THE MONT BLANC PAINTED BY ALBERT MARQUET

ALBERT MARQUET  (1875–1947) 

The Mont Blanc (4,808.13 m - 15,776.7 ft)

  France - Italy  border

In  Le Léman vu de Montreux, le Mont Blanc, 1937, oil on canvas, Private collection  

The mountain 

Mont Blanc (in French) or Monte Bianco (in Italian), both meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps and the highest in Europe after the Caucasus peaks. It rises 4,808.73 m (15,777 ft) above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence.  The Mont Blanc is one of the Seven Summit, which includes the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass.  The 7 highest summit, (which are obviously 8 with 2 in Europe !) are :  

Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Mount Vinson (4,892m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m) in Australia.

The mountain lies in a range called the Graian Alps, between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France. The Mont Blanc massif is popular for mountaineering, hiking, skiing, and snowboarding.

The three towns and their communes which surround Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley, Italy, and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France.  A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain range from Courmayeur to Chamonix, through the Col du Géant. Constructed beginning in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6 km (7¼ mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two countries and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.

Since the French Revolution, the issue of the ownership of the summit has been debated.... 

More about Mont Blanc 

The painter 
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
Marquet subsequently painted in a more naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, but also several portraits and, between 1910 and 1914, several female nude paintings.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and with Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water.  During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.
Marquet was particularly revered by the American painters Leland Bell and his wife Louisa Matthiasdottir. He was also revered by Bell's contemporaries Al Kresch and Gabriel Laderman. Since both Bell and Laderman were teachers in several American art schools, they have had an influence on younger American figurative artists and their appreciation of Marquet.
Matisse said ; "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".

DIENG VOLCANIC COMPLEX PAINTED BY RADEN SALEH

RADEN SALEH (1811-1880)

Dieng Volcanic Complex (2,565m -8,415ft) 

Indonesia, Java 

In Dieng Mountain, 1862, oil on canvas,  Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The mountain

Dieng Volcanic Complex (2,565m -8,415ft)  is on the Dieng Plateau, a marshy plateau that forms the floor of a caldera complex near Wonosobo, Central Java, Indonesia. Referred to as "Dieng" by Indonesians, it sits at 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level, far from major population centres. The name "Dieng" comes from Di Hyang which means "Above of the Gods". 

The volcanic complex consists of two stratovolcanoes with more than 20 small craters and Pleistocene-to-Holocene age volcanic cones. It covers over 6 × 14 km area. The Prahu stratovolcano was truncated by a large Pleistocene caldera and then filled by parasitic cones, lava domes and craters. Some of them are turned into lakes. Toxic volcanic gas has caused fatalities and is a hazard at several craters. On 20 February 1979, 149 people died of gas poisoning in Pekisaran village on the plateau near the Sinila crater. The area is also a major geothermal project.

Part of General Sudirman's guerrilla campaign during the Indonesian War of Independence took place in the area.

The painter 

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman was a pioneering Indonesian Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity.  He was considered to be the first "modern" artist from Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies), and his paintings corresponded with nineteenth-century romanticism which was popular in Europe at the time. He also expressed his cultural roots and inventiveness in his work.

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman was born in 1811 in Semarang on the island of Java into a noble Hadhrami family where his father was Sayyid Husen bin Alwi bin Awal bin Yahya, an Indonesian of Arab descent. 

Young Raden Saleh was first taught in Bogor by the Belgian artist A.J. Payen. Payen acknowledged the youth's talent, and persuaded the colonial government of the Netherlands to send Raden Saleh to the Netherlands to study art.  He arrived in Europe in 1829 and began to study under Cornelius Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. From Schelfhout, Raden Saleh furthered his skills as a landscape painter. 

During his stay in Paris, Saleh met Horace Vernet whose painting frequently took themes of African wildlife. Compared to Vernet, Saleh's painting seems to be more influenced by the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. This could be seen in one of Saleh's work, Hunting Lion, 1840, which has similar composition to Delacroix's La Liberté guidant le peuple. However, Werner Kraus, a researcher in the Southeast-Asian Art Center of Passau, German, said that Saleh "never mentioned Delacroix. Perhaps he saw Delacroix's, and possibly Vernet's, works during an exhibition."

While in Europe, in 1836 Saleh became the first indigenous Indonesian to be initiated into Freemasonry. From 1839, he spent five years at the court of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who became an important patron.

Raden Saleh returned to Dutch East Indies in 1852 after living in Europe for 20 years.  He worked as conservator for the colonial collection of government art and continued painting portraits of the Javanese aristocracy, and many more landscape paintings. 

Raden Saleh visited several European cities.  Many of his paintings were exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Several of his paintings were destroyed when the Colonial Dutch pavilion in Paris was burnt in 1931.

Source:

- Raden Saleh: The Romantic Aristocrat

JEBEL OUANOUKRIM BY WALTER MITTELHOLZER

WALTER MITTELHOLZER (1894-1937)

Jebel Ouanoukrim (4,089 m - 13,415 ft) 

Morocco

The mountain 
Jebel Ouanoukrim  (4,089 m - 13,415 ft)  is a mountain in Morocco located in the Atlas Mountains, south of Marrakech and just southwest of the Jebel Toubkal, the highest point of this country.
It consists of two summits: the Timesguida or Timzguida the highest with 4,089 meters of altitude, and just north of Ras n'Ouanoukrim which culminates at 4,083 meters above sea level; These two peaks are separated by a small pass at an altitude of 3,968 meters. This altitude of 4,089 meters gives the djebel Ouanoukrim the title of the second highest peak in North Africa and Morocco behind the Jebel Toubkal. The whole mountain is included in the National park of Toubkal.

The photographer
Walter Mittelholzer was a Swiss aviation pioneer. He was active as a pilot, photographer, travel writer, and also as one of the first aviation entrepreneurs.
Mittelholzer earned his private pilot's license in 1917, and in 1918 he completed his instruction as a military pilot.  On November 5, 1919 he co-founded an air-photo and passenger flight business, Comte, Mittelholzer, and Co. In 1920 this firm merged with the financially stronger Ad Astra Aero. Mittelholzer was the director and head pilot of Ad Astra Aero which later became Swissair.
He made the first North-South flight across Africa. It took him 77 days. Mittelholzer started in Zürich on December 7, 1926, flying via Alexandria and landing in Cape Town on February 21, 1927. Earlier, he had been the first to do serious aerial reconnaissance of Spitsbergen, in a Junkers monoplane, in 1923.  On December 15, 1929 he became the first person to fly over Mt. Kilimanjaro, and planned to fly over Mount Everest in 1930.  In 1931, Mittelholzer was appointed technical director of the new airline called Swissair, formed from the merger of Ad Astra Aero and Balair. Throughout his life he published many books of aerial photographs. He died in 1937 in a climbing accident on an expedition in the Hochschwab massif in Styria, Austria.
Among other Swiss air pioneers, he is commemorated in a Swiss postage stamp issued in January 1977.

GRAND COMBIN BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS BEAUMONT

JEAN-FRANÇOIS ALBANIS  BEAUMONT (1753-1812)  

The Grand Combin (4,314 m- 14, 154ft) 

 Switzerland

In Le glacier du Combin de Valsorey - Voyage pittoresque aux Alpes pennines, 1787, aquatint

The mountain 
The Grand Combin is a mountain massif in the western Pennine Alps in Switzerland. With its 4,314 metres (14,154 ft) highest summit, the Combin de Grafeneire, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and the second most prominent of its range. The Grand Combin is also a large glaciated massif consisting of several summits, among which three are above 4000 metres:
- Combin de Grafeneire (4,314 m -14,154 ft),
- Combin de Valsorey  (4,183 m -13,724 ft),
- Combin de la Tsessette  (4,134 m -13,563 ft).
The massif of the Grand Combin lies south of Verbier between the Val d'Entremont (west) and Val de Bagnes (west). The north-western facing side of Grand Combin is entirely covered by eternal snows and glaciers which are prone to serac falls. The southern and eastern walls are more steep and thus exempt of snow.
The topography of the Grand Combin is intricate. Between the Val d'Entremont and the Val de Bagnes are two high ridges, nearly parallel to each other and to those valleys, which both diverge from a short transverse ridge of great height. The southern end of the space enclosed between these three ridges is an elevated plateau of great extent, where the snows accumulate and feed the Corbassière Glacier which descends thence for about ten kilometers to the north. The glacier is surrounded by the peaks of Petit Combin, Combin de Corbassière and Combin de Boveire on the west, Grand Tavé and Tournelon Blanc on the east. Smaller glaciers lie on the external flanks such as Boveire and Mont Durand Glacier.
The Grand Combin, which yields in height to only a few European mountains, was long one of the least known of Alpine summits. The first to commence the exploration of the great massif which separates the Val de Bagnes from the Val d'Entremont was Gottlieb Samuel Studer, of Berne, who on August 14, 1851 reached for the first time the summit of the Combin de Corbassière with the guide Joseph-Benjamin Fellay, and has published an account of that and a subsequent excursion in Bergund Gletscher-Fahrten. He was followed in that ascent five years later by W. and C. E. Mathews, and in 1857, William Mathews anticipated Studer in the ascent of the second peak of the Grand Combin.
The first four expeditions on Grand Combin reached only the minor summit east of Grand Combin (Aiguille du Croissant). The first one was made by mountain guides from the valley (Maurice Fellay and Jouvence Bruchez) on July 20, 1857. The first complete ascent of Grand Combin was finally made on July 30, 1859 by Charles Sainte-Claire Deville with Daniel, Emmanuel and Gaspard Balleys, and Basile Dorsaz.
The Grand Combin de Valsorey on the west was reached for the first time on 16 September 1872 by J. H. Isler and J. Gillioz. They climbed the south south face above the Plateau du Couloir. The itinerary on the south-east ridge was opened on 10 September 1891 by O. Glynne Jones, A.Bovier and P. Gaspoz.
The "Penitents", those reliefs of ice that one see rising on the surface of the glacier of the Grand Combin, in this 1787 painting, have all disappeared at the beginning of 21th century, because of global warming...

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

MOUNT CAMEROON IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1889

VINTAGE POSTCARD 1889

Mount Cameroon (4, 040 m - 13,250 ft) 

Cameroon 

In Kamerun Victoria am Kamerunberg, 1889, hand painted german postcard, 

The mountain 

Mount Cameroon (4, 040 m - 13,250 ft) is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea (Africa). Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness"). It is the highest point in sub-Saharan western and central Africa,  the fourth most prominent peak in Africa and the 31st most prominent in the world. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally dusted with snow. 

The mountain is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1,400-cubic-kilometre (336 cu mi) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Mount Cameroon), is located on the southern flank near the coast. 

Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcano. 

The first written account of volcanic activity could be the one from the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator, who might have observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m (660 ft) from the sea, cutting the coastal highway.  The most recent eruption occurred on February 3, 2012.

English explorer Mary Kingsley, was one of the first Europeans to scale the mountain in 1897.

The peak is frequently ascended by hikers. The annual Mount Cameroon Race of Hope scales the peak in around 4½ hours. Sarah Etonge, who has won the race seven times and is also a tour operator, has become known as queen of the mountain.

- More about vintage postcards

MAYON VOLCANO IN 3 VINTAGE POSTCARDS 1890, 1899, 1928

VINTAGE POSTCARDS (1899-1928)

Mayon volcano (2,463m- 8,061ft)

Philippines (Luzon)

1. In Mayon in 1899, Private collection  

2.  In Evocation of The Mayon 1814 eruption,  hand painted postcard, circa 1880-1900, P.C.

3. In Mayon eruption, July 21, 1928, Philippines Army Archives

The mountain 

Mayon volcano (2,463 m- 8,061 ft) also called Bulkan Mayon or Bulkang Mayon or Mount Mayon or Mayon is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol Region, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Renowned as the "perfect cone" because of its symmetric conical shape, the volcano and its surrounding landscape was declared a national park on July 20, 1938, the first in the nation. It was reclassified a Natural Park and renamed Mayon Volcano Natural Park in the year 2000. Local folklore refers to the volcano being named after the legendary princess-heroine Daragang Magayon (Beautiful Lady).

Mayon volcano is the most active volcano in the Philippines, erupting over 49 times in the past 400 years. 

-  In February 1616 , the first record of a major eruption was witnessed  by Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen who recorded it on his log in his circumnavigation trip around the world.

- July 20, 1766.: the first eruption for which an extended account exists was the six-day event.

- February 1, 1814 (VEI=4).  The most destructive eruption of Mayon; Lava flowed but less than the 1766 eruption. The volcano belched dark ash and eventually bombarded the town of Cagsawa with tephra that buried it. (see photo 2 above)

- From July 6, 1881 until approximately August 1882, Mayon underwent a strong (VEI=3) eruption. Samuel Kneeland, a naturalist, professor and geologist, personally observed the volcanic activity on Christmas Day, 1881, about five months after the start of the activity:

« At the date of my visit, the volcano had poured out, for five months continuously, a stream of lava on the Legaspi side from the very summit. The viscid mass bubbled quietly but grandly, and overran the border of the crater, descending several hundred feet in a glowing wave, like red-hot iron. »

- Mayon's longest uninterrupted eruption occurred on June 23, 1897 (VEI=4), which lasted for seven days of raining fire. Lava once again flowed down to civilization. Eleven kilometers (7 miles) eastward, the village of Bacacay was buried 15 m (49 ft) beneath the lava. In Libon 100 people were killed by steam and falling debris or hot rocks.

- No casualties were recorded from the 1984 eruption after more than 73,000 people were evacuated from the danger zones as recommended by PHIVOLCS scientists.[12] But in 1993, pyroclastic flows killed 75 people, mainly farmers, during the eruption.

- Mayon's 48th modern-era eruption was on July 13, 2006, followed by quiet effusion of lava that started on July 14, 2006. Nearly 40,000 people were evacuated from the 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) danger zone on the southeast flank of the volcano.

- On August 10, 2008, a small summit explosion ejected ash 200 metres (660 ft) above the summit, which drifted east-northeast. In the weeks prior to the eruption, a visible glow increased within the crater and increased seismicity.

- 2009–2010 eruption several explosion and eruption from July 10, 2009 to January 13, 2010.  

- On May 7, 2013, at 8 a.m. (PST), the volcano produced a surprise phreatic eruption lasting 73 seconds. Ash, steam and rock were produced during this eruption. Ash clouds reached 500 meters above the volcano's summit and drifted west southwest. The event killed five climbers, of whom three were German, one was a Spaniard living in Germany, and one was a Filipino tour guide. Seven others were reported injured. The bodies of the hikers were soon located by the authorities.

- On August 12, 2014, a new 30m-50m high lava dome appeared in the summit crater. This event was preceded by inflations of the volcano (measured by precise leveling, tilt data, and GPS), and increases in sulphur dioxide gas emissions.

Vintage postcards
Postcards became popular at the turn of the 20th century, especially for sending short messages to friends and relatives. They were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories. Postcards were an international craze, published all over the world. The Detroit Publishing Co. and Teich & Co. were two of the major publishers in the U.S, and sometimes individuals printed their own postcards as well. Yvon were the most famous in France. Many individual or anonymous publishers did exist around the world and especially in Africa and  Asia (Japan, Thailand, Nepal, China, Java) between 1920 and 1955. These photographer were mostly local notables, soldiers, official guides belonging to the colonial armies (british french, belgium...) who sometimes had rather sophisticated equipment and readily produced colored photograms or explorers, navigators, climbers (Vittorio Sella and the Archiduke of Abruzzi future king of Italy remains the most famous of them).
There are many types of collectible vintage postcards.
Hold-to-light postcards were made with tissue paper surrounded by two pieces of regular paper, so light would shine through. Fold-out postcards, popular in the 1950s, had multiple postcards attached in a long strip. Real photograph postcards (RPPCs) are photographs with a postcard backing.
Novelty postcards were made using wood, aluminum, copper, and cork. Silk postcards–often embroidered over a printed image–were wrapped around cardboard and sent in see-through glassine paper envelopes; they were especially popular during World War I.
In the 1930s and 1940s, postcards were printed on brightly colored paper designed to look like linen.
Most vintage postcard collectors focus on themes, like Christmas, Halloween, portraits of movie stars, European royalty and U.S. presidents, wartime imagery, and photos of natural disasters or natural wonders. Not to mention cards featuring colorful pictures by famous artists like Alphonse Mucha, Harrison Fisher, Ellen Clapsaddle, and Frances Brundage.
- More Vintage postcards 

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE PAINTED BY ROGER FRY

ROGER FRY (1866–1934)

 Mount of Sainte-Victoire (1, 011 m - 3, 316ft)

France (Provence)

In La montagne Sainte-Victoire, huile sur toile, 1930

The mountain

Mont Sainte-Victoire our Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works Paul Cézanne did on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape. The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.

D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m)...

- More about Mount of Sainte Victoire 

The Painter 
Roger Eliot Fry was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. He was the first figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain, and emphasised the formal properties of paintings over the "associated ideas" conjured in the viewer by their representational content. He was described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin ... In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry". The taste Fry influenced was primarily that of the Anglophone world, and his success lay largely in alerting an educated public to a compelling version of recent artistic developments of the Parisian avant-garde.
As a painter Fry was experimental (his work included a few abstracts), but his best pictures were straightforward naturalistic portraits, although he did not pretend to be a professional portrait - painter. In his art he explored his own sensations and gradually his own personal visions and attitudes asserted themselves. His work was considered to give pleasure, 'communicating the delight of unexpected beauty and which tempers the spectator's sense to a keener consciousness of its presence'. Fry did not consider himself a great artist, 'only a serious artist with some sensibility and taste'. 

MOUNT RUSHMORE IN VINTAGE POSTCARDS 1945

VINTAGE POSTCARDS  1945

Mount Rushmore (1,745 m - 5,725 feet)

United States of America (South Dakota)

1. In Greetings from Mount Rushmore, colored postcard, 1945  

2.  In Mount Rushmore (Six Grandfathers) before it was carved, 1905 

The Mountain 
Mount Rushmore (1,745 m - 5,725 feet)  originally know by the Sioux Dakota as The Six Grandftahers is a batholith in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota, United States. The mountain was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885. The memorial is carved on the northwest margin of the Black Elk Peak granite batholith, so the geologic formations of the heart of the Black Hills region are also evident at Mount Rushmore. The batholith magma intruded into the pre-existing mica schist rocks during the Proterozoic, 1.6 billion years ago. Coarse grained pegmatite dikes are associated with the granite intrusion of Black Elk Peak and are visibly lighter in color, thus explaining the light-colored streaks on the foreheads of the presidents.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927-1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865).
The United States seized the area from the Lakota tribe after the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Treaty of Fort Laramie from 1868 had previously granted the Black Hills to the Lakota in perpetuity. Members of the American Indian Movement led an occupation of the monument in 1971, naming it "Mount Crazy Horse". Among the participants were young activists, grandparents, children and Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer, who planted a prayer staff atop the mountain. Lame Deer said the staff formed a symbolic shroud over the presidents' faces "which shall remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled."
In 2004, the first Native American superintendent of the park, Gerard Baker, was appointed. Baker has stated that he will open up more "avenues of interpretation", and that the four presidents are "only one avenue and only one focus."
The Crazy Horse Memorial is being constructed elsewhere in the Black Hills to commemorate the famous Native American leader as a response to Mount Rushmore. It is said to be larger than Mount Rushmore and has the support of Lakota chiefs; the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation has rejected offers of federal funds. However, this memorial is likewise the subject of controversy, even within the Native American community.

MORRO DO CARECA PAINTED BY ANTONIO PARREIRAS

ANTONIO PARREIRAS (1860-1937)

Morro do Careca (120 m - 390 ft)

Brazil 

 In  Ponta negra, oil on canvas, 1930, Museu Antonio Parreiras

The mountain 

Morro Do Carreca (120 m - 390 ft) It is the main symbol and a common sight on tourist postcards of the city and the state of Rio Grande do Norte,  located in the extreme south of Ponta Negra, the capital's most famous beach. In the past Morro do Careca was a spot for recreation and entertainment. The bathers and tourists would climb up the hill and come down with the help of a device called skibunda. Since the end of the 1990s, it has been closed to visitors. The reason for the closure is the dune's protection; the preservation of forest will aid in safeguarding against erosion, ensuring that the sand does not slip and thus reduce the height of the hill. At present, all activity on the dune remains suspended.

The painter 

Antonio Diogo da Silva Parreiras was a Brazilian painter, designer and illustrator.  In 1882, he enrolled at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, but left two years later to attend the free painting classes being offered by the German immigrant artist Georg Grimm.  In 1885, when Grimm left to work in the countryside, Parreiras became an autodidact. A year later, one of his works was purchased by Emperor Pedro II. This allowed him to resume his formal studies and travel to Europe in 1888, entering the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia where his teacher was Filippo Carcano.  Upon his return to Brazil two years later, he participated in the "Exposiaгo Gerais de Belas Artes". Later that same year, he became a Professor of landscape painting at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA) and, following the example set by Grimm, introduced his students to plein-air painting.  Following disagreements with ENBA over changes in the curriculum, he set up his own school called the " Escola do Ar Livre".

He was soon doing much of his work in the forests outside Teresуpolis. He also received numerous commissions to paint historical scenes and, after 1899, did decorations for the government in public buildings, such as the "Allegory of Apollo and the Goddesses of the Hours", which he created for the Palбcio da Liberdade in Belo Horizonte. His female nudes are also considered to be especially well done. From 1906 to 1919, he maintained a second studio in Paris and exhibited at the Salon.  He was also named a delegate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1911.

In 1925 he was chosen as Brazil's best artist by the readers of Fon-Fon, a magazine created by art critic Gonzaga Duque. The following year, he published his autobiography and was inducted into the "Academia Fluminense de Letras". Four years after his death, his former studio became the Museu Antonio Parreiras.

PUY DE SANCY IN VINTAGE POSTERS

VINTAGE POSTER  (circa 1918 - 1920)

Puy de Sancy and Mont Dore (1,886 m - 6,188 ft)

France (Auvergne)

The Mountain 

Puy de Sancy (1,886m - 6,188ft) in Auvergnat  Puèi de la Crotz,  (Mount of the Cross) is the highest mountain in the Massif Central, and the highest volcanic origin summit in France. It is part of an ancient stratovolcano which has been inactive for about 220,000 years and called Mont Dore. The northern and southern slopes are used for skiing, and a number of cablecars and skilifts ascend the mountain. Skiing has been practised on the mountain since the early 20th century. Two local priests (Jean-Baptiste Biot and his vicar) traversed, for the first time, the Puy de Sancy on skis, between 1902 and 1905. In 1936, a cable car link was built from Mont-Dore to one of the needles just below the summit. Super-Besse is another famous ski resort, located on the southwestern slope.

The valley to the north is also the source of two streams called Dore and Dogne, which unite to form the Dordogne River, which flows through the nearby spa town of Mont-Dore. The region  is frequented since Roman Antiquity to nowadays as a famous place for hydrotherapy and the town of Mont-Dore, on its northern slope, has swimming pools since the Gallic period; the Romans installed baths there as well.

Vintage Posters

This poster  typical of the design of the beginning of the 20th Century, is signed (on the left side) "Imprimerie Moderne M. De Brunhoff & Cie-Avenue de l'Observatoire, Paris". It is part of a large production of posters made to boast the merits of the hydrotherapy very up to date since the beginning of the 20th century in Europe. At that time, the Brunhoff family was illustrious in the world of French publishing and printing, specialized mainly in the art of living and fashion. Michel de Brunoff, the son of the printer who published this poster was be the editor-in-chief of Vogue from 1929 to 1954.

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 (n°45) BY HOKUSAI

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (1760–1849) 

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)

Japan

Kajikazawa in Kai Province, 1831,  woodblock color print,  n°45 of the series
36 Views of Mount Fuji,  9th additional woodcut.  

About the 36 Views of Mt Fuji 
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) is a series of landscape prints　created by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760?1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions. The original thirty-six prints were so popular that Hokusai expanded the series by ten.

The artist
Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎)  was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.
Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji " both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. In this series, Mt Fuji is painted on different meteorological conditions, in different hours of the days, in different seasons and from different places.

The mountain 
This is the legendary Mount Fuji or Fujiyama (富士山).
It is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). Several names are attributed to it:  "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Usually Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san".  The other Japanese names for Mount Fuji,  have become obsolete or poetic like: Fuji-no-Yama (ふじの山 - The Mountain of Fuji), Fuji-no-Takane (ふじの高嶺- The High Peak of Fuji), Fuyō-hō (芙蓉峰 - The Lotus Peak), and Fugaku (富岳／富嶽), created by combining the first character of 富士, Fuji, and 岳, mountain.
Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.
Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
Mount Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains (三霊山) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.
It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Shrine and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove; while on the low alps of Mount Fuji lies the Taisekiji temple complex, where the central base headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is located.

THE 41 HILLS OF DASSA BY FREDERIC GADMER

FREDERIC GADMER  (1878-1954),

The 41 hills of Dassa (161m- 528ft)

Bénin 

In Les montagnes de Dassa,  Dahomey, 1930, Musée Départemental Albert Kahn

The Mountains 

The 41 hills of Dassa (161m- 528ft) are located near a small town called Dassa- Zoumé, about 200 miles from Cotonou, Benin.  Those multiple hills are a sacred location where there is a cave where apparently the Virgin Mary would have made an appearance. The cave name is “Grotte Notre Dame D’Arigbo” and, once an year, millions of individuals from Benin and neighboring area do a pilgrimage. The area is also open for excursions, mountain climbing and bike riding. It’s suggested to bring food and beverage if planning a day trip to that area.  There is no fee to make any excursions.
At that time a migratory wave of Ɔma Jagu led by Prince Oládégbò joined the first Yorubas who were already living at the foot of the hills long before the birth of Jesus Christ. Scattered in the vast forest, they could not identify. Prince Oládégbò was able to reconcile the first Yorubas. The kingdom of Igbó Ìdàáshà was therefore founded by the prince Oládégbò who became king under the strong name of Jagu Olófin (1385-1425). The kingdom of Igbo Idaasha is now ruled by the sons of this same royal lineage.

The Photographer

Frédéric Georges Gadmer was born in 1878 in France into a Protestant family; his father, Leon, son of Swiss émigré, was confectioner. Before World War II, he follows his family in Paris and works as a photographer for the house Vitry, located Quai de la Rapée. As an heliogravure company, it performs work for the sciences and the arts, travel and education. In 1898 Gadmer completed his military service as a secretary to the staff then recalled in 1914 at the time of mobilization. In 1915, he joined the newly created  "Photographic Section of the Army" and carried pictures on the front, in the Dardanelles, with General Gouraud, then in Cameroon. In 1919, at age 41, he was hired as a photographer by Albert Khan for his project called "Archives of the Planet". He finds there his comrades of  "the film and photographic section of the army" Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville. Soon as he arrived, he made reports in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. It was the first to make a color portrait of Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Young Turks. In 1921, he returned to the Levant with Jean Brunhes, the scientific director of the Archives of the Planet. The same year, he attended General Gouraud, appointed High Commissioner in Syria. Operator and prolific photographer, specializing in distant lands and landscapes, it covers Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1930, he accompanied Father Francis Aupiais in Dahomey. He also works in Europe. In 1931, at the request of Marechal Lyautey, he photographies the Colonial Exhibition. It is one of the last person to leave the "Archives of the Planet" threatened by the Albert Kahn's bankruptcy in 1932. He then worked at the famous french newspaper L'Illustration and carries postcards for Yvon. He died in Paris, unmarried, in 1954.
Source: 
- Frédéric Gadmer 

About the  "Autochrome Lumière" Photos
The autochrome is a photographic reproduction of process colors patented December 17, 1903 by Auguste and Louis Lumière french brothers. This is the first industrial technique of photography colors, it produces positive images on glass plates. It was used between 1907 and 1932 approximately an particularly in many pictures of the World War I. A important number of photographs of mountains and landscapes around the world was made with this technique, particularly in the for  the Project "The archives of the planet" by Albert Kahn.
Source:
- Musée Départemental Albert Kahn

PIKES PEAK PAINTED BY GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM

GEORGE-CALEB BINGHAM (1811-1879) 

Pikes Peak (4, 302 m - 14, 115 ft) 

United States of America (Colorado) 

 In View of Pike's Peak, 1872, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

The mountain 

Pikes Peak (4, 302 m - 14, 115 ft) is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The peak is is located in Pike National Forest, 12.0 miles (19.3 km) west by south (bearing 263°) of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike, who was unable to reach the summit. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude.

Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark.

"Tava" or “sun” is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak. The band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the "Tabeguache" meaning the "People of Sun Mountain." The Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A.D., although their traditions state they were created on Pikes Peak. In the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as "Heey-otoyoo’ " meaning "Long Mountain".  Early Spanish explorers named the mountain "El Capitán" meaning "The Leader". American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain "Highest Peak" in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as "Pike's Highest Peak". American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain "James Peak" in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit in 1820. The mountain was later renamed "Pike's Peak" in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to "Pikes Peak" by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890.

The artist

George Caleb Bingham was an American artist whose paintings of American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style. Left to languish in obscurity, Bingham's work was rediscovered in the 1930s. By the time of his bicentennial in 2011, he was considered one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. That year the George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonné Supplement Of Paintings & Drawings—directed and edited by Bingham scholar Fred R. Kline—announced the authentication of ten recently discovered paintings by Bingham. As of June 2015, a total of twenty-three  newly discovered paintings by Bingham have been authenticated and are listed with the GCBCRS. George Caleb Bingham is not famous for his mountain paintings  but mainly for a series of three paintings called The Election Series Louis and for his Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, painted circa 1845  and owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 

GUNUNG MERAPI BY FRANZ-WILHELM JUNGHUHN

FRANZ-WILHELM JUNGHUHN (1809-1864)

Gunung Merapi  (2,914m - 9,500 ft) 

Indonesia (Java)

In  Mount Merapi, color print on paper, 1845, Leiden University Library 

In Gunung Merapi seen from Gunung Merabu,  color print on paper, 1853  

The mountain 

Gunung Merapi  or Mount Merapi (2,914m - 9,500 ft)  is an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548. It is located approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Yogyakarta city which has a population of 2.4 million, and thousands of people live on the flanks of the volcano, with villages as high as 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level.

Smoke can often be seen emerging from the mountaintop, and several eruptions have caused fatalities. Pyroclastic flow from a large explosion killed 27 people on 22 November 1994, mostly in the town of Muntilan, west of the volcano.Another large eruption occurred in 2006, shortly before the Yogyakarta earthquake. In light of the hazards that Merapi poses to populated areas, it has been designated as one of the Decade Volcanoes....

- More  informations about Gunung Merapi volcano 

The artist
Friedrich Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn was a German-Dutch botanist and geologist, who studied medicine in Halle and in Berlin from 1827 to 1831, meanwhile publishing  (1830) a seminal paper on mushrooms in Limnaea.  Junghuhn settled on Java, where he made an extensive study of the land and its people.  He discovered the Kawah Putih crater lake south of Bandung in 1837.
He published extensively on his many often highly adventurous expeditions and his scientific analyses.  Among his works is an important description and natural history in many volumes of the volcanoes of Java, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der vulkanen in den Indischen Archipel (1843).
He completed Die Topographischen und Naturwissenschaftlichen Reisen durch Java (Topographic and Scientific Journeys in Java) in 1845 and a first anthropological and topographical study of Sumatra, Die Bättalander auf Sumatra (Batak lands of Sumatra). in 1847.
In 1849, ill health forced his return to the Netherlands.  While in the Netherlands, Junghuhn began work on a four volume treatise published in Dutch and translated into German between 1850 and 1854: Java, deszelfs gedaante, bekleeding en inwendige struktuur. Junghuhn was an avid humanist and socialist. In the Netherlands he published anonymously his free-thinking manifesto Licht- en Schaduwbeelden uit de Binnenlanden van Java (Images of Light and Shadow from Java's interior) between 1853 and 1855. The work was controversial, advocating socialism in the colonies and fiercely criticizing Christian and Islamic proselytization of the Javanese people.  Junghuhn instead wrote of his preference for a form of Pandeism (pantheistic deism), contending that God was in everything, but could only be determined through reason.  The work was banned in Austria and parts of Germany for its "denigrations and vilifications of Christianity", but was a strong seller in the Netherlands where it was first published pseudonymously.  It was also popular in colonial Indonesia, despite opposition from the Dutch Christian Church there.
Recovered from his ills, Junghuhn returned to Java in 1855.  He remained on Java until his death from liver disease in 1864.  On his deathbed in his house near Lembang on the slopes of the volcano Tangkuban Perahu just north of Bandung, Java,  it is  said that Junghuhn asked the doctor to open the windows, in order to say goodbye to the mountains that he loved.
In Lembang there is a small monument to his memory in a grassy square named after him planted with some of his favorite trees among which the Cinchona. A minor item of trivia playing into polemical discussions of Junghuhn is his surname, literally translated as "young chicken".
The plants Cyathea junghuhniana and Nepenthes junghuhnii are named after Franz Junghuhn.

AYU DAG PAINTED BY IVAN AIVAZOVSKY

IVAN AIVAZOVSKY (1817-1900)

Ayu-Dag  (572 m -1,877 ft)

Crimea - Ukraine - Russia 

 In  Mount Ayu Dag, Crimea, 1865, oil on canvas,  National Gallery of Armenia

The Mountain 

Ayu-Dag (572 m -1,877 ft) is a summit of Crimea. It is also known under the Russified name Medved'-gora which means Bear mountain. The summit is located 16 km north-east from Yalta between the towns of Gurzuf (Hourzouf) and Partenit.  The mountain is a laccolith. Today its territory is a Nature reserve (5.5 km2). There is a pioneer children's camp Artek near Ayu-Dag (Medved' Mountain) which is well known internationally. The eastern slopes of Ayu-Dag lead to an ancient settlement Partenit. Remains of an early-medieval settlement and a number of churches were discovered here. In the 9th-10th centuries it was a well-known seaport, bound with cities of the Byzantine Empire. The western slopes lead to Artek.

The painter 

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Ива́н Константи́нович Айвазо́вский)  was a Russian Romantic painter. Despite he is considered one of the greatest marine artists in history, he painted a few mountains landscapes.  Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia and was mostly based in his native Crimea.  Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and lived briefly in Italy in the early 1840s. He then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and often attended military maneuvers. He was sponsored by the state and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The saying "worthy of Aivazovsky's brush", popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for "describing something ineffably lovely." One of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. The vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovsky's works are kept in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums as well as private collections.

- More about Ayakokski 

ASAHI DAKE (旭岳) BY TOSHI YOSHIDA

TOSHI YOSHIDA (1911-1995)  

Asahi Dake (旭岳) (2,291m- 7,516ft) 

Japan 

In Mount Asahi, Daisetsuzan, 1984  woodblock print, 1984

The mountain 
Asahi Dake (2,291m- 7,516ft) , in Japanese 旭岳, is a mountain located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido and the tallest mountain in the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is part of the Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group of the Ishikari Mountains, it is located in the northern part of the Daisetsuzan National Park. The mountain is popular with hikers in the summer and can be easily reached from Asahidake Onsen via Asahidake Ropeway. During winter, the mountain is open for use by skiers and snowboarders. Sugatami Pond, directly below the peak, is famous for its reflection of the peaks, snow, and steam escaping from the volcanic vents.
Mount Asahi is an active stratovolcano that arose 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of the Ohachi-Daira caldera. The Japan Meteorological Agency gave the region rank C in volcanic activity. In addition to the main peak, there is a smaller volcano emerging from the southeast shoulder of the mountain, Mount Ushiro Asahi or Rear Mount Asahi (後旭岳).
Asahi Dake  is a stratovolcano consisting mainly of andesite and dacite, Holocene volcanic non-alkali mafic rock less than 18,000 years old.
There is no historical record of the eruptions of Mount Asahi.
- 3200 BC ± 75 years, Asahi Soria deposit, corrected radiocarbon dating, explosive eruption
- 2800 BC ± 100 years, As-A tephra, corrected radiocarbon dating,explosive eruption and phreatic explosions
- 1450 BC ± 50 years, As-B tephra, uncorrected radiocarbon dating, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions
- 500 BC ± 50 years, Ash-b tephra, tephrochonology, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions and debris avalanches
- 1739, tephrochronology, explosive eruption and phreatic explosions with possible eruption of the central vent and radial good
Mount Asahi currently exhibits steam activity in the form of fumaroles.

The artist 
Tōshi Yoshida (吉田 遠志), was a Japanese printmaking artist associated with the sōsaku-hanga movement, and son of famous shin-hanga artist Hiroshi Yoshida. One of Yoshida's legs was paralysed during his early childhood. Not being able to attend school, he enjoyed watching animals and his father's printmaking workshop. Encouraged by his grandmother Rui Yoshida, Tōshi often sketched animals. Yoshida's artistic career was a long struggle between fidelity to his father's legacy and freedom from it. Hiroshi Yoshida, a shin-hanga landscape artist, dictated Tōshi's early artistic development. In 1926, Tōshi chose animals as his primary subjects to distinguish himself from his father, who was a landscape printmaker. However, in the 1930s, Tōshi started making landscape paintings and prints similar to his father's works. Father and son traveled together and even painted side by side. From 1930 to 1931, Hiroshi and Tōshi traveled to India, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Calcutta, and Burma.
- More about Toshi Yoshida

HOHER DACHSTEIN BY CARL ROTTMANN

CARL ROTTMANN (1797-1850) 

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

 Austria 

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

The mountain 

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

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

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

TIOGA PEAK PAINTED BY CHIURA OBATA

CHIURA OBATA (1885–1975)

Tioga Peak (3,513m - 11, 326 ft) 

United States of America (California) 

In Tioga peak in Sundown at Tioga, 1930, color woodblock print,
Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) 

The mountain 
Tioga Peak (3,513m - 11, 326 ft) is a prominent mountain that rises at the head of Lee Vining Canyon and north of Tioga Pass a few miles beyond the border of Yosemite National Park. Highway 120 goes right below the south and east slopes as it curves down into Lee Vining Canyon on the way to Mono Lake from Tioga Pass. This is a simple rounded peak composed of metamorphic rock like many of the peaks in the area. It is a very accessible straight forward class 1-2 scramble from Gardisky Lake that can easily be done as a day hike or less. The summit area is a huge rolling dome. Tioga Peak has arguably the best views of the Tioga Pass region. Tioga Peak is in the Inyo National Forest. There are no permits required for hiking.

The artist 
Chiura Obata (小圃 千浦 )  was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher.
A self-described "roughneck", Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career as a painter, following a 1927 summer spent in the Sierra Nevada, and was a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1932 to 1954, interrupted by World War II, when he spent over a year in internment camps.
After his retirement, he continued to paint and to lead group tours to Japan to see gardens and art.
Posthumous exhibitions of Obata's works have been organized at the Oakland Museum, The Smithsonian Institution, and, in 2000, at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, a retrospective of 100 ink and brush paintings, large scrolls and color woodblock prints. In 2007 there was an exhibit in Yosemite National Park. The museum collection at Yosemite National Park contains several Obata prints of the park (see above). The Smithsonian American Art Museum organized an exhibition of Obata's Yosemite woodblock prints, which was shown at the American Art Museum in Washington, DC in early 2008 and then traveled to the Wichita Falls Museum, Wichita, TX (2008) and Federal Hall National Memorial, National Park Service, in New York, NY (2009).

ARENIG FAWR BY JAMES DICKSON INNES

JAMES DICKSON INNES (1887-1914) 

Arenig Fawr  (854m - 2, 892ft) 

United Kingdom (Wales) 

1.   In Arenig Fawr, North Wales, 1911, oil on canvas, The Fitzwilliam Museum.

2.  In Arenig, 1911-1912,  oil on canvas, National Museum Wales, National Museum Cardiff

 3. In Arenig North Wales, 1913  oil on canvas, TATE 

4. In Arenig Mountain, 1911, watercolor,  Arts Council Collection UK 

The mountain 

Arenig Fawr  (854m - 2, 892ft)  which means  Great High Ground is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, located close to Llyn Celyn reservoir alongside the A4212 between Trawsfynydd and Bala. Arenig Fawr is the highest member of the Arenig range with Arenig Fach (Small High Ground), a smaller neighbouring mountain, lying to the north. It is surrounded by Moel Llyfnant to the west, Rhobell Fawr to the south and Mynydd Nodol to the east.

The summit, which is also known as Moel yr Eglwys (Bare hill of the church), has a trig point and a memorial to eight American aircrew who died when their Flying Fortress bomber B-17F #42-3124 crashed on 4 August 1943. Some of the crash wreckage is still scattered across the hillside 300 m (330 yds) from the memorial location. From the summit, with good weather conditions, it is possible to see several notable Welsh mountain ranges: the Rhinogs in the west, Mount Snowdon to the northwest, Clwydian Hills in the northeast, east to the Berwyns, south east to the Arans, and southward to Cadair Idris. It is one of the finest panoramas in Wales.

Artists James Dickson Innes (above) and Augustus John used the mountain as a backdrop during their two years of painting in the Arenig valley between 1911-12. In 2011 their work was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled The Mountain That Had to Be Painted.

In The Faerie Queene, an incomplete English epic poem, by Sir Edmund Spenser, the home of 'old Timon', Prince Arthur’s sage foster-father "is low in a valley greene, Under the foot of Rauran mossy hore". Renowned Welsh historian Sir John Edward Lloyd wrote that Rauran "comes from Saxton's map of Merionethshire (1578), which places ‘Rarau uaure Hill’ (Yr Aran Fawr) where Arenig should be". A boulder at a crossroads in the hamlet of Bell Heath, near to Belbroughton, Worcestershire, in England, has a brass plaque attached to it stating "Boulder from Arenig Mountain in N. Wales, Brought here by the Welsh Ice-sheet in the Glacial Period".

Source: 

-Wikipedia

The painter 

 James Dickson Innes  was a British painter, mainly of mountain landscapes but occasionally of figure subjects. He worked in both oils and watercolours. Of his style, art historian David Fraser Jenkins wrote: "Like that of the fauves in France and the expressionists in Germany, the style of his work is primitive: it is child-like in technique and is associated with the landscape of remote places."

It has been argued his unusual style led the way for British artists such as David Hockney.

He studied at the Carmarthen School of Art (1904–05), from where he won a scholarship to the Slade School of Art in London (1905–08). His teachers at the Slade included P. Wilson Steer.
From 1907 he exhibited with the New English Art Club; and in 1911 he became a member of the Camden Town Group.  The Camden Town Group included Walter Sickert who was an influence on Innes's art, and Augustus John with whom Innes became friends.
In 1911 he had a two-man exhibition with Eric Gill at the Chenil Gallery, London: "Sculptures by Mr Eric Gill and Landscapes by Mr J. D. Innes".
The Welsh politician and philanthropist Winifred Coombe Tennant (1874–1956) was an important patron of his work. In 1913 Innes exhibited in the influential Armory Show in New York City, Chicago and Boston.[3]
In 1911 and 1912 he spent some time painting with Augustus John around Arenig Fawr in the Arenig valley in North Wales(see above); but much of his work was done overseas, mainly in France (1908–1913), notably at Collioure, but also in Spain (1913) and Morocco (1913) – foreign travel having been prescribed after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Eventually, on 22 August 1914, at the age of twenty-seven, he died of the disease at a nursing home in Swanley, Kent.
In 2014 an exhibition of Innes' works was staged at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
Source: 
- National Museum Cardiff

NORGAY MONTES BY NASA NEW FRONTIERS PROGRAM

NASA NEW FRONTIERS PROGRAM (2003-2023) 

By New Horizons Spacecraft (July 14, 2015) 

Norgay Montes (3,400m / 3.4 km -  11,000 ft / 2.1 mi)

Pluto 

In  Pluto - Norgay Montes (left foreground); Hillary Montes (skyline); Sputnik Planitia (right)

Near-sunset view includes several layers of atmospheric haze, NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

The Mountain
The Norgay Montes rise to 3.4 km (2.1 mi; 11,000 ft) high, about twice as high as the Hillary Montes. In comparison, Mount Everest rises 4.6 km (2.9 mi; 15,000 ft) base-to-peak (though to an altitude of 8.8 km (5.5 mi; 29,000 ft) above sea level). Japan's Mount Fuji is closer, at about 3.8 km (2.4 mi; 12,000 ft) in altitude.
The Norgay Montes less officially, Norgay Mountains are icy mountains, near the Hillary Montes,  bordering the southwest region of Sputnik Planitia in the south of Tombaugh Regio (or the part of Tombaugh Regio south of the equator).  The mountains, first viewed by the New Horizons spacecraft on 14 July 2015, and announced by NASA on 15 July 2015, are named after the Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who, along with Sir Edmund Hillary, made the first successful ascent of the highest peak on Earth, Mount Everest (29 May 1953).
Source: 
 - New Frontiers Program Website

The NASA Program
The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System bodies, including the dwarf planet Pluto.
The New Frontiers program was developed and advocated by NASA and granted by Congress in CY 2002 and 2003. The exploration program is divided in three major missions:
- New Horizons, a mission to Pluto (photos above), launched on January 19, 2006. After a Jupiter gravity assist in February 2007 the spacecraft continued towards Pluto. The primary mission flyby occurred in July 2015 and the spacecraft was then targeted toward one Kuiper Belt object called '2014 MU69' for a January 1, 2019 flyby.   Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon (pictures above).
- Juno, a Jupiter exploration mission  launched on August 5, 2011 and arrived in July 2016. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft to explore an outer planet.
- OSIRIS - REx  stands for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer".  This mission plan is to orbit an asteroid, at the time named 1999 RQ36 (now 101955 Bennu), by 2020. After extensive measurements, the spacecraft will collect a sample from the asteroid's surface for return to Earth in 2023.
Source: 
 - New Frontiers Program Website