlet on Baffin Island. It is associated with the Baffin Mountains which in turn form part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain system.
The Baffin Mountains have some of the a highest peaks of eastern North America, reaching a height of 1,525–2,146 m (5,003–7,041 ft) above sea level. While they could be considered a single mountain range as they are separated by bodies of water to make Baffin Island, this is not true, as they are closely related to the other mountain ranges that make the much larger Arctic Cordillera mountain range.

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris (1885–1970) was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.

THE BLACK TUSK PAINTED BY ROBERT GENN

 ROBERT GENN (1936-2014) 

The Black Tusk  (2,319m - 7,608ft) 

Canada (British Columbia) 

1. In An afternoon at Black Tusk, 1999, acrilyc on canvas, Assiniboia Gallery  

 2.  In The Black Tusk, 1995, oil on canvas 

The mountain 
The Black Tusk (2,319m- 7608ft) is a stratovolcano and a pinnacle of volcanic rock in Garibaldi Provincial Park of British Columbia, Canada, part of the part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt which is a segment of the Canadian Cascade Arc. The upper spire is visible from a great distance in all directions. It is particularly noticeable from the Sea-to-Sky Highway just south of Whistler, British Columbia. Distinctive and immediately identifiable, The Black Tusk is among the best known mountains in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains. To Squamish people, this mountain is known as "t'ak't'ak mu'yin tl'a in7in'a'xe7en". In their language it means "Landing Place of the Thunderbird" speaking of the supernatural "in7in'a'xe7en" or Thunderbird. The jagged shape of the mountain and its black colouring are said to come from the Thunderbird's lightning.

The painter 

Robert Douglas Genn  was a Canadian artist, who has gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting.  Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Genn has often been compared with  members of  the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven.  In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." Genn said this was "valuable advice", which enabled him "to control the gradation, and work up into the trees in a more abstract manner."
His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank Of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, Glenbow Museum and Government of Belgium.

He ran the Painter's Keys website, a worldwide artists' community, with his staff and volunteers. The web site sends out an erudite free twice-weekly newsletter, which is sent to 135,000 artists in over 100 countries, and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted. 

In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website, arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally, without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the African embassy in Ottawa, Genn used his web site to enlist subscribers' support to email objections to the arch-world, resulting within days in over 1,000 online complaints from artists, dealers and politicians to the company and governments. This stimulated a diplomatic protest letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Trading and Law Department from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Genn credited the campaign with the subsequent removal of images by 800 Canadian artists from arch-world, although many works were reinstated on arch-world soon after.

Genn has been a member of the Board of Directors at Emily Carr College of Art & Design.

___________________________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SCHAFFER PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Mount Schaffer (2,962 m - 9,711 ft)

 Canada

In Mount Schaffer, Yoho national park, oil on canvas, 1926

The mountain 
Mount Schaffer (2,962 m- 9,711ft) was named in 1909 after Mary Schaffer.
Schaffer, a native of Pennsylvania, accompanied the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences on a trip to the Canadian Rockies with Mary Vaux in 1889. The Rockies made an obvious impression on Mary, who was an accomplished artist, writer and photographer and she returned annually to explore until finally moving to Banff in 1912. Although Mount Schaffer overlooks one of Yoho National Park’s scenic gems: Lake O’Hara, Mary Schaffer is more well-known for her exploration of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. In addition to being the first tourist in Jasper National Park, in 1908, she was likely the first non-native person to see Maligne Lake since it was discovered 32 years earlier. Mount Schaffer was first climbed in 1909 by M. Goddard and W. S. Richardson.

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."
(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.

THE RAMPARTS PAINTED BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

 LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Dungeon Peak - The Ramparts (3, 219 m - 10, 266 ft)  

Canada

 In The Ramparts Tonquin Valley, oil on canvas,  no dating

The mountain 

Dungeon Peak (3, 219 m - 10, 266 ft) is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. Named in 1916, Dungeon peak is one of the 10 named peaks by the Alpine Club of Canada part of The Ramparts, such as Bastion, Parapet etc.. They form a western boundary for the Tonquin Valley. Amethyst Lake lies to the east, while the headwaters of the Fraser River bound it to the west.

The Ramparts are a mountain range in the Canadian Rockies; part of the Park Ranges, they straddle the Continental Divide and lie partly within Jasper National Park in Alberta and Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia.

The first ascent of Dungeon peak was made  in 1933 by  Rex Gibson, R.C. Hind, E.L. Woolf

The most famous cliimbing route is East Face IV 5.7, another of the prominent east-facing rib routes. Not quite as aesthetic as the E Face of Oubliette (2 days climbing route) but still a very worthwhile outing. Mostly a rock route but take ice gear for both the ascent and descent.


The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."
(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.

MOUNT ROBSON BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970) 

Mount Robson (3,954 m - 12, 972 ft) 

Canada  (British Columbia)

The Mountain 

Mount Robson (3,954 m - 12, 972 ft) is the most prominent mountain in North America's Rocky Mountain range; it is also the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain is located entirely within Mount Robson Provincial Park of British Columbia, and is part of the Rainbow Range. Mount Robson is the second highest peak entirely in British Columbia, behind Mount Waddington in the Coast Range. The south face of Mount Robson is clearly visible from the Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16), and is commonly photographed along this route.

Mount Robson was likely named after Colin Robertson, who worked for both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company at various times in the early 19th century, though there was confusion over the name as many assumed it to have been named for John Robson, an early premier of British Columbia. The Texqakallt, a Secwepemc people and the earliest inhabitants of the area, call it Yuh-hai-has-kun (The Mountain of the Spiral Road). Other unofficial names include Cloud Cap Mountain.

In 1893, five years after the expedition of A.P. Coleman to Athabasca Pass and the final settling of the mistaken elevations of Mt. Hooker and Mt. Brown, Mt. Robson was first surveyed by James McEvoy and determined to be the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.  The first documented ascent of Mount Robson, led by the young guide Conrad Kain, at its time the hardest ice face to be climbed on the continent, was achieved during the 1913 annual expedition organized by a large party of Alpine Club of Canada members who made use of the newly completed Grand Trunk Pacific railway to access the area. Prior to 1913, it had been necessary to approach the mountain by pack train from Edmonton or Laggan via Jasper and Lucerne, so only few intrepid explorers had made previous attempts at exploring the mountain. The most famous early ascensionist was the Reverend George Kinney, a founding member of the Alpine Club, who on his twelfth attempt in August 1909 claimed to have reached the summit with local outfitter Donald "Curly" Phillips. A major controversy over this claim and over the implausible nature of his unlikely and dangerous route dominated the discourse within the Alpine Club elite, and he is now generally presumed to have reached the high summit ridge before being turned back at the final ice dome of the peak. Kinney Lake, below the south face, is named in his honour.

The north face of Mount Robson is heavily glaciated and 800 m (2,600 ft) of ice extends from the summit to Berg Glacier.  The Berg glacier calves directly into the lake. The Robson Glacier, which fills the cirque and valley between Mount Robson and Mount Resplendent, in the early 1900s fed directly into both Berg lake and Adolphus lake, straddling the Continental Divide and draining thus to both the Arctic and Pacific oceans via the Smoky and Robson Rivers, respectively. It since has receded more than 2 kilometres and is the source of the Robson River only.

The painter 

Lawren Stewart Harris, (1885–1970) was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)

For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.

The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.

From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.

In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.

On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.

In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.

MOUNT ODIN & BUFFIN MOUNTAINS BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S.  HARRIS (1885-1970)

 Mount Odin and Baffin mountains (2, 147m to 1, 675m - 7, 044ft to 3, 495ft) 

Canada (Nunavut)

The Mountain 

The Baffin Mountains are a mountain range composed by 10 peaks running along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada; they are  are part of the Arctic Cordillera. The ice-capped mountains are some of the highest peaks of eastern North America. While they could be considered a single mountain range as they are separated by bodies of water to make Baffin Island, this is not true, as they are closely related to the other mountain ranges that make the much larger Arctic Cordillera mountain range.
The highest point is Mount Odin (2,147 m -7,044 ft) while Mount Asgard at (2,015 m -6,611 ft) is perhaps the most famous. The highest point in the northern Baffin Mountains is Qiajivik Mountain (1,963 m -6,440 ft).

Highest Peaks of the Baffin Mountains are : 

- Mount Odin  (2,147m - 7,044ft)

- Mount Asgard (2,015m - 6,611ft) 

- Qiajivik Mountain (1,963m - 6,440ft)

- Angilaaq Mountain (1,951m - 6,401ft)

- Kisimngiuqtuq Peak (1,905m -  6,250ft)

- Ukpik Peak (1,809m - 5,935ft)

- Bastille Peak (1,733m - 5,686ft)

- Mount Thule (1,711m- 5,61ft)

- Angna Mountain (1,710m- 5,610ft)

- Mount Thor (1,675m-  5,495ft)

There are no trees in the Baffin Mountains because the mountains are north of the Arctic tree line. The dominant vegetation in the Baffin Mountains is a discontinuous cover of mosses, lichens and cold-hardy vascular plants such as sedge and cottongrass. 

Rocks that comprise the Baffin Mountains are primarily deeply dissected granitic rocks. It was covered with ice until about 1500 years ago, and vast parts of it are still ice-covered. Geologically, the Baffin Mountains form the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield, which covers much of Canada's landscape.

The ranges of the Baffin Mountains are separated by deep fjords and glaciated valleys with many spectacular glacial and ice-capped mountains. The snowfall in the Baffin Mountains is light, much less than in places like the Saint Elias Mountains in southeastern Alaska and southwestern Yukon which are plastered with snow.

The largest ice cap in the Baffin Mountains is the Penny Ice Cap, which has an area of 6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi). During the mid-1990s, Canadian researchers studied the glacier's patterns of freezing and thawing over centuries by drilling ice core samples.

One of the first mountaineering expeditions in the Baffin Mountains was in 1934 by J.M Wordie, in which two peaks called Pioneer Peak and Longstaff Tower were climbed.

The Auyuittuq National Park was established in 1976. It features many of Arctic wilderness, such as fjords, glaciers and ice fields. In Inuktitut - the language of Nunavut's Aboriginal people, Inuit - Auyuittuq means "the land that never melts". Although Auyuittuq was established in 1976 as a national park reserve, it was upgraded to a full national park in 2000.

There were Inuit settlements in the Baffin Mountains before European contact. The first European contact is believed to have been by Norse explorers in the 11th century, but the first recorded sighting of Baffin Island was Martin Frobisher during his search for the Northwest Passage in 1576.

The Painter
Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

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2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau