MOUNT EREBUS BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)

Mount Erebus  (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica (Ross Island)

The mountain 
Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes:  Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.
The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus is a dark region in Hades in Greek mythology. Present with Ross on the Erebus was the young Joseph Hooker, future president of the Royal Society and close friend of Charles Darwin. Erebus was an Ancient Greek primordial deity of darkness, the son of Chaos...
- More about Mount Erebus 

The artist 
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877).  He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.
- More about Jospeh Dalton Hooker 

GROSSGLOCKNER (SOUTH) BY MARCUs PERNHART

MARCUS PERNHART (1824-1871) 
Grossglockner or Glokner (3,798 m - 12,460ft)
Austria 

 In  Heiligenblut, Grossglockner South, oil on canvas, Kärntner Landesmuseum

The mountain  

The Grossglockner (or just Glockner) (3,798 m - 12,460 ft) is above the Adriatic, the highest mountain of Austria and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. It is part of the larger Glockner Group of the Hohe Tauern range, situated along the main ridge of the Central Eastern Alps and the Alpine divide. The Pasterze, Austria's most extended glacier, lies on the Grossglockner's eastern slope. The characteristically pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Grossglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,770 m -12,370 ft), from German: klein, "small"), separated by a saddle-like formation known as the Glocknerscharte.

The history of the climbs started with French-born natural scientist Belsazar Hacquet, from 1773 professor of anatomy at the Academy of Ljubljana. He travelled the Eastern Alps from 1779 to 1781 and published an itinerary in 1783, describing the Glokner mountain and stating that it had not been climbed yet. He estimated the mountain's height with converted (3,793 m -12,444 ft) and left an engraving illustrating Grossglockner and Pasterze, the first known depiction of the mountain.

Inspired by Hacquet's book and the first ascent of the Mont Blanc in 1786, the Gurk prince-bishop Count Franz Xaver of Salm (1749–1822) together with his vicar general Sigismund Ernst Hohenwart  (1745–1825) and Baron Franz Xaver von Wulfen (1728–1805) started efforts for a Grossglockner expedition. They engaged two peasants from Heiligenblut as mountain guides to do the first explorations for an ascent through the Leitertal valley, which is the side of Grossglockner with the least ice (people feared glaciers in these times). These valiant men, called "Glockners" in the records, did more than they were ordered to do - and probably reached the Kleinglockner summit on 23 July 1799...

- More about Grossglokner

The painter 
Marcus (or Markus) Pernhart was a Carinthian  / Slovenian / Austrian painter. He is considered the first Slovene realistic landscape painter. He painted several times Triglav.
At  barely 12 years, he painted the guest rooms of Krajcar Restaurant between Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt. The innkeeper made, the bishop's chaplain Henr. Hermann discovered the talented boys. At 15, he trained in painting first with Andreas Hauser in Klagenfurt. Hermann supported him further and introduced him to his patron, the Gorizia Archbishop Francis Xavier Luzhin.  Through this he got contact with the Viennese art scene, particularly to Franz Steinfeld, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was forwarded to the Munich Academy, but soon returned to Carinthia. There he was promoted by his stage name Pernhart the famous landscape painter of his time.
- More about Marcus Pernhart

MOUNT BYRON BY WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT

WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836 -1914), 

Mount Byron (1,338 m- 4,390 ft)

Australia (Tasmania) 

In  Lake Petrarch, Mount Byron, Vale of Cuvier, 1888, oil on card, Private collection 

The mountain 

Mount Byron (1,338 m - 4,390 ft) is a mountain in Tasmania, south of Byron Gap, west of Lamonts Lookout and east of Mount Cuvier in the southeast of Australia (not to be confused with Mount Byron in Queensland) . The nearest town to Mount Byron is Queenstown about 42 km away. Queenstown has a population of about around 2,400 (based on the 2001 census). Mount Byron is in the local government area of 'Central Highlands'.  Destinations nearby to Mount Byron include Byron Gap, Lamonts Lookout, Mount Cuvier and Coal Hill.  Landmarks in the area include Lake Mingundie, Lake Petrarch, Lake Helen and Lake Oenone.
The annual rainfall of Mount Byron is about 1906 mm.

The painter 

William Charles Piguenit also known as W.C. Piguenit or Bill Piguenit was an Australian landscape painter, amateur photographer, draughtsman and explorer, born in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. The family can be traced back to Pons, in the province of Saintonge, France, from which, as Huguenots, they escaped after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 to settle in Bristol, Somerset. William Charles attended Cambridge House Academy in Hobart; a school report of 18 December 1849 praises his 'mapping, particularly that of Van Diemen’s Land’. In September 1850, as an assistant draughtsman, he joined the Tasmanian Lands and Survey Department where much of his time was spent preparing maps of Tasmania. 

When Piguenit exhibited at Melbourne in 1870, showing a watercolour sketch of Mount Wellington from the Huon Road, the Daily Telegraph of 20 July called him 'a young artist who gives promise of better things’. His love for the Tasmanian landscape and his improved artistic ability led to his being invited to accompany James R. Scott’s expedition to Arthur Plains and Port Davey in March 1871 as official artist. The results of the trip formed the basis for later illustrations in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and in R.M. Johnston’s Systematic Account of the Geology of Tasmania. 
Having won another silver medal from the academy in 1875 for Mount Olympus, Lake St Clair, Tasmania (see above), Piguenit sent five of his Grose Valley oil landscapes to the academy’s 1876 exhibition and was awarded a certificate of merit for one, though the Sydney Mail critic was tepid in his praise: 'It would be enough to say that they are all very nicely painted and that all have about the same colour and tone’.
Regarded as the leading Australian-born landscape painter in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Piguenit was a founding committee member of the Art Society of New South Wales (elected Vice President in 1886) and regularly showed work in its exhibitions. He was represented in many major exhibitions, such as the 1880 Melbourne International, and he received many awards, including silver medals in 1874 and 1875 from the NSW Academy of Art, two second prizes at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition and gold medals from the 1883 Calcutta International and the 1888 Queensland Art Society and Tasmanian Juvenile Industries exhibitions. He was hung in the Paris Salon in 1893 and at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1894 (Scene on the Upper Nepean River, now AGNSW). A Tasmanian view near Prince of Wales Bay was presented by the Government House Literary Society to their founder and patron, Lady Hamilton, on her departure in 1892.

PUIG MAJOR PAINTED BY MAXWELL ASHBY ARMFIELD

MAXWELL ASHBY ARMFIELD (1881-1972)

Puig Major de son Torella (1, 445m - 4,741 ft)

Spain, Balearic Islands (Majorca) 

 In Soller, Mallorca, early morning, tempera on board

The mountain 
The Puig Major (1, 445m) is the highest peak of the island of Majorca and the Balearic Islands in Spain. Its southern spur is called the Penyal des Migdia. In Majorcan, Puig means "peak" or "summit". "Major" indicates that this is the highest mountain in the range called the Serra de Tramuntana. the complete denomination of the mountain is Puig de son Torrella or Puig Major de son Torrella. This mountain is located on the eastern segment of the Serra de Tramuntana, between Soller and Pollença.  It is less than five kilometers from the sea. Like the entire Serra de Tramuntana, the Puig Major appeared between the Paleozoic and the Miocene. It is the northeastern prolongation in the Mediterranean of the Betic Cordilleras which appeared on the peninsula.
It is a karst formation where limestone dominates.
In 1936, the Spanish Civil War halted the construction of a funicular. The engineer Antoni Parietti Coll (Palma, 1899-1979) designed the project in 1934, from Cals Reis to the summit, for the construction of an astronomical observatory.  In the early 1950s, this project competed with another, of a military nature. Since 1953, a radar of the Ejercito del Aire, the Spanish air force, has taken the top of the mountain and forbidden access to it, from its base, where there is a military ground. Originally, the United States installed the first radar, in order to give NATO air traffic control capabilities in the western Mediterranean. In 1958, an asphalt road leads from the base to the top.
The facilities were modernized in 2000.
In 2011, the Serra de Tramuntana, a chain of mountains among which the Puig Major dominates, is registered as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Given the military destination of the place, hikes are practically prohibited. However, the Air Force agrees to derogations. The military site also includes a botanical observatory.

The painter 
Maxwell Ashby Armfield was an English artist, illustrator and writer. Born to a Quaker family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Sidcot School and at Leighton Park School. In 1887 he was admitted to Birmingham School of Art, then under the headmastership of Edward R. Taylor and established as a major centre of the Arts and Crafts Movement. There he studied under Henry Payne and Arthur Gaskin and, outside the school, received instruction in tempera painting from Joseph Southall at Southall's studio in Edgbaston.  He was later to recall: “Apart from invaluable benefit from guidance and advice from such masters as Henry Payne, Arthur Gaskin and Joseph Southall, I really taught myself, as must any one who hopes to do individual work... I detested the Life Class, and rarely attended it: I refused to learn perspective or anatomy as they bored me, and generally, I could not have been a worse student.”
Leaving Birmingham in 1902, he moved to Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Gustave Courtois and René Menard, where he became an associate of Gaston Lachaise, Keith Henderson, and Norman Wilkinson. He exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1904, where his painting Faustine was bought by the French State and donated to the Musée du Luxembourg (now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
In 1909 he married the author and playwright Constance Smedley who was first cousin of his friend and fellow artist William Smedley-Aston and his wife Irene, and, like many with connections to the Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham, settled in the Cotswolds.  Armfield's wife also influenced him to become a pacifist and Christian Scientist. From 1915 the couple spent seven years in the United States.
In 1946 Armfield released the book 'Tempera Painting Today', published by Pentagon Press LTD.
Armfield has paintings in the collection of several British institutions including Derby Art Gallery, Southampton and Nottingham Gallery and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery.

TITAN'S MITHRIM MONTES BY NASA CASSINI MISSION

NASA CASSINI MISSION (1997- 2017)

Mithrim Montes (3,337 m - 10,948 ft) 

 TITAN (SATURN'S MOON)

The mountain

Mithrim Montes (3,337 m - 10,948 ft) is the highest  point of Saturn's largest moon Titan. The researchers found that all of Titan's highest peaks are about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) in elevation. The study used images and other data from Cassini's radar instrument, which can peer through the obscuring smog of Titan's atmosphere to reveal the surface in detail.

"It's not only the highest point we've found so far on Titan, but we think it's the highest point we're likely to find," said Stephen Wall, deputy lead of the Cassini radar team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The results, which use data collected by Cassini's radar instrument, was presented at the 47th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at The Woodlands, Texas.

Most of Titan's tallest mountains appear to be close to the equator. The researchers identified other peaks of similar height within the Mithrim Montes, as well as in the rugged region known as Xanadu, and in collections of more isolated peaks called "ridge belts" located near the landing site of ESA's Huygens probe.

The investigation was originally motivated by a search for active zones within Titan's crust -- places where dynamic forces have shaped the landscape, perhaps in the relatively recent past.

"As explorers, we're motivated to find the highest or deepest places, partly because it's exciting. But Titan's extremes also tell us important things about forces affecting its evolution" said Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who led the research.

Mountains and cliffs on Earth usually are found in locations where forces have shoved the surface upward from underneath. Forces of erosion, including wind, rain and runoff, slowly wear them down over time. The Himalaya and Andes Mountains are examples of places where interior forces are at work today. The Appalachian Mountains represent much more ancient activity that produced similarly gigantic peaks long ago, which have since eroded.

Cassini has found that Titan also has rain and rivers that erode its landscape. According to Radebaugh, the process probably proceeds much more slowly on Titan than on Earth because, at 10 times Earth's distance from the sun, there is less energy to power erosive processes in the moon's atmosphere.  Titan's icy crust sits atop a deep ocean of liquid water that probably acts much like Earth's upper mantle -- the layer of hot, high-pressure rock below the crust that can slowly flow and deform over time.

The fact that Titan has significant mountains at all suggests that some active tectonic forces could be affecting the surface, for example, related to Titan's rotation, tidal forces from Saturn or cooling of the crust. The next step for the researchers will be trying to figure out what could produce such tall peaks on an icy ocean world.

"There is lot of value in examining the topography of Titan in a broad, global sense, since it tells us about forces acting on the surface from below as well as above," said Radebaugh.

 Source: 

 -  NASA- Cassini Mission at Saturn

- Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Saturn 

- Caltech

- Agenzia Spatiale Italiana (ASI) 

- European Spatial Agency (ESA)

The mission 

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the US and several European countries. 

The mission was launched on  October 15, 1997 at 8:43 UTC. This 20 years mission was programmed to end on September 15, 2017 by what is called The Grande Finale.

 Source: 
 -  NASA- Cassini Mission at Saturn

NEVADO ILLIMANI IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1949

VINTAGE POSTCARD 1949

Nevado Illimani or El Illimani (6,438 m - 21,122ft) 

Bolivia

The mountain 
Nevado Illimani is the highest mountain in the Cordillera Real (part of the Cordillera Oriental, a subrange of the Andes) of western Bolivia. It lies near the cities of El Alto and La Paz at the eastern edge of the Altiplano. It is the second highest peak in Bolivia, after Nevado Sajama, and the eighteenth highest peak in South America.  The snow line lies at about 4,570 metres (15,000 ft) above sea level, and glaciers are found on the northern face at 4,983 m (16,350 ft). The mountain has four main peaks; the highest is the south summit, Nevado Illimani, which is a popular ascent for mountain climbers. Geologically, Illimani is composed primarily of granodiorite, intruded during the Cenozoic era into the sedimentary rock, which forms the bulk of the Cordillera Real.
The mountain has been the subject of many local songs, most importantly "Illimani", with the following refrain: "Illimani, Illimani, centinela tu eres de La Paz! Illimani, Illimani, patrimonio eres de Bolivia!" ("Illimani, Illimani, you are the sentinel of La Paz! Illimani, Illimani, you are Bolivia's heritage!")
Illimani was first attempted in 1877 by the French explorators Charles Wiener, J. de Grumkow, and J. C. Ocampo. They failed to reach the main summit, but did reach a southeastern subsummit, on 19 May 1877, Wiener named it the "Pic de Paris", and left a French flag on top of it.  In 1898, British climber William Martin Conway and two Swiss guides, A. Maquignaz and L. Pellissier, made the first recorded ascent of the peak, again from the southeast. (They found a piece of Aymara rope at over 6,000 m (20,000 ft), so an earlier ascent cannot be completely discounted.)
The current standard route on the mountain climbs the west ridge of the main summit. It was first climbed in 1940, by the Germans R. Boetcher, F. Fritz, and W. Kühn, and is graded French PD+/AD-. This route usually requires four days, the summit being reached in the morning of the third day.
In July 2010 German climber Florian Hill and long-time Bolivian resident Robert Rauch climbed a new route on the 'South Face', completing most of the 1700m of ascent in 21 hours. Deliver Me (WI 6 and M6+) appears to climb the gable-end of the South West Ridge, a very steep wall threatened by large broken seracs.
Illimani was the site where Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 crashed on January 1, 1985.

Vintage postcards 
- More informations about Vintage Postcards 

THE DENT D'OCHE BY JOHN RUSKIN

JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)

The Dent d'Oche (2,221 m - 7,287 ft)

France (Haute-Savoie) 

 In The Dent d'Oche range, on the south side of Lac Leman from Vevey,  1846, watercolour and ink The Ruskin Library - Lancaster  University  

The mountain 

The Dent d'Oche (2,221 m- 7,287 ft)  is a mountain in the Haute-Savoie region of France, in the Chablais massif, near the Swiss-French border, that rises to 2,221 m (7,287 ft) in altitude. It towers above Evian, Thonon, and Lake Geneva. It offers a view of the French and Swiss Alps and the Swiss prealps. It is the northernmost summit above 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in France. Oche means "good pasture". Whereever one is between Léman and High Chablais, le "bec", as the Dent d'Oche is called by the locals,  cuts a fine figure in the sky, as a sharp canine, a rocky and grassy face, or as a vertical rock.
About 100 m (330 ft) below the summit is a refuge of the French Alpine Club, the refuge de la Dent d'Oche. In summer, the refuge and the summit can be reached by a hike that is doable without special equipment, but significantly more difficult than the usual routes to nearby peaks such as Cornettes de Bise and Le Grammont. Reaching the refuge involves some short climbing sections for which chains are provided. The hike from the refuge up to the summit involves some unsecured sections along a cliff, where a misstep would be fatal.
There is an alternative hiking route to the summit, from the east, that is even more delicate.
Finally, the north face route, with a rise of 350 m (1,150 ft), is one of the most difficult climbs of the Chablais Alps. Certain sections require extensive technical skill. The first ascent of the north face was achieved by Joseph Ravanel, his siblings Arthur and Camille and François Jacquier on 6 June 1925.

Source : 

- Summitpost

The painter 

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin also penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation.
He was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century, and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J. M. W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature".  From the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.
About mountains he painted quite a lot of times, Ruskin wrote: "They are the great cathedrals of the earth, with their portals of rock, the mosaics of clouds, the choirs of  torrents, and the altars of snow, sometimes with purple sparkling stars." and  "Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."
 Source:
 The Ruskin Library - Lancaster  University  

NEVADO DE COLIMA BY JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS

JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS (1802-1858) 

Nevado de Colima (4,260 m - 13,976 ft)

Mexico 

  In Nevado de Colima y Lake Zapotlan - Mexico 

The mountain 

Nevado de Colima (4,260 m - 13,976 ft) also known as Tzapotйpetl is part of  the Colima Volcanic Complex consisting of Volcбn de Colima (or Volcan del Fuego), Nevado de Colima and the eroded El Cantaro (listed as extinct), located in the state of Jalisco, in the west of Mexico, on the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt.  It is the 26th-most prominent peak in North America. Unlike its immediate neighbor, Volcбn de Colima, the Nevado de Colima no longer has any volcanic activity. Its summit shows signs of glacial erosion which make it difficult to determine certain aspects of its violent history. Today it is possible to find pyroclastic materials up to more than 80 km from the crater, projections probably caused by a catastrophic eruption accompanied by avalanches dating back to the Pleistocene.

The area where the volcano is located is protected by the Mexican government by decree promulgated in 1936, and creating a natural park of 6,554 hectares. This natural park also includes the neighbor, Volcano de Colima or Volcán de Fuego, which is considered today as the most active volcano in Mexico.

The Nevado de Colima is often covered with winter snow, that's why it is more visited between November and March. To reach the summit, one has to cross the city of Ciudad Guzman, in the state of Jalisco, taking the road of La Mesa and El Fresnito. The sides of the volcano can be accessed by car up to 4000 m.

The painter 

Johann Moritz Rugendas was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas, in the first half of the 19th century. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America." whom Alexander von Humboldt influenced.  

Rugendas was born in Augsburg, then Holy Roman Empire, now Germany, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg, the great grandson of Georg Philipp Rugendas, 1666–1742, a famous painter of battles.  Inspired by the artistic work of Thomas Ender (1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl von Martius (1794–1868), in the course of the Austrian Brazil Expedition, Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1821. There he was soon hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Consul-general of the Russian Empire in Brazil, Langsdorff had a farm in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, where Rugendas went to live with other members of the expedition. Rugendas visited the Serra da Mantiqueira and the historical towns of Barbacena, São João del Rei, Mariana, Ouro Preto, Caeté, Sabará and Santa Luzia. Just before the fluvial phase of the expedition started (a fateful journey to the Amazon), he became alienated from von Langsdorff, left the expedition and was replaced by the artists Adrien Taunay and Hércules Florence. However, he remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors.

On his return to Europe between 1825 and 1828, he lived successively in Paris, Augsburg and Munich, with the aim of learning new art techniques, such as oil painting. There, he published from 1827 to 1835, with the help of Victor Aimé Huber, his monumental book Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil (Picturesque Voyage to Brazil), with more than 500 illustrations, which became one of the most important documents about Brazil in the 19th century.

In 1831 he traveled first to Haiti, and then to Mexico. In Mexico, he did drawings and watercolors of Morelia, Teotihuacan, Xochimilco, and Cuernavaca. He also began to use oil painting, with excellent results. Unfortunately, Rugendas was incarcerated and expelled from the country after he became involved in a failed coup against Mexico's president, Anastasio Bustamante, in 1834.

From 1834-44 he travelled to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Bolivia, and finally went back to Rio de Janeiro, in 1845. Well-accepted and feted by the court of Emperor Dom Pedro II, he executed portraits of several members of the royal court and participated in an artistic exposition. At the age of 44, in 1846, Rugendas departed for Europe.

He died on 29 May 1858 in Weilheim an der Teck, Germany, King Maximilian II of Bavaria having acquired most of his works in exchange for a life pension. His painting "Columbus taking Possession of the New World" (1855) is on view at the Neue Pinakothek, in Munich.

MOUNT VESUVIUS PAINTED BY EDGAR DEGAS

EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917) 

 Mount Vesuvius (1, 281m - 4,203 ft current)

Italy 

 In Le Vésuve, 1892, Pastel 25x30cm, Private collection

The mountain 

Mount Vesuvius (1,281 meters- 4,203 ft current) is one of those legendary and mythic mountains the Earth paid regularly tribute. Monte Vesuvio in Italian modern langage or Mons Vesuvius in antique Latin langage is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples (Italy) about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. 

It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure.

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman antique cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements. That eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing. At least 1,000 people died in the eruption. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.

Vesuvius has erupted many times since and is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Nowadays, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive eruptions (said Plinian eruptions). It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world.

- More about Mount Vesuvius

The painter

Edgar Degas born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. Technically, Degas differs from the Impressionists in that he continually belittled their practice of painting en plein air. He was a superb draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers, racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation. Degas painted only a few landscapes and very rarely mountains.
At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his rigorous academic training and close study of classic art. In his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life.
By the later 1870s Degas had mastered not only the traditional medium of oil on canvas, but pastel as well. The dry medium, which he applied in complex layers and textures, enabled him more easily to reconcile his facility for line with a growing interest in expressive color. In the mid-1870s he also returned to the medium of etching, which he had neglected for ten years. At first he was guided in this by his old friend Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic, himself an innovator in its use, and began experimenting with lithography and monotype. He produced some 300 monotypes over two periods, from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s and again in the early 1890s. He was especially fascinated by the effects produced by monotype and frequently reworked the printed images with pastel.
Source:
- Wikipedia

WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN BY SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)

Whiteface mountain  (1,483m - 4,867ft) 

United States of America (State of New York) 

In Whiteface Mountain from Lake Placid, 1886 oil on canvas,  Smithsonian American Art Museum 

The mountain 

Whiteface Mountain  (1,483m - 4,867ft) is the fifth-highest mountain in the U.S. state of New York, and one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. Set apart from most of the other High Peaks, the summit offers a 360-degree view of the Adirondacks and clear-day glimpses of Vermont and even Canada, where the skyscrapers of Montreal, 80 miles (130 km) away, can be seen on a very clear day. Located in the town of Wilmington, about 13 miles (21 km) from Lake Placid, the mountain's east slope is home to a major ski area which hosted the alpine skiing competitions of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Unique among the High Peaks, Whiteface features a developed summit and seasonal accessibility by motor vehicle. Whiteface Memorial Highway reaches a parking area at an elevation of 4,600 feet (1,400 m), with the remaining 267 feet (81 m) being obtained by tunnel and elevator.

Conceived and initiated prior to the Great Depression, Whiteface Castle and the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway were funded entirely by the state of New York, though the timing of the project led to a widespread belief that they were Depression Era public works projects arising from the New Deal. Construction on the toll road began in 1929, after passage of a necessary amendment to the state constitution, with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring then-New York State Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually costing 1.2 million dollars (115 million in 2015 dollars) and ending vertically within 300 feet (90 m) of the summit the roadway is 5 miles (8 km) long and features an impressively steep 8% average grade. Officially opened July 20, 1935, in a ceremony featuring Roosevelt, by then President, the highway was dedicated to veterans of the Great War.

Whiteface Castle, built with granite excavated during the road construction, dominates the summit area. From the adjacent parking lot there are two routes to the summit proper. The first route is the Stairway Ridge Trail, a footpath with handrails and intermittent cement and stone steps approximately 0.2 miles (0.32 km) long. The second is a 424-foot (129 m) long tunnel into the core of the mountain. At the end of the tunnel is an elevator, which rises 276 feet (84 m) to the summit.

Whiteface mountain is the only peak in the Adirondacks where distinct evidence of alpine glaciers can be easily found. There peak has two neat ridges sitting on either side of a well-defined cirque on its north-west face and another ridge to the east. All have good trails on them (one is actually built over with a staircase) and are well worth the drive or hike up.
The ridge on the east side is quite mild and offers only a little exposure but is can be iced over in winter. The undeveloped a ridge on the north side offers a good scramble over very nice rock with a good deal of exposure and the occasional small cornice or gargoyle in winter.
The summit itself is just a flat platform.

Source:

 - Whiteface Mountain official website 

- Summitpost. org

- Wikipedia 

The painter 

Sanford Robinson Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York and spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, the son of an iron foundry owner. He attended Brown University 1842-44, before leaving to study art in New York City in 1845. He studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the direction of the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John Rubens Smith.  He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical college and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design.  By 1847 he was sufficiently skilled at painting to exhibit his first landscape at the National Academy and was elected an associate in 1851, an academician in 1854. Thereafter Gifford devoted himself to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the early Hudson River School.
Like most Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes to sketch and paint. In addition to exploring New England, upstate New York and New Jersey, Gifford made extensive trips abroad. He first traveled to Europe from 1855 to 1857, to study European art and sketch subjects for future paintings. During this trip Gifford also met Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge.
In 1858, he traveled to Vermont, "apparently" with his friend and fellow painter Jerome Thompson. Details of their visit were carried in the contemporary Home Journal. Both artists submitted paintings of Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak, to the National Academy of Design's annual show in 1859. Thompson's work, "Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain" is now owned by the MET in New York, according to the report.
Thereafter, he served in the Union Army as a corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia upon the outbreak of the Civil War. A few of his canvases belonging to New York City's Seventh Regiment and the Union League Club of New York are testament to that troubled time.
During the summer of 1867, Gifford spent most of his time painting on the New Jersey coast, specifically at Sandy Hook and Long Branch, according to an auction Web site.
Another journey, this time with Jervis McEntee and his wife, took him across Europe in 1868. Leaving the McEntees behind, Gifford traveled to the Middle East, including Egypt in 1869. Then in the summer of 1870 Gifford ventured to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States, this time with Worthington Whittredge and John Frederick Kensett. At least part of the 1870 travels were as part of a Hayden Expedition, led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden.
Returning to his studio in New York City, Gifford painted numerous major landscapes from scenes he recorded on his travels. Gifford's method of creating a work of art was similar to other Hudson River School artists. He would first sketch rough, small works in oil paint from his sketchbook pencil drawings. Those scenes he most favored he then developed into small, finished paintings, then into larger, finished paintings.
Gifford referred to the best of his landscapes as his "chief pictures". Many of his chief pictures are characterized by a hazy atmosphere with soft, suffuse sunlight. Gifford often painted a large body of water in the foreground or middle distance (see above) in which the distant landscape would be gently reflected. Examples of Gifford's "chief pictures" in museum collections today include: Lake Nemi (1856–57), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio ; The Wilderness (1861), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio ;  A Passing Storm (1866), Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut ;  Ruins of the Parthenon (1880), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
On August 29, 1880, Gifford died in New York City, having been diagnosed with malarial fever. The MET in New York City celebrated his life that autumn with a memorial exhibition of 160 paintings. A catalog of his work published shortly after his death recorded in excess of 700 paintings during his career.

TARANAKI / MOUNT EGMONT BY CHARLES BLOMFIELD

CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848-1926)

Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont  (2,518 m - 8,261 ft) 

New Zealand (North Island) 

1. In Mount Egmont from the Waterworks, 1880, oil on canvas, 

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

The mountain 
Taranaki or Mount Egmont  (2,518 m - 8,261 ft) is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand Geographic Board. The mountain is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak or Panitahi in Māori (1,966 me - 6,450 ft), on the south side.  Because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji, Taranaki provided the backdrop for the movie The Last Samurai.
For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki by Māori. The Māori word tara means mountain peak, and naki is thought to come from ngaki, meaning "shining", a reference to the snow-clad winter nature of the upper slopes. It was also named Pukehaupapa and Pukeonaki by Iwi who live in the region in ancient times.
According to Māori mythology, Taranaki once resided in the middle of the North Island, with all the other New Zealand volcanoes. The beautiful Pihanga was coveted by all the mountains, and a great battle broke out between them. Tongariro eventually won the day, inflicted great wounds on the side of Taranaki, and causing him to flee. Taranaki headed westwards, following Te Toka a Rahotu and forming the deep gorges of the Whanganui River, paused for a while, creating the depression that formed the Te Ngaere swamp, then heading north. Further progress was blocked by the Pouakai ranges, and as the sun came up Taranaki became petrified in his current location. When Taranaki conceals himself with rainclouds, he is said to be crying for his lost love, and during spectacular sunsets, he is said to be displaying himself to her. In turn, Tongariro's eruptions are said to be a warning to Taranaki not to return.
Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont on 11 January 1770 after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty who had supported the concept of an oceanic search for Terra Australis Incognita. Cook described it as "of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow" surrounded by a "flat country ... which afforded a very good aspect, being clothed with wood and verdure".
When Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne made landfall off Taranaki on 25 March 1772 he named the mountain Pic Mascarin. He was unaware of Cook's earlier visit.  It appeared as Mount Egmont on maps until 29 May 1986, when the Minister of Lands ruled that "Mount Taranaki" would be an alternative and equal official name. The Egmont name still applies to the national park that surrounds the peak and geologists still refer to the peak as the Egmont Volcano.
Taranaki is geologically young, having commenced activity approximately 135,000 years ago. The most recent volcanic activity was the production of a lava dome in the crater and its collapse down the side of the mountain in the 1850s or 1860s. Between 1755 and 1800, an eruption sent a pyroclastic flow down the mountain's northeast flanks, and a moderate ash eruption occurred about 1755, of the size of Ruapehu's activity in 1995/1996. The last major eruption occurred around 1655. Recent research has shown that over the last 9,000 years minor eruptions have occurred roughly every 90 years on average, with major eruptions every 500 years.

The painter 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Source : 

- Museum of New Zeland Te Papa Tongarewa

MOUNT PILATUS PAINTED BY WALTER CRANE

WALTER CRANE (1845-1915) 

Mount Pilatus (2,128m- 6,982ft)

Switzerland

In From Hotel Pilatus-Kulm in Switzerland, 30 Sept. 1902,  

Watercolour and bodycolour on brown paper, Private collection 

The mountain 

Pilatus (also often referred to Mount Pilatus or Pilate in French) is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne in Central Switzerland. It is composed of several peaks, of which the highest (2,128 m (6,982 ft) is named Tomlishorn and is located about 1.3 km (0.81 mi) to the southeast of the top cable car and cog railway station. The two peaks right next to the stations are called Esel (2,118 m - 6,949 ft), which lies just east over the railway station, the one on the west side is called Oberhaupt (2,105 m -6,906 ft). Jurisdiction over the massif is divided between the cantons of Obwalden (OW), Nidwalden (NW), and Lucerne (LU). The main peaks are right on the border between Obwalden and Nidwalden.

The highest peak however, Tomlishorn, and the other peaks, such as Widderfeld (2,128 m - 6,982 ft) even further west than the Tomlishorn on the border between LU and OW, Matthorn (2,040 m -6,690 ft) to the south, the Klimsenhorn (1,906 m -6,253 ft) to the north (UW), and Rosegg (1,974 m - 6,476 ft)) and Windegg (1,673 m - 5,489 ft)) to the east, both on the border of UW and OW, should only be approached with appropriate Alpine hiking equipement.

A few different local legends about the origin of the name exist. One claims that Pilatus was named so because Pontius Pilate was buried there;[citation needed] a similar legend is told of Monte Vettore in Italy. Another is that the mountain looks like the belly of a large man, Pilate, lying on his back and was thus named for him. The name may also be derived from "pileatus," meaning "cloud-topped."

A medieval legend had dragons with healing powers living on the mountain. A chronicle from 1619 reads: "As I was contemplating the serene sky by night, I saw a very bright dragon with flapping wings go from a cave in a great rock in the mount called Pilatus toward another cave, known as Flue, on the opposite side of the lake". 

Numbered amongst those who have reached its summit are Conrad Gessner, Theodore Roosevelt, Arthur Schopenhauer (1804), Queen Victoria and Julia Ward Howe (1867).

The mountain has fortified radar (part of the Swiss FLORAKO system) and weather stations on the Oberhaupt summit, not open to the public view and used all year round.

The painter

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century. Crane's work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.
Crane was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1882, resigning in 1886; two years later he became an associate of the Water Colour Society (1888); he was an examiner for the Science and Art Department at the South Kensington Museum; director of design at the Manchester Municipal School (1894); art director of Reading College (1896); and in 1898 for a short time principal of the Royal College of Art, where he planned a new curriculum intended to bring students into closer contact with tools and materials.  His lectures at Manchester were published with illustrated drawings as The Bases of Design (1898) and Line and Form (1900). The Decorative Illustration of Books, Old and New (2nd ed., London and New York, 1900) is a further contribution to theory.

As one can noticed, Walter Crane is not particularly well known for his mountain paintings ! The one you can see above is a souvenir of a trip and a stay he did in the famous Hotel Pilatus-Kulm, one of the most spectacular Switzerland's resort built in 1890 and completely renovated in 2010. It still houses rooms with magnificent views of the alpine panorama. 

MAUNA LOA PAINTED BY CHARLES FURNEAUX

CHARLES FURNEAUX (1835-1913)

Mauna Loa volcano  (4,170m - 13, 680 ft)

 United States of America  (Hawai'i)

In Eruption of Mauna Loa in 1889, oil on canvas, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Honolulu 

The volcano 

Mauna Loa  (4,170m - 13, 680ft)  which means Long Mountain in Hawaiian, is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean. The largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, Mauna Loa has historically been considered the largest volcano on Earth. It is an active shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, with a volume estimated at approximately 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3), although its peak is about 120 feet (37 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and they tend to be non-explosive.

Mauna Loa has probably been erupting for at least 700,000 years, and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago. The oldest-known dated rocks are not older than 200,000 years. The volcano's magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna Loa away from the hotspot within 500,000 to one million years from now, at which point it will become extinct.

Mauna Loa's most recent eruption occurred from March 24 to April 15, 1984. No recent eruptions of the volcano have caused fatalities, but eruptions in 1926 and 1950 destroyed villages, and the city of Hilo is partly built on lava flows from the late 19th century. Because of the potential hazards it poses to population centers, Mauna Loa is part of the Decade Volcanoes program, which encourages studies of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. Mauna Loa has been monitored intensively by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory since 1912. Observations of the atmosphere are undertaken at the Mauna Loa Observatory, and of the Sun at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, both located near the mountain's summit. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park covers the summit and the southeastern flank of the volcano, and also incorporates Kilauea, a separate volcano.

The painter 
Charles Furneaux was born in Boston and became a drawing instructor in that area. For many years he lived in the town of Melrose, Massachusetts. In 1880, Furneaux moved to Hawaii, where he cultivated the friendship of King Kalakaua and other members of the Hawaiian royal family, from whom he later received several commissions. In the late 1880s, he was commissioned in Honolulu by Alexander Joy Cartwright, widely credited as the "father of baseball" and another dear friend of King Kalakaua, to paint the only oil portrait of his 72-year life. While living in Honolulu he taught at the private schools Punahou and St. Albans (now known as Iolani School). In 1885, he received the order of Chevalier of Kapiolani from King Kalakaua in 'recognition of his services in advancing Hawaiian art'. He died in Hawaii in 1913.
His reputation is mainly based on the paintings he executed in Hawaii, especially those of erupting volcanoes. The Bishop Museum (Honolulu), the Brooklyn Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, Iolani Palace (Honolulu) and Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (South Hadley, Massachusetts) are among the public collections holding works by Charles Furneaux.

COL DU BONHOMME BY EUGENE VIOLLET-LE-DUC

EUGENE VIOLLET-LE-DUC (1814-1879),

Col du Bonhomme (2,329 m - 7,641 ft)

France (Alpes) 

In Le col du Bonhomme, le Cervin du Breuil, 1862, watercolor, Musée Lambinet Versailles, France  

The mountain

The Col du Bonhomme (2,329 m - 7,641 ft) is a pass that connects the Val Montjoie to the Beaufortain. It is located between the Mount du Rocher du Bonhomme and the Aiguilles de Pennaz. It is one of the passes crossed on the hiking trail of the Tour du Mont Blanc near the refuge of the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme at 2,443 meters.

In 1355, following the Treaty of Paris, the Faucigny passed from the possession of the counts of Geneva to that of the county of Savoy and the Col du Bonhomme lost its status of frontier to become  part of the "House of Savoy". On the night of the 27th of August, 1689, at Prangins, near Nyon, on the shore of Lake Geneva (Switzerland), about a thousand men try to go back to their Piedmont valley. In nine days they traveled 200 km by passing the massif of Mont Blanc by the Col du Bonhomme to reach Sibaud (Bobbio Pellice). This first trek,  with quite a lot of victims, was called the "Glorious Retreat".  Following the visit of the Emperor Napoleon III after the annexation of Savoy to France (1860), the path of the Col du Bonhomme is laid out (1861-1866). The free zone was subsequently reduced in 1919 by France at the end of the First World War by the Treaty of Versailles.

Nowadays, from the bottom of the Contamines-Montjoie valley, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Gorge, the climb takes from 2 to 3 hours, making it accessible to a large number of walkers. It can also be reached from Les Chapieux, the Gittaz dam and the Gittes crest path.

The artist 
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (not to be confused with the writer Violette Leduc) was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings.  But he was, as well, an excellent but less famous watercolorist, sketching quite a number of mountains and volcanoes all over Europe.
Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect. His works were largely restorative and few of his independent building designs were ever realised. Strongly contrary to the prevailing Beaux-Arts architectural trend of his time, much of his design work was largely derided by his contemporaries. He was the architect hired to design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty, but died before the project was completed.
During the early 1830s, a popular sentiment for the restoration of medieval buildings developed in France. Viollet-le-Duc, returning during 1835 from study in Italy, was commissioned by Prosper Mérimée to restore the Romanesque abbey of Vézelay. This work was the first of a long series of restorations; Viollet-le-Duc's restorations at Notre Dame de Paris with Jean-Baptiste Lassus brought him national attention. His other main works include Mont Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, Roquetaillade castle and Pierrefonds.
Viollet-le-Duc's "restorations" frequently combined historical fact with creative modification. For example, under his supervision, Notre Dame was not only cleaned and restored but also "updated", gaining its distinctive third tower (a type of flèche) in addition to other smaller changes. Another of his most famous restorations, the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne, was similarly enhanced, gaining atop each of its many wall towers a set of pointed roofs that are actually more typical of northern France. Many of these reconstructions were controversial. Viollet-le-duc wanted what he called ‘a condition of completeness' which never actually existed at any given time. This approach to restoration was particularly problematic when buildings survived in a mixture of styles. For instance, Viollet-le-Duc eliminated eighteenth-century additions to Notre Dame. Both his theory and his practice were strongly criticized on the grounds that only what had once been in place should be reconstructed. At the same time, in the cultural atmosphere of the Second Empire theory necessarily became diluted in practice: Viollet-le-Duc provided a Gothic reliquary for the relic of the Crown of Thorns at Notre-Dame in 1862, and yet Napoleon III also commissioned designs for a luxuriously appointed railway carriage from Viollet-le-Duc, in 14th-century Gothic style.
Among his restorations were:
- Churches :
Notre-Dame in Paris, Abbey of the Mont Saint-Michel, Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene in Vézelay, St. Martin in Clamecy,  Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Basilica of St. Denis near Paris, St. Louis in Poissy, Notre-Dame in Semur-en-Auxois, Basilica of St. Nazarius and St. Celsus in Carcasonne, Basilica of St. Sernin in Toulouse, Notre-Dame in Lausanne (Switzerland).
Town halls:
- Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, Narbonne
Castles:
- Château de Roquetaillade in Bordeaux, Château de Pierrefonds, Fortified city of Carcassonne, Château de Coucy, Antoing in Belgium, Château de Vincennes in  Paris.
When monuments was to much damaged, he sometimes  obtain from the emperor Napoleon III the permission to entirely rebuilt it,  like he did in Avignon with the Popes ramparts all around the city.

SAN JACINTO PEAK BY ALFRED. R. MITCHELL

ALFRED R. MITCHELL (1888-1972) 

San Jacinto Peak (3, 302m - 10,834 ft)

United States of America (California) 

In Road to Borrego - San Jacinto mountains in summer, oil on canvas,  Private collection  

The mountain 

The San Jacinto  Peak (3, 302m - 10,834 ft) is the highest poeak of the San Jacinto Mountains (Avii Hanupach in Mojave), a mountain range, in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles southern California in the United States.   The range extends for approximately 30 mi (50 km) from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The San Jacinto Mountains are the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges, which run 1,500 km (930 mi) from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. 

The Coachella Valley stretches along the eastern side of the range, including the cities of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. San Gorgonio Pass separates the range from Mount San Gorgonio to the north. The western slope holds the community of Idyllwild. The range is the eastern boundary of the San Jacinto Valley, location of Hemet; it also marks the eastern edge of the fast-growing Inland Empire region and Greater Los Angeles as a whole. Much of the range is embraced by the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument created in 2000. 

Mount San Jacinto State Park is located along the flank of San Jacinto Peak. Part of the eastern flank of the range is located within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. In 1990 the California Legislature created the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy to protect the mountains surrounding the valley.

The San Jacinto Mountains, like the neighboring San Bernardino Mountains, are a humid island above the surrounding desert and semi-desert.  The range can be thought of as a sky island, as it contains numerous species of flora and fauna that cannot tolerate the triple-digit-Fahrenheit heat of the surrounding valleys. Vegetation found on the mountain flanks is strongly influenced by elevation and climate.  At higher elevations, forests include Ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Lodgepole pine, Incense cedar, White fir, Red fir, and deciduous oak. There is also a grove of over 150 Giant Sequoia Trees on the northeast facing slope. The sequoias (native to the Sierra Nevada Mountains) were planted by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1970s, and are now apparently healthy and producing seedlings. As in many other western U.S areas, bark beetle infestations have caused loss of some of the forest trees in recent years, especially during droughts. 

The indigenous Cahuilla live in the deserts around the San Jacinto Mountains and used the range for hunting, foraging, and to escape the summer heat.

Hollywood film directors have used the mountains to shoot film scenes. In Frank Capra's 1937 film, Lost Horizon, the falls in Tahquitz Canyon was used as a scene.

Today, the range is a destination for outdoor recreation. The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range. 

The  artist

Alfred R. Mitchell  was an American landscape painter. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he was the president of the San Diego Art Guild and the La Jolla Art Association. He became known as the "Dean of San Diego County artists".

Alfred R. Mitchell was born  in York, Pennsylvania and moved to San Diego, California in 1908. He and studied with Maurice Braun in 1915. Mitchell won a silver medal at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition.  He served in the United States Army during World War I.  He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1916, and won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship and the Edward Bok Philadelphia Prize to visit museums in Europe in 1920; he graduated from the academy in 1921. Mitchell was the President of the San Diego Art Guild and the co-founder of the San Diego Museum of Art.  He was a co-founder of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego in 1925.  He was also the founding secretary of the Associated Artists of San Diego in 1929; it later changed its name to Contemporary Artists of San Diego. Mitchell was also the founder of the Chula Vista Art Guild in Chula Vista, California in 1945. He was the co-founder and president of the La Jolla Art Association in La Jolla, California from 1951 to 1961. He exhibited his artwork at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery from 1920 to 1927, and the La Jolla Library from 1923 to 1966.

GRINDELWALD VALLEY PAINTED BY CASPAR WOLF

CASPAR WOLF  (1735-1783)

Grindelwald Valley (1,034 m -3,392 ft) 

Switzerland

 In Grindelwald, vue du glacier inférieur sous l'orage, 1775, oil on canvas 

The spot 

Grindelwald (1,034 m 3,392 ft) designates a valley, a village and a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal. Three major swiss peaks overlooking Grindelwald: the Eiger (3,970 m - 13, 020ft), the Mettenberg (3,104m -10,184ft), the Wetterhorn (3,692m - 12, 133ft). 

The Painter 

Caspar Wolf was a Swiss painter, known mostly for his dramatic paintings of Alps. He was strongly influenced by Albrecht von Hallers poem on the Alps, and the Sturm und Drang movement. After 1773 Wolf mostly painted glaciers, caves, waterfalls and gorges.

Wolf was trained in Konstanz, between 1753 and 1759 he worked in Augsburg, Munich, Passau as a decoration painter. Not being able to sell his work he went disappointed back to his home town. For Horben Castle he painted by hand the wallpaper on the first floor. In 1768 Wolf lived in Basel. From 1769 till 1771 he stayed in Paris and worked with Philip James de Loutherbourg. In 1774 he moved to Bern. Wolf made a deal with the local publisher Abraham Wagner who had a geological interest, to deliver 200 paintings. He travelled with Wagner or a minister Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach in Berner Oberland and Wallis. From 1780-1781 he was working in Spa, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Düsseldorf. He died in poor circumstances in a hospital.

In 1779 his prints were exhibited in Bern but the book failed to sell. Wagner received help from a Swiss army officer in Dutch service and in 1785 thirty aquatints were published in Amsterdam. Till 1948 ninety of these aquatints were exhibited in Keukenhof Castle, but sold. Today these works can be seen in the Kunsthaus in Aarau. His son Theodor Wolf (1770–1818) was a still life painter.

JEBEL TOUBKAL BY WALTER MITTELHOLZER

WALTER MITTELHOLZER (1894-1937)

Jebel Toubkal (4,167 m - 13, 671 ft) 

Morocco 

 In Jebel Toubkal Aerial view, 1932.

The mountain 

Jebel Toubkal  is the high point of the High Atlas as well as Morocco and North Africa . It is located 63 km south of Marrakech, in the province of Al Haouz, inside the national park that bears its name.
The word Toubkal would be a deformation of French origin of the same Amazigh name Tugg Akal or toug-akal  which means "the one who looks up the earth". The people of this region still use this name.  The Toubkal massif is made up of rocks of various natures. Dark rocks of volcanic origin are found on the summits of andesite and rhyolite. Glaciers have left characteristic marks of their passage in the form of valleys in trough. During the Würm glaciation, the present valley of Assif n'Ait Mizane  was occupied by the longest glacier in the Atlas, about 5 km long.
The climate at Jebel Toubkal is mountainous. The snow falls in winter and covers the summit.
In the nineteenth century, the interior of Morocco was still terra incognita for the Europeans and for a long time the jebel Ayachi (3,747 m -12,293ft) ) passed for the highest summit of the High Atlas. In fact, the Toubkal was officially climbed for the first time only on 12 June 1923 by the Marquis de Segonzac, accompanied by Vincent Berger and Hubert Dolbeau. The cairns which they found on the summit had been built by the Berbers of the environs for whom the Toubkal is a holy place dedicated to Sidi Chamarouch (or Chamharouch). A sanctuary is dedicated to him on the way from Imlil to Toubkal.
The ascent of the roof of North Africa attracts a large number of followers of the trekking. This ascent attracts the crowd as much as it does not present great technical difficulties and that the assistance of the muleteers and their mules reduces the physical efforts. The altitude is relatively high (3,200 meters at the shelter and 4,167 meters at the summit).
Climbing
Summer is the most suitable season because snow and snowfalls are absent but brief and violent thunderstorms can occur. The normal route of the southern Ikhibi is the most frequented. From the top a wide panorama is offered to the rewarding gaze of the efforts provided. The vast expanses of the Atlas and the Great South are dominated by the Jebel Sirwa, 50 km to the southeast, and the vast ridge of the Jebel M'Goun, 150 km to the northeast. You can also see the summit of the station of Oukaimden. The tourist wave has altered the lives of the Berber mountaineers living in the neighborhood. Many inhabitants now work in tourism: muleteers, guides, gentists, cooks, transporters. The village of Imlil, the last village accessible by road, from Asni, and just two days' walk north of the Toubkal, is a true "Moroccan Chamonix". Two refuges are located at an altitude of 3,200 meters, two or three hours' walk from the summit. Not far from the summit of Toubkal is another attraction, Lake Ifni, accessible by the Tizi n'Ouanoums Pass (3,664 m) - 12, 021 ft).

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.

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2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau