ASCRAEUS MONS SEEN BY NASA MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER

NASA MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (2005-2015) 

Ascraeus mons (18, 225m / 18, 1 kms- 50, 793 ft / 11, 1mi) 

Planet Mars

1.  In Ascraeus mons, HiRISE camera ,Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); November 2010

2.  In  Colorized MOLA topography of Ascraeus Mons, 2006   

The mountain 
Ascraeus mons (18, 225m / 18kms- 50, 793 ft / 11, 1mi)  is a large shield volcano located in the Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the northernmost and tallest of three shield volcanoes collectively known as the Tharsis Montes. The volcano's location corresponds to the classical albedo feature Ascraeus Lacus.
Ascraeus Mons was discovered by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971. The volcano was originally called North Spot because it was the northernmost of only four spots visible on the surface due to a global dust storm that was then enshrouding the planet. As the dust cleared, the spots were revealed to be extremely tall volcanoes whose summits had projected above the dust-laden, lower atmosphere.
The volcano is located in the southeast-central portion of the Tharsis quadrangle at 11.8°N, 255.5°E in Mars' western hemisphere.  Ascraeus Mons is roughly 480 km in diameter and is the second highest mountain on Mars, with a summit elevation of 18.1 km ! The volcano has a very low profile with an average flank slope of 7°. Slopes are steepest in the middle portion of the flanks, flattening out toward the base and near the top where a broad summit plateau and caldera (collapse crater) complex are located.
Volcanic vents, located on the northeastern and southwestern edges of the volcano, are sources for broad lava aprons, or fans, that bury nearby portions of the volcano and extend over 100 km out into the surrounding plains.  The southwest-northeast orientation of the aprons matches the orientation of the Tharsis Montes, suggesting that a major fissure or rift in the Martian crust is responsible for the orientation of both the aprons and the Tharsis Montes chain. The presence of the lava aprons causes some disagreement in the actual dimensions of the volcano.
Like most of the Tharsis region, Ascraeus Mons has a high albedo (reflectivity) and low thermal inertia, indicating that the volcano and surrounding areas are covered with large amounts of fine dust.  The dust forms a mantle over the surface that obscures or mutes much of the fine-scale topography and geology of the region. Tharsis is probably dusty because of its high elevations. The atmospheric density is too low to mobilize and remove dust once it is deposited.
Ascraeus Mons is surrounded by lava flow plains that are mid to late Amazonian in age. The elevation of the plains averages about 3 km above datum (Martian "sea" level), giving the volcano an average vertical relief of 15 km.  However, the elevation of the plains varies considerably. The plains northwest of the volcano are less than 2 km in elevation. The plains are highest (>3 km) southeast of the volcano.
The lava plains northwest of Ascraeus Mons are notable for having two dark collapse pits photographed by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in November 2010 (image above) . The pits resemble those imaged around Arsia Mons by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The two pits measure about 180 and 310 m wide, and the larger pit is approximately 180 meters deep. The eastern walls of the pits consist of steep, overhanging ledges. The bottoms of both pits contain sediments and large boulders.  These rimless pit craters are believed to form by collapse of surface material into a subsurface void created either by a dike or lava tube. They are analogous to volcanic pit craters on Earth, such as the Devil's Throat crater on the upper east rift zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.  In some cases, they may mark skylights/entrances to subsurface lava caves.

The camera
The image above, has been captured by the HiRISE  (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The 65 kg (143 lb), $40 million USD instrument was built under the direction of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. It consists of a 0.5 m (19.7 in) aperture reflecting telescope, the largest so far of any deep space mission, which allows it to take pictures of Mars with resolutions of 0.3 m/pixel (about 1 foot), resolving objects below a meter across.
HiRISE has imaged Mars landers on the surface, including the ongoing Curiosity and Opportunity rover missions.
HiRISE was designed to be a High Resolution camera from the beginning. It consists of a large mirror, as well as a large CCD camera. Because of this, it achieves a resolution of 1 microradian, or 0.3 meter at a height of 300 km. (For comparison purposes, satellite images on Google Mars are available to 1 meter). It can image in three color bands, 400–600 nm (blue-green or B-G), 550–850 nm (red) and 800–1,000 nm (near infrared or NIR).
HiRISE incorporates a 0.5-meter primary mirror, the largest optical telescope ever sent beyond Earth's orbit. The mass of the instrument is 64.2 kg.
Red color images are at 20,048 pixels wide (6 km in a 300 km orbit), and Green-Blue and NIR are at 4,048 pixels wide (1.2 km). These are gathered by 14 CCD sensors, 2048 x 128 pixels. HiRISE's onboard computer reads out these lines in time with the orbiter's ground speed, meaning the images are potentially unlimited in height. Practically this is limited by the onboard computer's 28 Gbit (3.5 GByte) memory capacity. The nominal maximum size of red images (compressed to 8 bits per pixel) is about 20,000 × 126,000 pixels, or 2520 megapixels and 4,000 × 126,000 pixels (504 megapixels) for the narrower images of the B-G and NIR bands. A single uncompressed image uses up to 28 Gbit. However, these images are transmitted compressed, with a typical max size of 11.2 Gigabits. These images are released to the general public on the HiRISE website via a new format called JPEG 2000.
To facilitate the mapping of potential landing sites, HiRISE can produce stereo pairs of images from which the topography can be measured to an accuracy of 0.25 meter.
The HiRISE camera is designed to view surface features of Mars in greater detail than has previously been possible. It has provided a closer look at fresh martian craters, revealing alluvial fans, viscous flow features and ponded regions of pitted materials containing breccia clast.  This allows for the study of the age of Martian features, looking for landing sites for future Mars landers, and in general, seeing the Martian surface in far greater detail than has previously been done from orbit. By doing so, it is allowing better studies of Martian channels and valleys, volcanic landforms, possible former lakes and oceans, and other surface landforms as they exist on the Martian surface.
The general public is allowed to request sites for the HiRISE camera to capture (see HiWish). For this reason, and due to the unprecedented access of pictures to the general public, shortly after they have been received and processed, the camera has been termed "The People's Camera".
 The pictures can be viewed online, downloaded, or with the free HiView software.

MT ARTHUR/ TUAO WHAREPAPA BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913) 

Mount Arthur / Tuao Wharepapa  (1,795 m- 5,889 ft) 

New Zealand (South Island) 

 In Mt Arhur New Zealand, watercolour, 1877

The mountain
Mount Arthur / Tuao Wharepapa  (1,795m- 5,889ft) is in the Arthur Range in the north western area of the South Island of New Zealand, within Kahurangi National Park. Mount Arthur is named after Captain Arthur Wakefield. Mt Arthur is made of hard, crystalline marble, transformed from limestone, originally laid down under the sea some 450 million years ago. Below ground are some of the deepest shafts and most intricate cave systems in the country, and exploration of these is far from finished. Mount Arthur is home to the Ellis Basin cave system, the deepest cave in the Southern Hemisphere, and Nettlebed Cave which was thought to be the deepest cave system the Southern Hemisphere prior to discovery of the Ellis Basin cave system in 2010. During the ice ages small glaciers carved smooth basins called 'cirques' high on Mt Arthur, polishing and scraping the tough marble. The floors of the cirques are studded with sinkholes where surface water is taken underground into extensive cave systems.

The painter 
John Barr Clark Hoyte was born in England, probably in London,  the son of Samuel Hoyte, a landowner. His mother's name is not known, nor are any details of his childhood. From 1856 to 1859 he was employed as a planter in Demerara, Guyana, after which he returned to England. On 1860, at Leamington, Warwickshire, he married Rose Esther Elizabeth Parsons, daughter of an iron merchant. Within three months they sailed on the Egmont for Auckland, New Zealand, where they were to live for 16 years. Three daughters were born in Auckland, and the couple may also have had a son. A brother of John Hoyte emigrated to New Zealand, possibly in the 1870s.
Nothing is known of Hoyte's education and artistic training and we are reduced to the obvious deduction that he was heir to the English tradition of topographic draughtsmanship and watercolour painting. Firm drawing underlies his landscapes, making it appropriate to group him with colonial surveyor–architect artists such as Edward Ashworth, Edmund Norman and George O'Brien.
During his years in New Zealand John Hoyte travelled assiduously in search of new scenes to exploit. In January 1866 he exhibited views from Whangarei, Coromandel, Auckland, Waikato, the Wellington region and Nelson, although some of these pictures were not painted from the subject. In the 1870s he travelled each summer, progressively adding the thermal region, Taranaki, Nelson, Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, Banks Peninsula and Otago to his repertoire between 1872 and 1876.
His pictorial exploration of the colony's principal dramatic landscapes was completed when he took a cruise circumnavigating the South Island in early 1877, exploring the coast of Fiordland with particular attention. New Zealand subjects would continue to inspire his production long after he had settled in Australia, where they shared his attention with coastal and mountain views drawn chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sydney.
The success of the art unions of his work shows that the subjects he painted were in harmony with public taste. Despite the exceptional landscapes which appear so frequently in his production – geysers, the Pink and White Terraces, fiords, mountains and lakes – it appears that his preference was for a more gentle, picturesque mode of landscape art rather than the heightened tensions of the sublime. The Otago Guardian in 1876 described 'the aspect of repose which usually characterises Mr Hoyte's illustrations of native landscapes'. A comparison of Fiordland subjects painted by Hoyte and John Gully shows that Hoyte eschewed the manipulation of the viewer's emotions which the latter exploited so regularly. Even in his pastoral subjects Gully could be relied on to introduce an epic element which Hoyte usually avoided. Despite his apparent commercial success, however, Hoyte's standing, like that of George O'Brien, waned in the 1870s: a decade which marked a major shift in New Zealand colonial taste as the Turnerian Romantics such as Gully, J. C. Richmond and W. M. Hodgkins moved into greater prominence. They and their style were to dominate the following decades.

MOUNT NORQUAY IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1955

VINTAGE POSTCARD 1955

Mount Norquay (2,133 m - 6,998ft)

Canada (Alberta)

In Ski at Mt Norquay resort, 1955 

The mountain 

Mount Norquay  (2,133 m - 6,998ft)  is located in  Banff National Park, Canada (Alberta), directly northwest of the Town of Banff. Mount Norquay is one of three major ski resorts located in the Banff National Park. The mountain was named in 1904 after John Norquay, premier of Manitoba from 1878 to 1887 which  climbed the mountain.
The first ski runs date as far back as 1926, with the opening of the ski lodge in 1929.  Rope tows were installed in 1942 and the mountain was the first in Canada to install a chair lift in 1948.  Mount Norquay has a long history supporting the sport of alpine ski racing. The Dominion Championships were early efforts by the local community to promote winter tourism and Norquay hosted the Championships on three separate occasions. The resort was part of two Olympic Winter Games bids (1964 and 1968) and did host the World Cup in 1972, running giant slalom and slalom races on the North American run. The resort was also famous for ski jumping, hosting many international competitions. The ski jump is still homologated and was recently used by the Altius Ski Club of Calgary.
Today the Mount Norquay Ski Resort is a popular ski destination and one of the most important ski resorts supporting alpine ski racing in Canada. The ski hill hosts many local events as well as major international ski races. Well-known Canadian ski champions who are members of the Banff Alpine Racers, the home ski club for the resort, are Thomas Grandi and Cary Mullen, as well as current Canadian Alpine Ski Team members Paul Stutz and Erik Read.

MOUNT ELBRUS BY THOMAS COLE

 THOMAS COLE (1801-1848),

Mount Elbrus (5,642 m - 18,510 ft)
Russia

in Prometheus Bound, 1847, oil on canvas

The mountain

Mount Elbrus (Эльбру́с) also called  Karachay-Balkar (Минги таy) is the highest mountain in Europe, and the seven highest summit in the world.  The seven 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), Vinson  Massif (4,892m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m) in Australia.

Mount Elbrus should not be confused with the Alborz (also called Elburz) mountains in Iran, which also derive their name from the legendary mountain Harā Bərəzaitī in Persian mythology.

A dormant volcano, Elbrus forms part of the Caucasus Mountains in Southern Russia, near the border with Georgia. Elbrus has two summits, both of which are dormant volcanic domes. With its slightly taller west summit, the mountain stands at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft); the east summit is 5,621 metres (18,442 ft). The lower east summit was first ascended on 10 July 1829 by Khillar Khachirov, a Karachayguide for an Imperial Russian army scientific expedition led by General Emmanuel, and the higher in 1874 by an British expedition led by F. Crauford Grove and including Frederick Gardner, Horace Walker, and the Swiss guide Peter Knubel of St. Niklaus in the canton Valais.

While there are differing authorities on how the Caucasus are distributed between Europe and Asia, most relevant modern authorities define the continental boundary as the Caucasus watershed, placing Elbrus in Europe due to its position on the north side in Russia.

Mount Elbrus was formed more than 2.5 million years ago. The volcano is currently considered inactive. Elbrus was active in the Holocene, and according to the Global Volcanism Program, the last eruption took place about AD 50. Evidence of recent volcanism includes several lava flows on the mountain, which look fresh, and roughly 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi) of volcanic debris. The longest flow extends 24 kilometres (15 mi) down the northeast summit, indicative of a large eruption. There are other signs of activity on the volcano, including solfataric activity and hot springs. The western summit has a well-preserved volcanic crater about 250 metres (820 ft) in diameter.

The ancients knew the mountain as Strobilus, Latin for 'pine cone', a direct loan from the ancient Greek strobilos, meaning 'a twisted object' – a long established botanical term that describes the shape of the volcano's summit.
Myth held that here Zeus had chained Prometheus, the Titan who had stolen fire from the gods and given it to ancient man – likely a reference to historic volcanic activity. The painting above depicts precisely the Prometheus legend, beloved by the romantics artists. 

The painter 

Thomas Cole (1801– 848) was an American artist known for his landscape and history paintings. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century. Cole's work is known for its romantic portrayal of the American wilderness.

In New York, Cole sold five paintings to George W. Bruen, who financed a summer trip to the Hudson Valley where the artist produced two Views of Coldspring, the Catskill Mountain House and painted famous Kaaterskill Falls and the ruins of Fort Putnam. Returning to New York, he displayed five landscapes in the window of William Colman's bookstore; according to the New York Evening Post Two Views of Coldspring were purchased by Mr. A. Seton, who lent them to the American Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition in 1826. This garnered Cole the attention of John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand, and William Dunlap. Among the paintings was a landscape called "View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna". Trumbull was especially impressed with the work of the young artist and sought him out, bought one of his paintings, and put him into contact with a number of his wealthy friends including Robert Gilmor of Baltimore and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford, who became important patrons of the artist.

Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846. Cole spent the years 1829 to 1832 and 1841 to 1842 abroad, mainly in England and Italy.

Thomas Cole died at Catskill on February 11, 1848. The fourth highest peak in the Catskills is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor. 

RYAN PEAK BY THOMAS MORAN

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Ryan Peak (3,570 m - 11,714 ft) 

United States of America (Idaho) 

 In Peak Idaho, rocky mountain, oil on canvas, 1890

 The mountain 

Ryan Peak (3,570 m - 11,714 ft)  is the highest peak in the Boulder Mountains of Idaho. Located in Custer County, Ryan Peak is about 0.5 miles (800 m) north of the Blaine County border. The peak is also on the border of Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Salmon-Challis National Forest and partially within the Hemingway–Boulders Wilderness. Ryan Peak is the second highest peak in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, after Castle Peak as well as the 16th highest peak in Idaho. Kent Peak, which is the second highest peak in the Boulder Mountains is about 0.75 miles (1,210 m) southeast of Ryan Peak. The primary route to Ryan Peak begins north of Ketchum along Idaho State Highway 75 at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters. Take national forest road 146 north from the headquarters until you reach the trailhead at the end of the road. Trail 115 ascends the ridge to the southwest of Ryan Peak, and from the ridge Ryan Peak is about a 1 mile (1,600 m) off trail hike from the ridge.

The painter
Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection with The Three Tetons painted in 1895.

DIE ZUGSPITZE BY EDWARD H. COMPTON

EDWARD H. COMPTON (1861-1960) 

 Die Zugspitze  (2, 962 m - 9, 718 ft) 

Germany - Austria border  

 In Motif from the Wetterstein gebirge, oil on canvas, 1928 

The mountain 
The Zugspitze (2,962m -9,718 ft) above sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains as well as the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and the border between Germany and Austria runs over its western summit. South of the mountain is the Zugspitzplatt, a high karst plateau with numerous caves. On the flanks of the Zugspitze are three glaciers, including the two largest in Germany: the Northern Schneeferner with an area of 30.7 hectares and the Höllentalferner with an area of 24.7 hectares. The third is the Southern Schneeferner which covers 8.4 hectares.
The Zugspitze was first climbed on 27 August 1820 by Josef Naus, his survey assistant, Maier, and mountain guide, Johann Georg Tauschl. Today there are three normal routes to the summit: one from the Höllental valley to the northeast; another out of the Reintal valley to the southeast; and the third from the west over the Austrian Cirque (Österreichische Schneekar). One of the best known ridge routes in the Eastern Alps runs along the knife-edged Jubilee Ridge (Jubiläumsgrat) to the summit, linking the Zugspitze, the Hochblassen and the Alpspitze. For mountaineers there is plenty of nearby accommodation. On the western summit of the Zugspitze itself is the Münchner Haus and on the western slopes is the Wiener-Neustädter Hut.
Three cable cars run to the top of the Zugspitze. The first, the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car, was built in 1926 and terminated on an arête below the summit before the terminus was moved to the actual summit in 1991. A rack railway, the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway, runs inside the northern flank of the mountain and ends on the Zugspitzplatt, from where a second cable car takes passengers to the top. The rack railway and the Eibsee Cable Car, the third cableway, transport an average of 500,000 people to the summit each year. In winter, nine ski lifts cover the ski area on the Zugspitzplatt. The weather station, opened in 1900, and the research station in the Schneefernerhaus are mainly used to conduct climate research.
At the Zugspitze's summit is the Münchner Haus, a mountain hut (Alpenhütte), a facility built by the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein). For more than a hundred years, the summit has also had a weather station, which nowadays also gathers data for the Global Atmosphere Watch.
Climbing up the Zugspitze can involve several routes. The large difference in elevation between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the summit is 2,200 m (7,200 ft), making the climb a challenge even for trained mountaineers.

The painter 

Edward Harrison Compton (1881–1960) not to be confused with his father Edward Theodore Compton (1849-1921) was a German landscape painter and illustrator of English descent. Compton was born in Feldafing in Upper Bavaria, Germany, the second son of notable landscape painter Edward Theodore Compton. He received his early art training from his father, and after a period of study in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts settled back in Bavaria. Like his father he was inspired by the Alps to become a mountain painter ("bergmaller") working in both oils and watercolour. However, an attack of Polio at the age of 28 meant that he had to find more accessible landscapes to paint in Germany, England northern Italy and Sicily. He also provided illustrations for several travel books published by A & C Black. Compton exhibited at galleries in Munich and Berlin, and also in England at the Royal Academy in London and in Bradford. He died in Feldafing in 1960.
He had two sisters, both of whom were artists: Marion Compton, the flowers and still-life painter, and Dora Keel-Compton, flower and mountain painter.

DU TOITS PEAK BY ANDREW COOPER

ANDREW COOPER  (bn. 1967) 

Du Toits Peak  (1,995 m - 6,545 ft) 

 South Africa 

 In Du Toits Kloof, oil on canvas

The mountain 
Du Toits Peak (1,995 m - 6,545 ft) is the highest seaward facing peak in the Cape Fold Belt ranges, i.e. the highest peak in the Western Cape within direct sight of the ocean. Located between Paarl and Worcester in the south-west of South Africa, 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the north-east of the provincial capital of Cape Town. The mountains form a formidable barrier between Cape Town and the rest of Africa on the N1 highway, also called the Cape to Cairo Road. This section is called the Du Toitskloof Pass. The old route culminates at 820 metres (2,690 ft), however, the new Huguenot Tunnel, of 4.4 kilometres (2.7 mi) in length, cuts out the old mountain pass.
The range mostly consists of Table Mountain sandstone, an erosion-resistant quatzitic sandstone. Vegetation is almost exclusively montane fynbos of the Cape floristic region. The rest of the mountains are barren rocks and steep cliffs. Precipitation occurs primarily in the winter months as rain on the lower slopes and as snow higher up, usually above 1000m. Climate varies dramatically, with the surrounding valleys being up to 10°C (18°F) warmer than the mountains. The climate falls within the Mediterranean type. The mountains form part of the Cape Syntaxis, a complex portion of the Cape Fold Belt where the north-south trending ranges meet in the east-west trending ranges in a complex series of folds, thrusts and fault-lines.

The artist
South African artist Andrew Cooper is a contemporary mountains and landscape  painter.  Born in Cape Town, South Africa in November, 1967, Andrew is a gifted, self taught fine artist, who started painting professionally in 1987. He prefers to work on large scale landscape paintings and seascape paintings allowing the viewer to experience "the grandeur and depth of the scene".
Living in a region rich in breathtaking scenery, he has created a spectacular body of contemporary South African paintings that has been exhibited throughout South Africa and elsewhere around the world.  The 2004 International Art Expo in New York City marked his premiere major American exhibition. His  paintings have also been exhibited in the United Kingdom, most recently in June 2012 (Westcliffe Gallery in Norfolk). Andrew Cooper is devoted to painting much as he is devoted to exploring the vast and spectacular countryside of South Africa. His paintings of the mountainside, seaside, wine country, and the rich grasslands are a testament to his sincere appreciation of nature. . His sharp eye and keen memory for detail caught every nuance of the scenes which played out in glorious colours before him. It was not long before he took paint to canvas and duplicated the glory of nature in its heights of beauty, thereby creating a lasting legacy of Nature's finest moments.

GUNUNG GAMPING BY FRANZ-WILHELM JUNGHUHN

FRANZ-WILHELM JUNGHUHN (1809-1864)

Gunung Gamping

Indonesia (Java) 

 In Gunung Gamping near Yogyakarta, 1853-1854, Ledien Univsersity Library 

The mountain

Gunung Gamping (250 m)  is a hill  located in the province of Jawa Timur, in the southwestern part of the country, 800 km east of the capital Jakarta, Indonesia  The top of Gunung Gamping is 534 meters above sea level ( or 250 meters above the surrounding terrain) . The width at the base is 2.7 km. The terrain around Gunung Gamping is mainly hilly. The highest point nearby is 965 meters above sea level, 7.3 km southeast of Gunung Gamping. Around Gunung Gamping, it is quite sparsely populated, with 28 inhabitants per square kilometer.  with mainly green-green deciduous forest grows.  Savann climate prevails in the area. The annual average temperature in the funnel is 21 ° C. The warmest month is March, when the average temperature is 22 ° C, and the coldest is July, at 20 ° C.  The rainy month is January, with an average of 498 mm rainfall , and the driest is August, with 33 mm rainfall. 

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.

MONTE PELLEGRINO BY CONRAD PETER SCHREIBER

CONRAD PETER SCHREIBER (1816-1894)

Monte Pellegrino (606 m-1,988 ft) 

 Italy (Sicily) 

In Monte Pellegrino vista on Palermo, watercolour, 1840 

The mountain 

Monte Pellegrino (606 m-1,988 ft) is a hill facing east on the bay of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy, located north of the city, with panorama views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea. In his book Travels in Italy, Goethe described Monte Pellegrino as " the most beautiful promontory in the world ". The mountain is home to the sanctuary of Saint Rosalia, the patron saint of Palermo and it's nowadays a natural reserve.

The painter

Peter Conrad Schreiber was a German painter. In 1835-36 he studied  with the already legendary landscape painter Carl Blechen at the Berlin Academy of Arts. At the same time he belonged to the private student circle of the the representative of the Düsseldorf Landscape School, Wilhelm Schirmer who "inoculated the yearning for Italy" which was to determine his later major work. 

From autumn 1837 Schreiber studied in Munich. In Munich, he was particularly impressed by the works of Carl Rottmann. He undertook study trips to Salzburg and Tyrol  having contact with many young painters.

In 1839 Schreiber moved to Rome into an apartment in Via della Vite 107, near the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina. From here he undertook numerous study trips. In the summer of 1840, for instance, with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Bernhard Fries in the Sabine mountains. The undeveloped Campagna Romana in the south of Rome was for him landscaped "the most beautiful thing there can be."  At the end of his stay in Italy in 1841, he was an eyewitness to the famous  eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which deeply impressed him and influenced as much as other impressions of Italy's life's work decisively. 

Schreiber was a typical representative of Romanticism to late romanticism. Against the backdrop of nature, which at times is mystical and fantastically exaggerated, Schreiber's work and his work seem small and insignificant. In doing so, he fulfills the need  for an emotional balance to the rapidly advancing industrialization - the yearning for the grandeur and eternal grandeur of nature, which should give its foothold.

He had a good clientele until the end of his life.  He was not only a landscape painter appreciated in Germany. From a letter written by Ferdinand Bellermann, we also know that Schreiber "always had many orders to London and Paris".

MOUNT SHASTA IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1966

VINTAGE POSTCARD 1966

Mount Shasta (4,322 m - 14,179 ft)

United Sates of America  (California)

The mountain 

Mount Shasta (4,322 m- 14,179 ft) named after a tribe of native american the Shasta, is also called "Uytaahkoo" (in Karuk) or "White Mountain". It  is a potentially active volcano (last known eruption in 1786) at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. Mount Shasta  is the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The mountain and its surrounding area are managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Mount Shasta was declared a National Natural Landmark in December 1976.

In his Picturesque California in 1888, John Muir  described Mount Shasta and its area  "The Shasta region is still a fresh unspoiled wilderness, accessible and available for travelers of every kind and degree. Would it not be a fine thing to set it apart like the Yellowstone and Yosemite as a National Park for the welfare and benefit of all mankind, preserving its fountains and forests and all its glad life in primeval beauty?"

At the time of Euro-American contact in the 1820s, the Native American tribes who lived within view of Mount Shasta included: the Shasta, Okwanuchu, Modoc, Achomawi, Atsugewi, Karuk, Klamath, Wintu, and Yana tribes. 

The historic eruption of Mount Shasta in 1786 may have been observed by the french explorer Lapérouse. Although perhaps first seen by Spanish explorers, the first reliably reported land sighting of Mount Shasta by a European or American was by Peter Skene Ogden (a leader of a Hudson's Bay Company trapping brigade) in 1826. In 1827, the name "Sasty" or "Sastise" was given to nearby Mount McLoughlin by Ogden. The name was transferred to present-day Mount Shasta in 1841, partly as a result of work by the United States Exploring Expedition.

The lore of some of the Klamath Tribes in the area held that Mount Shasta is inhabited by the Spirit of the Above-World, , who descended from heaven to the mountain's summit at the request of a Klamath chief. Skell fought with Spirit of the Below-World, Llao, who resided at Mount Mazama by throwing hot rocks and lava, probably representing the volcanic eruptions at both mountains.

 A group of Native Americans from the McCloud River area practice rituals on the mountain.

Mount Shasta has also been a focus for non-Native American legends, centered on a hidden city of advanced beings from the lost continent of Lemuria. The legend grew from an offhand mention of Lemuria in the 1880s, to a description of a hidden Lemurian village in 1925. In 1931, Wisar Spenle Cerve wrote Lemuria: the lost continent of the Pacific, published by the Rosicrucians, about the hidden Lemurians of Mount Shasta that cemented the legend in many readers' minds.

In August 1987, believers in the spiritual significance of the Harmonic Convergence described Mount Shasta as one of a small number of global "power centers". Mount Shasta remains a focus of "New Age" attention.

Mount Shasta is connected to nearby Shastina, and they dominate the northern California landscape. 

The mountain consists of four overlapping volcanic cones that have built a complex shape, including the main summit and the prominent satellite cone of 12,330 ft (3,760 m) Shastina, which has a visibly conical form. If Shastina were a separate mountain, it would rank as the fourth-highest peak of the Cascade Range (after Mount Rainier, Rainier's Liberty Cap, and Mount Shasta itself).

Mount Shasta's surface is relatively free of deep glacial erosion except, paradoxically, for its south side where Sargents Ridge runs parallel to the U-shaped Avalanche Gulch. This is the largest glacial valley on the volcano, although it does not presently have a glacier in it. There are seven named glaciers on Mount Shasta, with the four largest (Whitney, Bolam, Hotlum, and Wintun) radiating down from high on the main summit cone to below 10,000 ft (3,000 m) primarily on the north and east sides. The Whitney Glacier is the longest, and the Hotlum is the most voluminous glacier in the state of California. Three of the smaller named glaciers occupy cirques near and above 11,000 ft (3,400 m) on the south and southeast sides, including the Watkins, Konwakiton, and Mud Creek glaciers.

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.

MONT SINAÏ BY JOACHIM PATINIER

JOACHIM PATINIER (1484-1524) 

Mount Sinaï or Jabal Musa (2,285 m - 7,496ft) 

Egypt

1. In A Rest during the Flight into Egypt, oil on panel, 1515, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

The painting

There are several versions of this painting painted by Patinir (or Patinier) during his lifetime and after him, by his studio after his death. and according to Patinir. This blog presents four paintings did in 1515, 1516, 1517 and 1518-1520 by Patinir or his workshop. The theme of the Flight into Egypt wa very popular and inspired many other painters from Fra Angelico's to Giotto.
The mountain landscape in the background is supposed to be that of Mount Sinaï, halfway between Egypt and the kingdom of Herod. Of course, the Flemish painter Joachim Patinir had no chance to know what Mount Sinai could look like ! It is therefore imaginary representations that he gave based of landscapes he could see around the area he was living. At the beginning of the 15th century, the representation of a landscape alone was inconceivable, This is why Patinir had to  place a religious scene in the middle of his landscapes. These figures could  be painted by other artists than him, which interested Patinir being mainly the representation of nature. The landscapes of the Flemish painters of this period have been called "world-landscapes" because the artists seek to place in their painting the maximum of elements representative of the reality of their usual environment - relief, vegetation, buildings, rivers, lakes, characters, animals - and to give an almost unlimited depth to the composition by using the atmospheric perspective.

The mountain 

Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab  : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai.  The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629 m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

 The Painter 
Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market in the Low Countries. Patinir was a pioneer of landscape as an independent genre and he was the first Flemish painter to regard himself primarily as a landscape painter. He effectively invented the world landscape, a distinct style of panoramic northern Renaissance landscapes which is Patinir's important contribution to Western art.
There are only five paintings signed by Patinir, but many other works have been attributed to him or his workshop with varying degrees of probability. The ones that are signed read: (Opus) Joachim D. Patinier, the "D" in his signature signifying Dionantensis ("of Dinant"), reflecting his place of origin. The 2007 exhibition at the Museo del Prado in Madrid contained 21 pictures listed as by Patinir or his workshop, and catalogued a further 8 which were not in the exhibition.
Patinir was the friend of not only Dürer, but with Quentin Metsys as well, with whom he often collaborated. The Temptation of St Anthony (Prado) was done in collaboration with Metsys, who added the figures to Patinir's landscape. His career was nearly contemporary with that of the other major pioneer of paintings dominated by landscape, Albrecht Altdorfer, who worked in a very different style. 

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 PAINTED BY GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

GEORGIA O' KEEFFE (1887–1986),

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3,776.24 m -12,389 ft) 

Japan

The painter 

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, known internationally for her boldly innovative art. Her distinct flowers, dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are iconic and original contributions to American Modernism.
Born on November 15, 1887, the second of seven children, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905-1906 and the Art Students League in New York in 1907-1908. Under the direction of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox she learned the techniques of traditional realist painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically in 1912 when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow’s emphasis on composition and design offered O’Keeffe an alternative to realism. She experimented for two years, while she taught art in South Carolina and west Texas. Seeking to find a personal visual language through which she could express her feelings and ideas, she began a series of abstract charcoal drawings in 1915 that represented a radical break with tradition and made O’Keeffe one of the very first American artists to practice pure abstraction.
O’Keeffe mailed some of these highly abstract drawings to a friend in New York City, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. An art dealer and internationally known photographer, he was the first to exhibit her work in 1916. He would eventually become O’Keeffe’s husband.
In the summer of 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape, distinct indigenous art, and unique regional style of adobe architecture inspired a new direction in O’Keeffe’s artwork. For the next two decades she spent part of most years living and working in New Mexico . She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death. O’Keeffe’s New Mexico paintings coincided with a growing interest in regional scenes by American Modernists seeking a distinctive view of America. Her simplified and refined representations of this region express a deep personal response to the high desert terrain.
In the 1950s, O’Keeffe began to travel internationally. She created paintings that evoked a sense of the spectacular places she visited, including the mountain peaks of Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji. At the age of seventy-three she embarked on a new series focused on the clouds in the sky and the rivers below.
Suffering from macular degeneration and discouraged by her failing eyesight, O’Keeffe painted her last unassisted oil painting in 1972. But O’Keeffe’s will to create did not diminish with her eyesight. In 1977, at age ninety, she observed, “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”
Late in life, and almost blind, she enlisted the help of several assistants to enable her to again create art.  In these works she returned to favorite visual motifs from her memory and vivid imagination.
Georgia O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe, on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.

The mountain 

 Mount Fuji or Fujiyama (富士山) also called Fujisan  (3,776.24 m (12,389 ft) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan. Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08.

Fujiyama  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.

Approximately 300,000 people climbed Mount Fuji per year. The most-popular period for people to hike up Mount Fuji is from July to August, while huts and other facilities are operating. Buses to the fifth station start running on July. Climbing from October to May is very strongly discouraged, after a number of high-profile deaths and severe cold weather. Most Japanese climb the mountain at night in order to be in a position at or near the summit when the sun rises. The morning light is called  goraikō, (御来光) "arrival of light".

There are four major routes from the fifth station to the summit with an additional four routes from the foot of the mountain. The major routes from the fifth station are (clockwise): Yoshida, Subashiri, Gotemba, and Fujinomiya routes. The routes from the foot of the mountain are: Shojiko, Yoshida, Suyama, and Murayama routes. The stations on different routes are at different elevations. The highest fifth station is located at Fujinomiya, followed by Yoshida, Subashiri, and Gotemba.

Even though it has only the second-highest fifth stations, the Yoshida route is the most-popular route because of its large parking area and many large mountain huts where a climber can rest or stay. 

Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, much attention was given to the potential volcanic reaction of Mt. Fuji. In September 2012, mathematical models created by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NRIESDP) suggested that the pressure in Mount Fuji's magma chamber could be at 1.6 megapascals, higher than it was in 1707. This was commonly reported in the media to mean that an eruption of Mt. Fuji was imminent. However, since there is no known method of measuring the pressure of a volcano's magma chamber directly, indirect calculations of the type used by NRIESDP are speculative and unprovable. Other indicators suggestive of heightened eruptive danger, such as active fumaroles and recently discovered faults, are typical occurrences at this type of volcano.

L 'ESTEREL BY FELIX VALOTTON

FELIX VALOTTON (1865-1925) 

Mont Vinaigre (618m - 2,027ft) 

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur) 

1. In L’Estérel et la baie de Cannes, 1925, oil on canvas

2.  In L’Estérel et la baie de Cannes, 1925, oil on canvas (détail) 

The mountain 

This view of L'Esterel and the Baie de Cannes by  FELIX Valloton  allows to see a large part of the Massif of the Esterel and its seven summits :  Mont Vinaigre (618 m - 2,027 ft), Mont Suvières (558m - 1831ft), Sommet du Marsaou (548m -1,798ft), Pic de l'Ours (492m -1,614ft), Pic du Cap-Roux  (453m -1,486ft), the Saint-Pilon (442 m -1,450ft) and the Sommet Pelet (439m -1,440ft).
The Esterel Massif is a low altitude volcanic mountain range of 32,000 hectares located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It covers the south-east of the Var, a small part located in the Alpes-Maritimes, France. Separated from the Moors by the valley of the Argens, the relief of the Esterel is shredded and deeply ravined. The massif extends over 320 km2 of which 130 km2 classified and protected. 60 km2 of state forest are maintained by the National Forestry Office.

The heart of the massif is protected by a decree of 1996. In the part of Alpes-Maritimes, a departmental park of 772 ha was created in 1997. It shelters a population of red deer, introduced in 1961. In the Var, a Biological reserve protects nearly 800 hectares. The massif is a site of the Natura 2000 network responsible for the preservation of nature in Europe.

Mount Vinaigre (Mount Vinagar) located in Frejus is the highest peak in the Massif de l' Esterel and was the hideout of robbers. Gaspard de Besse (1757-1781), which robbed travelers and tax agents in the 18th century, sheltered there. Mont Vinaigre was also the refuge of the convicts escaped from the jail in Toulon.Today, Mount Vinaigre is not completely accessible to the public It can be approached by taking  the road DN7 between Fréjus and Mandelieu-la-Napoule, 3 km before the crossing with the road D237. There, a paved DFCI trail could allow access to its summit but it ends 1 kilometer after the forest house of Malpey.  Only vehicles belonging to the French National Forestry Office or rescue vehicles are allowed to pass this point.

The painter 
Félix Edouard Vallotton was a Swiss/French painter and printmaker associated (from 1892) with Les Nabis, a group of young artists that included Pierre Bonnard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Maurice Denis, and Edouard Vuillard, with whom Vallotton was to form a lifelong friendship. During the 1890s, when Vallotton was closely allied with the avant-garde, his paintings reflected the style of his woodcuts, with flat areas of color, hard edges, and simplification of detail. His subjects included genre scenes, portraits and nudes. Examples of his Nabi style are the deliberately awkward Bathers on a Summer Evening (1892–93), now in the Kunsthaus Zurich, and the symbolist Moonlight (1895), in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
In 1899 Vallotton married Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques, a wealthy young widow with three children, and in 1900 he attained French citizenship. Around 1899, his printmaking activity diminished as he concentrated on painting, developing a sober, often bitter realism independently of the artistic mainstream. His Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1907) was painted as an apparent response to Picasso's portrait of the previous year, and in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Stein described the very methodical way in which Vallotton painted it, working from top to bottom as if lowering a curtain across the canvas.
Vallotton's paintings of the post-Nabi period found admirers, and were generally respected for their truthfulness and their technical qualities, but the severity of his style was frequently criticized. Typical is the reaction of the critic who, writing in the March 23, 1910 issue of Neue Zurcher Zeitung, complained that Vallotton "paints like a policeman, like someone whose job it is to catch forms and colors. Everything creaks with an intolerable dryness ... the colors lack all joyfulness."
In its uncompromising character his art prefigured the New Objectivity that flourished in Germany during the 1920s, and has a further parallel in the work of Edward Hopper.
Vallotton responded in 1914 to the coming of the First World War by volunteering for the French army, but he was rejected because of his age.  In 1915–16 he returned to the medium of woodcut for the first time since 1901 to express his feelings for his adopted country in the series, This is War, his last prints. He subsequently spent three weeks on a tour of the Champagne front in 1917, on a commission from the Ministry of Fine Arts. The sketches he produced became the basis for a group of paintings, The Church of Souain in Silhouette among them, in which he recorded with cool detachment the ruined landscape.  In his last years Félix Vallotton concentrated especially on still lifes and on "composite landscapes", landscapes composed in the studio from memory and imagination. Always a prolific artist, by the end of his life he had completed over 1700 paintings and about 200 prints, in addition to hundreds of drawings and several sculptures.  He died on the day after his 60th birthday, following cancer surgery in Paris in 1925.

_______________________________

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT ST HELENA / KANAMOTA BY THOMAS HILL

THOMAS HILL (1829-1908) 

 Mount St. Helena / Kanamota  (1, 323 m - 4,342 ft)  

United States of America  (California) 

 In Mount St. Helena, Napa Valley, 1887, oil on canvas, Private Collection  

The mountain
Mount Saint Helena or  Kanamota  (1, 323 m - 4,342 ft)   which means "Human Mountain", not to be confused with the volcano Mount St Helens (Washington State) is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall during the winter.
The mountain has five peaks, arranged in a rough "M" shape. Its highest point, North Peak, is in Sonoma County. The second-tallest, immediately east of the main summit, is the highest point in Napa County.
Mount Saint Helena has had an explosive history of pyroclastic flows that resulted in The Petrified Forest. Mount Saint Helena was originally named Mount Mayacamas, but the name was changed after a Russian survey party ascended the peak in 1841 and left a copper plate on the summit inscribed with the date of their visit. The plate also bore the name of Princess Helena de Gagarin, wife of Count Alexander G. Rotchev, the commanding officer of Fort Ross.
Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne spent the summer of 1880 honeymooning in an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. Stevenson's book The Silverado Squatters includes his experiences while living there.
 The mount is also described by Ambrose Bierce in his ghost story The Death of Halpin Frayser.
The peak is reachable by hiking trails leading from Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. The trails are approximately 6 miles long.

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

MOUNT MANAIA BY CHARLES BLOMFIELD

CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848-1926) 

Mount Manaia  (420 m-1,378 ft)

New Zealand

In  Old Maniaia, Whangarei Heads, oil on canvas, 

The mountain 
Mount Manaia (420 m-1,378 ft) is a dominant landmark approximately 30 kilometres southeast of Whangarei city on the Whangarei Heads peninsula, New Zealand. The summit offers outstanding views of the Marsden Point Oil Refinery, Bream Bay and the Hauraki Gulf to the south, Whangarei Harbour to the west and the Poor Knights Islands and Northland coast to the north.
Mt Manaia - along with Mt Lion, Bream Head and the Hen and Chicken Islands, are the scattered remnants of a large, 50 kilometer diameter volcano that erupted with force 20 million years ago during the early miocene period. Its jagged outline is similar to that of its neighbours and other volcanic outcrops in Northland that erupted in a similar period.
Today blanketed by native bush, Manaia's jagged peaks and steep bluffs are protected within a Department of Conservation reserve which features a well-maintained 1 hour track to the summit.

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 painted several times Mount Manaia and under different angles (see the painting already posted).He was fortunate to viewas well 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.

CRETE SENESI PAINTED BY ZORAN MUSIC

ZORAN MUSIC (1909-2005)

Crete Senesi (200 m- 646 ft)

Italy  (Tuscany) 

 In Colline Senesi, 1969, tempera on board

The mountains 
The Crete Senesi  (200 m- 646 ft) are the area south-east of the city of Siena, which includes the municipal territories of Asciano, Buonconvento, Monteroni d'Arbia, Rapolano Terme, Montalcino and Trequanda, all in the province of Siena. The name derives from the clay, present in the ground, which gives the landscape the characteristic gray-blue color and an appearance often described as lunar. This characteristic clay, mixed with rock salt and gypsum, called mattaione, represents the sediments of the Pliocene sea that covered the area between 2.5 and 4.5 million years ago. The landscape is characterized by barren and gently rolling hills, solitary oaks and cypresses, isolated farms on top of the hills, stretches of forest in the valleys, the fountains that collect rainwater. Typical shapes of the ground are the calanques, the flounces and the biancane.  The area is known for the production of the white truffle of the Crete and houses a festival and a museum dedicated to the so-called diamond of the Crete.

The painter 
Zoran Mušič, baptised as Anton Zoran Mušič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker and draughtsman from the area of the Kras Plateau near the Adriatic Sea. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris, where he lived for the larger part of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, but also scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and the vedutes of Venice. In early October 1944, he was arrested by theNazi German forces because he was in a group of Slovene anti-fascists. His drawing and painting in Venice raised suspicions that he was a spy, and a month later he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he made more than 100 sketches of life in the camp, some under extremely difficult circumstances.
In 1981 Mušič was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris. Mušič's work has been honoured in numerous international exhibitions, such as the large retrospective exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1995.

2017 - A Still Life Collection 
Un blog de Francis Rousseau 

BEINN A' BHUIRD PAINTED BY A. G. CARRICK / H.M KING CHARLES III

A. G. CARRICK / H.M KING CHARLES III former PRINCE OF WALES (bn.1948)

Beinn a' Bhùird (1,197m - 3,927ft) 

United Kingdom (Scotland) 

 In  Beinn a' Bhùird, watercolour on paper, 2005 

The mountain 

Beinn a' Bhщird  (1,197m - 3,927ft), meaning mountain of the table in Galic, is a Munro in the Cairngorm mountain range of Scotland. In Watson (1975) the author suggests the mountain should be named Beinn Bтrd - table hill, saying that local Scottish Gaelic speakers pronounced the mountain Paing Bтrd, with some of the older local folk still using Painna Bтrd. The closest village to Beinn a' Bhщird is Braemar, Aberdeenshire and the most common approach by car is through this village. To reach Beinn a' Bhщird by car, the most common approach is by the Linn of Dee road along the south side of the River Dee to the Linn of Dee, looping back along the north-bank to the car park at Allanaquoich where camping is permitted. The distance between Braemar and Allanaquoich by this route is about 10 miles.

In the early 1960s there was an attempt to develop a large ski area on Beinn a' Bhùird. The development was financed by the Panchaud brothers (Gerald and Jhon) of Switzerland who had purchased the estate when skiing in Scotland was booming.  The area was to be called Mar Lodge and opened in 1963 after a series of record snowfalls. At the time of opening there were two T-bars on site, one 620 ft long and one 2050 ft long. These offered a total uphill capacity of 1,400 people per hour. Unfortunately, the seasons of 1963-64 and 1964-65 offered very little snow to the area, meaning that the ski lifts were rarely used, with the resort becoming abandoned in 1965.  When the resort closed both T-bars were moved to Glenshee to become the Cairnwell T-Bar and Trainer Tow.

In 2006 a glider pilot from Deeside Gliding Club crashed on the hillside, spending 24 hours trapped in his plane before he was located by the RAF.

The painter
Arthur George Carrick is actually H.M. the King Charles III, former Prince of Wales.
When he began showing his paintings, he was too nervous to display his name so displayed under a pseudonym. Arthur George are two of his names (Charles Phillip Arthur George) and one of his titles is Earl of Carrick. King Charles III is an experienced watercolourist.  He has been painting for most of his adult life, during holidays or when his official diary allows. King Charles' interest began during the 1970s and 1980s when he was inspired by Robert Waddell, who had been his art master at Gordonstoun in Scotland. In time, King Charles met leading artists such as Edward Seago, with whom he discussed watercolour technique, and received further tuition from John Ward, Bryan Organ and Derek Hill.
The Royal Family has a tradition of drawing and painting, and King Charles’ work first came to public notice at a 1977 exhibition at Windsor Castle at which other Royal artists included Queen Victoria, The Duke of Edinburgh and The Duke of York.
King Charles paints in the open air, often finishing a picture in one go and his favourite locations include The Queen's estate at Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham House in Norfolk, England. Sometimes King Charles  III paints during his skiing holidays, and during overseas tours when possible.
The copyright of King Charles' watercolours belongs to A. G. Carrick Ltd, a trading arm of The King's Charities Foundation. Over the years King Charles III has agreed to exhibitions of his watercolours and of lithographs made from them, on the understanding that any income they generate goes to The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation.
Money from the sale of the lithographs also goes to the Foundation but the paintings themselves are never for sale.
In the 1980s King Charles III, then Prince of Wales,  began inviting young British artists to accompany him on official tours overseas and record their impressions, a tradition that has continued to this day.
Reference :
- The prince of Wales paintings 

_______________________________
2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SAN ANTONIO / MOUNT BALDY IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1925

VINTAGE POSTCARD 1925

Mount Sain Antonio- Mount Baldy (3, 068 m - 10, 064 ft) 

United States of America (California) 

The mountain

Mount San Antonio (3, 068 m - 10, 064 ft)  colloquially referred to as Mount Baldy or "Old Badly " is the highest peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, and the highest point in Los Angeles County, California. The peak is within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Angeles National Forest. Mount San Antonio's sometimes snow-capped peaks are visible on clear days and dominate the view of the Los Angeles Basin skyline.
The mountain was named by a local rancher after Saint Anthony of Padua. When American settlers arrived and surveyed the land, "Baldy", a reference to the bare fell-field of Baldy Bowl that dominates the south face visible from Los Angeles, became the predominant name, and it has stuck. Nonetheless, "Mount San Antonio" is the official name according to the GNIS, and is still used by a number of institutions .
The peak is pyramid shaped, with a steep south face (Baldy Bowl) and a shallower north face. The summit is accessible via a number of connecting ridges along hiking trails from the north, east, south and southwest. The summit has two peaks: the main peak, elevation 10,064 feet (3,068 m), and a sub-peak, West Baldy, at 9,988 feet (3,044 m). The main peak marks the boundary between San Bernardino County and Los Angeles County. The mountain is in the Angeles National Forest.
Mount San Antonio lies in the front range of the San Gabriel Mountains, one of the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, formed around the San Andreas Fault system. The Transverse Ranges were formed because of a dog-leg bend in the San Andreas, which is a transform fault. The bend makes it difficult for the two plates to move smoothly past one another, and mountains were raised as a result.

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.