LE MASSIF DE L'HYMALAYA PEINT PAR GAGANENDRANATH TAGORE

GAGANENDRANATH TAGORE (1867-1938)
Massif de l'Hymalayas( 8,8,49 m au Mont Everest)
Bouthan, Chine, Inde, Nepal, Pakistan,

In The Himalayas, 1910, aquarelle sur soie, National Gallery of Modern Art of New Delhi.

 
Le massif
L'Himalaya,  de hima (neige) et ālaya (demeure), littéralement demeure des neiges , est un ensemble de chaînes de montagnes s'étirant sur plus de 2 400 km de long et large de 250 à 400 km, qui sépare le sous-continent indien du plateau tibétain dans le Sud de l'Asie. Au sens strict, il débute à l'ouest au Nanga Parbat au Pakistan et se termine à l'est au Namcha Barwa dans la région autonome du Tibet en Chine. Cet ensemble montagneux, délimité à l'ouest par la vallée du fleuve Indus et à l'est par la vallée du fleuve Brahmapoutre, couvre une aire d'environ 600 000 km2. L'Himalaya abrite dix des quatorze sommets de plus de 8 000 mètres d'altitude, dont le mont Everest, le plus haut de tous ; les quatre autres se situent dans le Karakoram. Ces hauts sommets ont donné lieu à de nombreuses expéditions d'alpinistes renommés et ont tous été conquis. La limite supérieure des forêts se situe à 3 900 m et la limite inférieure des neiges éternelles vers 5 000 m. L'Himalaya fait partie d'un ensemble montagneux plus vaste encore que l'on désigne par « Aire Hindou Kouch-Himalaya » (HKH), laquelle comprend les chaînes du Karakoram, de l'Hindou Kouch et du Pamir. Ce vaste ensemble chevauche huit pays et abrite plus de 140 millions de personnes.

L'artiste
Gaganendranath Tagore était un peintre et dessinateur indien de l'école du Bengale. Avec son frère Abanindranath Tagore, il comptait parmi les premiers artistes modernes de l'Inde. Gaganendranath Tagore est né à Jorasanko dans une famille dont la créativité a marqué la vie culturelle du Bengale. Fils aîné de Gunendranath Tagore, petit-fils de Girindranath Tagore et arrière-petit-fils du prince Dwarkanath Tagore, Gaganendranath était un pionnier et un représentant majeur de l'école d'art du Bengale. Il était le neveu du poète Rabindranath Tagore et l'arrière-grand-père paternel de l'actrice Sharmila Tagore.
Gaganendranath ne reçut aucune éducation formelle, mais se forma auprès de l'aquarelliste Harinarayan Bandopadhyay. En 1907, avec son frère Abanindranath, il fonda la Société indienne d'art oriental, qui publia plus tard l'influente revue Rupam. Entre 1906 et 1910, l'artiste étudia et assimila les techniques de pinceau japonaises et l'influence de l'art d'Extrême-Orient dans son œuvre, comme en témoignent ses illustrations pour l'autobiographie de Rabindranath Tagore, Jeevansmriti (1912). Il développa ensuite sa propre approche dans ses séries Chaitanya et Pilgrim. Gaganendranath abandonna finalement le renouveau de l'école du Bengale pour se consacrer à la caricature. La Modern Review publia nombre de ses dessins en 1917. À partir de 1917, ses lithographies satiriques parurent dans une série d'ouvrages, dont Play of Opposites, Realm of the Absurd et Reform Screams.
Entre 1920 et 1925, Gaganendranath fut un pionnier des expérimentations en peinture moderniste.[3] Partha Mitter le décrit comme « le seul peintre indien, avant les années 1940, à avoir utilisé le langage et la syntaxe du cubisme dans sa peinture ».[4] À partir de 1925, l'artiste développa un style post-cubiste complexe.
Gaganendranath s'intéressa également vivement au théâtre et écrivit un livre pour enfants à la manière de Lewis Carroll, Bhodor Bahadur (« La Grande Loutre »). 

 _____________________________________________

2025 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

NANGA PARBAT PAINTED BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

 

 

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947),
Nanga Parbat (8,126 m - 26,660 ft)
Pakistan

 In Nanga Parbat, oil on canvas, 1940, Nicolas Roerich  Museum, NYC

The mountain
Nanga Parbat (8,126 metres (26,660 ft) locally known as Diamer, is the ninth highest mountain in the world . Located in the Diamer District of Gilgit-Baltistan region, Pakistan, Nanga Parbat is the western anchor of the Himalayas. ] The name Nanga Parbat is derived from the Sanskrit words nagna and parvata which together mean "Naked Mountain".  The mountain is locally known by its Tibetan name Diamer or Deo Mir, meaning "huge mountain".
Nanga Parbat is one of the 14 eight-thousanders. An immense, dramatic peak rising far above its surrounding terrain, Nanga Parbat is known to be a difficult climb.   Nanga Parbat is one of only two peaks on Earth that rank in the top twenty of both the highest mountains in the world, and the most prominent peaks in the world, ranking ninth and fourteenth respectively. The other is Mount Everest, which is first on both lists.  Nanga Parbat along with Namcha Barwa on the Tibetan Plateau mark the west and east ends of the Himalayas.

The painter
Nicholas Roerich known also as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих) is quite an important figure of mountain paintings in the early 20th century. He was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as an enlightener, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth was he was quite influenced by a movement in Russian society around the occult and was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices. His paintings are said to have hypnotic expression.
More about the painter =>

__________________________________________

2021 - Wandering Vertexes / Mountain paintings
By F rancis Rousseau
_______________________________

2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

NANGA PARBAT SKETCHED BY COL. GEOFFREY STRAHAN

COLONEL GEOFFREY STRAHAN (1839-1916)

Nanga Parbat (8,126 m - 26,660 ft) 

 Pakistan

In  Nanga Parbat seen in the distance through the Kashmir Valley, 1885, watercolour

The mountain 
Nanga Parbat  (8,126 m - 26,660 ft) , literally Naked Mountain, is the ninth highest mountain in the world above sea level and  one of the eight-thousanders.  Nanga Parbat forms the western anchor of the Himalayan Range and is the westernmost eight-thousander. It lies just south of the Indus River in the Diamer District of Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan. Not far to the north is the western end of the Karakoram range.
To the south, Nanga Parbat boasts what is often referred to as the highest mountain face in the world: the Rupal Face rises 4,600 m -15,090 ft  above its base. To the north, the complex, somewhat more gently sloped Rakhiot Flank rises 7,000 m - 22,966 ft from the Indus River valley to the summit in just 25 km (16 mi), one of the 10 greatest elevation gains in so short a distance on Earth.
Nanga Parbat is one of only two peaks on Earth that rank in the top twenty of both the highest mountains in the world, and the most prominent peaks in the world, ranking ninth and fourteenth respectively. The other is Mount Everest, which is first on both lists. It is also the second most prominent peak of the Himalayas, after Mount Everest. The key col for Nanga Parbat is Zoji La in Kashmir, which connects it to higher peaks in the remaining Himalaya-Karakoram range.
Nanga Parbat along with Namcha Barwa on the Tibetan Plateau mark the west and east ends of the Himalayas.
Climbing 
Steeped in a history matched by few others in Asia it has staged some of the greatest Himalayan ascents of all time. From Hermann Buhl’s solo first ascent in 1953 via the Upper North ridge to Gunther and Reinhold Messner’s first ascent of the Rupal Face in 1970 via the South South East Spur, Messner’s solo climb of the Diamir Face in 1978, and more recently Vince Anderson and Steve House’s Alpine-style ascent of the Central Pillar of the Rupal Face. These epic climbs continue to inspire climbers to attempt yearly what is considered to be the second hardest 8000m mountain after K2. Nanga Parbat is a truly awesome spectacle. The south face is the largest in the world extending over four kilometres above base camp. To date there have only been five ascents from the south.  The north face is equally intimidating. In contrast to the south face’s steep rock and ice the snowy north face is guarded by a broad barrier of seracs that extend the width of the mountain. Climbers before the Second World War were convinced that the only way to climb the mountain was from the north via a long arc extending over Rakhiot Peak, between the two summits of Silberzacken and finally to the summit of Nanga Parbat thereby avoiding a more direct ascent of the north face. The route was dangerously prone to avalanche and exposed to bad weather. 31 people died attempting to climb the mountain leading to it acquiring the infamous name of the “Killer Mountain”. Nowadays it is not such a killer and there are other peaks that could inherit the nickname (eg Ultar or Batura I). Hermann Buhl’s summit route has only been repeated once (Slovak, 1971) to this day. His ascent marked only the third 8000m ascent after Annapurna I (1950) and Everest and was the only first summit of all the 8000ers to be done without oxygen and of course solo. Most attempts nowadays are via the Westerly Diamir face which is generally considered to be the easiest and safest with the Kinshofer Route the normal route. Nanga Parbat as of 2005, had received 263 ascents by 261 individuals (Messner and SP Member Qudrat Ali have climbed it twice) at a price of 62 deaths. Sixteen women have summited the mountain. Numerous challenging lines still await. The most difficult is an ascent of Nanga Parbat via the unclimbed Mazeno Ridge which constitutes the longest ridge in the world. A number of expeditions have made ‘attempts’ on the mountain during winter but to no avail.
Source: 
- Nanga Parbat in Summitpost.org


The painter
Colonel Geoffrey Strahan (1839-1916) was Deputy Surveyor General, Trigonometrical Branch. Like a few others soldiers and military engineers of the British Empire -  Major Molyneux for instance - Colonel G. Strahan did series of drawings and watercolors of Indian landscapes, Kashmir valley positions and mountains highest peaks of the Himalayas, during his stay in India in the late 19th century between 1885 and 1897.