EL TUNGURAHUA & EL COTOPAXI PAINTED BY FREDERIC-EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH  (1826-1900) 

Cotopaxi  (5, 897 m - 19, 347 ft)

Tungurahua (5, 023 m - 16, 460 ft)  

Ecuador

In The Andes of Ecuador, oil on canvas, c.1855, Reynolda House, Winston Salem (North Carolina)

About this painting 

“Painted after Frederic Edwin Church’s first trip to Ecuador in 1853, The Andes of Ecuador combines the scientific and religious concerns of Church’s time in one grand panorama. The infinite botanical detail, the terrifying depths of the abyss, and the overwhelming sense of unlimited space combine to communicate a powerful sense of the sublime.”  The painting encourages both distanced and close viewing through a dramatic sweeping vista that contains several small vignettes and seemingly endless details. Two figures in the left foreground pray in front of an archaic stone cross, colorful birds flocking in a palm tree above them. This scene is balanced on the right by cascades of water and a small lake. Snow-capped peaks in the background—Tungurahua on the  right and the cone of Cotopaxi in the mist on the left—frame the distant view. The white-hot light of a centrally placed sun permeates a warm palette of sienna browns and lush greens.

Church depicted various plant and animal species with exactness while imbuing the painting with an explicit Christian iconography, mirroring contemporary thinking about science and religion. Through his overt allusions to Christianity within the Ecuadorian landscape, “Church was intimating that Americans inhabited a new Eden, a new promised land, and in standing before this sublime grandeur one enjoyed the metaphoric presence of Genesis.”  From the llamas grazing in the center foreground to the distant snowy peaks, the multiple ecosystems correspond to Alexander Von Humboldt’s belief in the harmony of nature in which biology, botany, and geology coalesce to determine vegetation. His theories were popular with artists of the nineteenth century, who saw in them a way to reconcile God’s divinity with scientific advancements. In the Cotopaxi region of Ecuador both Humboldt and Church found in one locale perennial summers—the tropics—juxtaposed with ice-covered volcanic mountains.

A critic writing for The Crayon in 1855 acclaimed the canvas Church’s “most important work yet,” and a student recalled how he painted “with a rapidity and precision which were simply inconceivable by one who had not seen him at work.”  In addition, The Andes of Ecuador is an early masterpiece of Luminism, a style prevalent in the late nineteenth century that consisted of radiant, light-filled quiet vistas.

 *Description note  from the  Reynolda House, Museum of American Art 

The mountains 

Cotopaxi  (5, 897 m - 19, 347 ft) (on left in the mist in this painting) is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains. It  is located in the Latacunga canton of Cotopaxi Province, about 50 km (31 mi) south of Quito, and 33 km (21 mi) northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador, in South America.  It is the second highest summit in Ecuador. It is one of the world's highest volcanoes. Many sources claim that Cotopaxi means "Neck of the Moon" in an indigenous language, but this is unproven. The mountain was honored as a "Sacred Mountain" by local Andean people, even prior to the Inca invasion in the 15th century. Most of the time, Cotopaxi is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito and is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. 

Tungurahua (5, 023 m - 16, 460 ft)   meaning "Throat of Fire" from Panzaleo, is an active stratovolcano located in the Cordillera Oriental of Ecuador. The volcano gives its name to the province of Tungurahua. Volcanic activity restarted on August 19, 1999, and is ongoing as of 2013, with several major eruptions since then, the last starting on 1 February 2014. It is located 140 kilometres (87 mi) south of the capital Quito. Nearby notable mountains are Chimborazo (6,310 m - 20,700 ft) and El Altar (5,319 m -17,451 ft). It rises above the small thermal springs town of Baños de Agua Santa (1,800 m -5,900 ft) which is located at its foot 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the north. Tungurahua is part of the Sangay National Park. Tungurahua's top is snow-covered and did feature a small summit glacier which melted away after the increase of volcanic activity in 1999.

During their seven-year-long South America expedition (1868 to 1876), the German volcanologists Alphons Stübel and Wilhelm Reiss climbed Cotopaxi (Reiss with Angel Escobar; 28 November 1872) and Tungurahua (Stübel with Eusebio Rodríguez; 9 February 1873).

The Painter 

The second generation of the Hudson River School took landscape painting to a new level. Foremost among them was Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), who expanded the size and grandeur of his canvases and broadened their scope by traveling far afield. His adventurous spirit led him from the high peaks of the Andes to the icebergs of Newfoundland. His skills as an artist and showman complemented his dramatic compositions and spectacular use of light and color. The resulting paintings appealed to the expansionist, scientific, and religious sensibilities at mid-century and remain nationalistic icons of America and her art.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a well-off family, Church’s artistic prowess was nurtured at an early age. From 1844–1846 he was a student of Thomas Cole, the premier painter of American landscape, in Catskill, New York. During his time with Cole, Church honed his painting skills through close observation of nature, sketching the quintessential American landscape, the Hudson River Valley.

 In his Book of the Artists, Henry Tuckerman said of Church: “His great attribute is skill; he goes to nature, not so much with the tenderness of a lover or the awe of a worshipper, as with the determination, the intelligence, the patient intrepidity of a student; he is keenly on the watch for facts, and resolute in their transfer to art.” 

After Cole’s sudden death in 1848, Church assumed his mentor’s place as a leading figure of the Hudson River School. That same year he was elected the youngest associate of the National Academy of Design, and the following year he earned the rank of academician.

As important as Cole was to Church’s technical development, the work of scientist-explorer Alexander Von Humboldt (1769–1859) was equally influential in Church’s evolution as a painter. Humboldt published the two-volume text Cosmos in the 1840s, in which he identified unifying principles within the incredible complexity of the world’s environments. His theories lent themselves to romantic interpretation and became popular with artists of the mid-nineteenth century as they grappled with the confluence of divinity and science.

Church answered Humboldt’s call to artists to depict the grand and diverse beauty of nature; he traced the explorer’s steps through Ecuador on two separate trips in 1853 and 1857. The artist sketched the complex ecosystems he encountered and his final canvases merged scientific precisionism with Judeo-Christian themes. Church painted his South American canvases on a large scale in his studio and then exploited the spectacular subject matter through elaborate displays.  His Heart of the Andes, 1859, Metropolitan Museum of Art, was hung behind a red velvet curtain and capped by portraits of great American presidents. For twenty-five cents each, the public was admitted entry to Church’s premises in the Tenth Street Studio Building to view the exhibit. The painting created a sensation and that same year sold for the record-breaking price of $10,000. During his career Church painted sixteen major works derived from his travels in South America.

While Church found success with these subjects, still the majority of his works explored the majesty of American terrain. Niagara Falls, 1857, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860, Cleveland Museum of Art, celebrate the glories of America at a time of growing sectional strife. His dramatic The Icebergs, 1861, Dallas Museum of Art, was inspired by an unsuccessful expedition to find the Northwest Passage. When it was unveiled it failed to find a buyer, an early indication, perhaps, of a shift of taste away from grandiose conceptions.

Church and his work influenced subsequent painters of American landscape; he taught Louis Rémy Mignot who traveled with him to Ecuador, and his radiant treatment of light inspired the luminist painters of the later nineteenth century.  Following an extended trip abroad, Church commissioned the architect Calvert Vaux to build Olana, a Persian-inspired villa located on a high bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Church designed stencils, selected wall colors, and furnished Olana with an eclectic array of objets d’art and furniture. Toward the end of his life, Church retired to Olana, just as enthusiasm for his kind of grand statement was fading.

 * Bio note  from the  Reynolda House, Museum of American Art 

THE POPOCATEPETL BY JOSE MARIA VELASCO

JOSE MARIA VELASCO (1840-1912)

The Popocatépetl (5, 426 m -17, 802 ft)  

Mexico

In The Metlac Ravine, oil on canvas, 1893, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico   

The mountain 
Popocatépetl  (5,426 m (17,802 ft) is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt.  The name Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca  (it smokes) and tepētl  (mountain), meaning Smoking Mountain. It is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) at 5,636 m (18,491 ft).
It is linked to the Iztaccihuatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cortés.
Popocatépetl is 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, from where it can be seen regularly, depending on atmospheric conditions. Until recently, the volcano was one of three tall peaks in Mexico to contain glaciers, the others being Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba. In the 1990s, the glaciers such as Glaciar Norte (North Glacier) greatly decreased in size, partly due to warmer temperatures but largely due to increased volcanic activity. By early 2001, Popocatépetl's glaciers were gone; ice remained on the volcano, but no longer displayed the characteristic features of glaciers such as crevasses.
Magma erupting from Popocatépetl has historically been predominantly andesitic, but it has also erupted large volumes of dacite. Magma produced in the current cycle of activity tends to be a mixture of the two.

The Painter 
José Maria Tranquilino Francisco de Jesus Velasco Gomez Obregуn, generally known as José Marнa Velasco, was a 19th-century Mexican polymath, most famous as a painter who made Mexican geography a symbol of national identity through his paintings. He was both one of the most popular artists of the time and internationally renowned. He received many distinctions such as the gold medal of the Mexican National Expositions of Bellas Artes in 1874 and 1876; the gold medal of the Philadelphia International Exposition in 1876, on the centenary of U.S. independence; and the medal of the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889, on the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution. His painting El valle de Mexico is considered Velasco's masterpiece, of which he created seven different renditions. Of all the nineteenth-century painters, Velasco was the "first to be elevated in the post-Revolutionary period as an exemplar of nationalism."

Velasco's long career elevated Mexican landscape painting to international standing. One of his landscapes of the Valley of Mexico is in the Vatican Museum, a gift to Pope Leo XIII. His scenes of the Mexican landscape are a visual source for environmental historians, since they show the Valley of Mexico before its degradation in the twentieth century, with air pollution and urban sprawl. His landscape art has a wide appeal, since it is more accessible than history paintings that require the viewer to understand a particular event.

Today the Government of the State of Mexico, where Velasco was from, presents an award for artistic merit in his name to painters born in that state. Among the most outstanding winners are Luis Nishizawa, Leopoldo Flores, Ignacio Barrios and Héctor Cruz.

The José María Velasco Museum was opened in 1992 in Toluca City with the task of preserving and promoting his paintings.

_______________________________

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MONS BLANC (ON THE MOON) BY NASA LUNAR ORBITER 4

NASA LUNAR ORBITER 4,  1967

Mons Blanc  (3, 600 to 3,700m/3,6 to3,7km -11, 811 to  12,139 ft/2,24 to 2, 30 mi) 

The Moon

The mountain 

Mons Blanc  (3, 600 to 3,700m/3,6 to3,7km -11, 811 to  12,139 ft/2,24 to 2, 30 mi)  also named Mont Blanc is a mountain on the Moon, part of the Montes Alpes Range. It is located on the western edge of the range, near the shore of Mare Imbrium, at 45.48°N 0.42°E. Its width is about 25 kilometers; the height is 3.7–3.8 km above adjacent plains of Mare Imbrium and 1.12 km above lunar level of zero elevation (a sphere with radius 1737.4 km).

The name of Mons Blanc or Mont Blanc, like the highest mountain of terrestrial Alps, was proposed for this mountain by Johann Hieronymus Schrцter.  It was approved by International Astronomical Union in 1935.  It is the only summit of Montes Alpes with proper name and the only extraterrestrial mountain, whose international name contains French word "Mont" instead of Latin "Mons".

Despite statements that lunar Mont Blanc, like terrestrial one, is a highest mountain of its Alps, measurements of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that it is only third, being 600 meters lower than the highest one and about 100 m lower than the second.

The mission 

Lunar Orbiter 4 was an unmanned US spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, designed to orbit the Moon, after the three previous orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection. It was given a more general objective, to "perform a broad systematic photographic survey of lunar surface features in order to increase the scientific knowledge of their nature, origin, and processes, and to serve as a basis for selecting sites for more detailed scientific study by subsequent orbital and landing missions". It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data. The spacecraft was placed in a cislunar trajectory and injected into an elliptical near polar high lunar orbit for data acquisition. The orbit was 2,706 by 6,111 kilometres (1,681 mi Ч 3,797 mi) with an inclination of 85.5 degrees and a period of 12 hours.

After initial photography on May 11, 1967 problems started occurring with the camera's thermal door, which was not responding well to commands to open and close. Fear that the door could become stuck in the closed position covering the camera lenses led to a decision to leave the door open. This required extra attitude control maneuvers on each orbit to prevent light leakage into the camera which would ruin the film. On May 13 it was discovered that light leakage was damaging some of the film, and the door was tested and partially closed. Some fogging of the lens was then suspected due to condensation resulting from the lower temperatures. Changes in the attitude raised the temperature of the camera and generally eliminated the fogging. Continuing problems with the readout drive mechanism starting and stopping beginning on May 20 resulted in a decision to terminate the photographic portion of the mission on May 26. Despite problems with the readout drive the entire film was read and transmitted. The spacecraft acquired photographic data from May 11 to 26, 1967, and readout occurred through June 1, 1967. The orbit was then lowered to gather orbital data for the upcoming Lunar Orbiter 5 mission.

A total of 419 high-resolution and 127 medium-resolution frames were acquired, covering 99% of the Moon's near side at resolutions from 58 to 134 metres (190 to 440 ft). Accurate data was acquired from all other experiments throughout the mission. Radiation data showed increased dosages due to solar particle events producing low energy protons. The spacecraft was used for tracking until it struck the lunar surface due to the natural decay of the orbit no later than October 31, 1967, between 22–30 degrees W longitude.

AITXURI PAINTED BY VALENTIN DE ZUBIAURRE

VALENTIN DE ZUBIAURRE (1879-1963)

Aitxuri (1, 551m- 5, 088 ft)

Spain (Basque country) 

The mountain 

The Aitxuri, Atxuri or Aitz txuri (1, 551m- 5,088 ft) is a mountain belonging to the Basque Mountains range  It is located in the province of Guipuscoa, Basque Country (Spain).

Located in the Aizkorri massif, it is the highest peak of the latter. By the mid-1980s, its neighbor Aketegi was considered the highest point of the massif, but measurements at that time revealed that the Aitxuri was about 3 meters higher.

The altitude of 1,551 m is the highest of all the Cantabrian Basque Cordillera, from the foothills of the Cantabrian mountain range to the Pyrenees. The importance of this summit comes from its prominence1 which is 943 m and the class as the 36th of the peninsular mountains. If it is not the highest mountain in the whole Basque Country, it is the one with the most prominent prominence.

Etymologically Aitxuri means "white rock", and comes from the Basque words Aitz ("rock") and txuri ("white").

Like the rest of the summits that form the Aitzkorri massif, the Aitxuri is made up of limestone rocks, and it rises on the territories of Urbia in its southern part, and on Goierri by the north. At its feet is the town of Zegama, whose roads and railroad tracks stand out perfectly.

The summits that surround it are of almost equivalent heights, with the peculiarity that the one that gives its name to the mountain is the smallest of them.

The routes are numerous for the ascent of this mountain, and almost all common to Aizkorri and Aketegi.

The artist

Valentin de Zubiaurre  Spanish painter,  born deaf and dumb, as was his brother Ramуn de Zubiaurre, also a painter, three years younger than him. Both were children of the musical composer Valentin de Zubiaurre Urionabarrenechea. Originally from the Basque town of Garay, the Zubiaurre family lived in the capital of Spain, where the father had come to occupy the position obtained as musical teacher in the chapel of the Royal Palace. In spite of the great paternal desire that some of his children continue with the musical vocation, the fatality they both wanted to be born deaf.

Valentin began his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1894, continuing later with the painters Muсoz Degrain and Alejandro Ferrant and Carlos de Haes. In 1898 he made a trip through the Netherlands  France and Italy to complete his training.

Valentin de Zubiaurre cultivated a painting, in which the Basque and Castilian themes proliferated, where the solidity of the figures was interpenetrated with a deep sense of color. It was not easy for him to get official recognition. At a time when naturalism and impressionism were the dominant trends, Zubiaurre made a more intellectual painting, combining on the one hand the mastery of his art with the intellectual elaboration of the idea. He was also blamed for having fallen into the vice of repetitive repetition of certain types and compositions once he gained a certain popularity, elaborating again and again the same formulas.

For years, the erroneous belief that the Zubiaurre brothers shared the making of their paintings, both working on the same work, was maintained. Nothing of this is true; It is true that they started from a similar aesthetic norm and that they dealt with a similar variety of subjects, but the results of both brothers were substantially different. In Valentin's painting there is predominating a certain melancholy that is not present in the paintings of Ramуn. In the words of José Ortega y Gasset , his work is "a lyrical inventory of Basque existence". 

His work is found in several Spanish museums, such as the Carmen Thyssen Museum Malaga, where the Basque Coast at sunset (1949) and Landscape at sunset with dantzaris (undated) are exhibited, an example of Basque regionalist painting, resolved through a flat composition and the use of cold colors, characteristics of Zubiaurre's style. 

In  Euskal mendiak (Las montañas vascas), 1950, Oil on canvas, Bilab aFine art Musueul, Spain 

MOUNT ARARAT PAINTED BY ILYA ZANKOVSKY

ILYA NIKOLAEVITCH ZANKOVSKY (1832-1919)

Mount Ararat (5,137 m- 16,854ft)

Turkey (since 1921)

1. In View of Mount Ararat, oil on canvas, 1880, National Museum of Fine Arts Erevan (Armenia)

The mountain
There are two mountains in the world called Mont Ararat, One in Turkey, one in United States of America (Pennsylvania). The one we are talking about is Mount Ararat in Turkey, which has a very long and complex political, religious, sacred and mythical history.
Mount Ararat  (5,137 m- 16,854ft)  (Turkish: Ağrı Dağı; Armenian: Մասիս, Masis) is a snow-capped and dormant stratovolcano in the eastern extremity of Turkey.  It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey and the Armenian plateau with an elevation of 5,137 m (16,854 ft); and Little Ararat, with an elevation of 3,896 m (12,782 ft). The Ararat massif is about 40 km (25 mi) in diameter and  is part of  the range of Armenian Highlands.
Mountains of Ararat  have been perceived as the traditional resting place of Noah's Ark since the 11th century. It is the principal national symbol of Armenia and has been considered a sacred mountain by Armenians. It is featured prominently in Armenian literature and art and is an icon for Armenian irredentism. Along with Noah's Ark, it is depicted on the coat of arms of Armenia.
Mount Ararat forms a near-quadripoint between Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Its summit is located some 16 km (10 mi) west of both the Iranian border and the border of the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, and 32 km (20 mi) south of the Armenian border. The Turkish–Armenian–Azerbaijani and Turkish–Iranian–Azerbaijani tripoints are some 8 km apart, separated by a narrow strip of Turkish territory containing the E99 road which enters Nakhchivan at 39.6553°N 44.8034°E.
From the 16th century until 1828 Great Ararat's summit and the northern slopes, along with the eastern slopes of Little Ararat were part of Persia, while the range was part of the Ottoman-Persian border. Following the 1826–28 Russo-Persian War and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Persian controlled territory was ceded to the Russian Empire. Little Ararat became the point where the Turkish, Persian, and Russian imperial frontiers converged.
The current international boundaries were formed throughout the 20th century. The mountain came under Turkish control during the 1920 Turkish–Armenian War.  It formally became part of Turkey according to the 1921 Treaty of Moscow and Treaty of Kars.  By the Tehran Convention of 1932, a border change was made in Turkey's favor, allowing it to occupy the eastern flank of Lesser Ararat.The Iran-Turkey boundary skirts east of Lesser Ararat, the lower peak of the Ararat massif.
The nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party claims eastern Turkey (Western Armenia) as part of what it considers United Armenia.  The Armenian government has not made official claims to any Turkish territory,however the Armenian government has avoided "an explicit and formal recognition of the existing Turkish-Armenian border." According to Turkish political scientist Bayram Balci, regular references to the Armenian Genocide and Mount Ararat "clearly indicates" that the border with Turkey in contested in Armenia.
In a 2010 interview with Der Spiegel, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan was asked: "You can see Mount Ararat, Armenia's national symbol, from the windows of your residence. Today, the mountain is inaccessible, on the other side of the Turkish border. Turkey fears demands for land and compensation. Do you want Mount Ararat back?" Sargsyan, in response, said: "No one can take Mount Ararat from us; we keep it in our hearts. Wherever Armenians live in the world today, you will find a picture of Mount Ararat in their homes. And I feel certain that a time will come when Mount Ararat is no longer a symbol of the separation between our peoples, but an emblem of understanding. But let me make this clear: Never has a representative of Armenia made territorial demands. Turkey alleges this—perhaps out of its own bad conscience? 

The painter 
Ilya Zankovsky was a russian  painter and graphic artist  who studied as a noncredit student in the Imperial Academy of Arts (IAKh, 1862–1863) and who did not finish the course. Zankovsky lived in Tiflis, served in the Military topographic department of the Caucasus military region. He painted landscapes of the Caucasus (Mount Elbrus,) Georgian military road, The Darial Gorge, From the main mountain range, Mount Ushba. Hunters halt). He worked a lot in watercolor. His works were shown at the exhibitions of the Caucasian Society for Encouragement of Fine Arts, the Society for mutual aid of Caucasian artists, the Society of Russian Watercolorists, and at the Autumn exhibitions in the halls of the IAKh. Zankovsky taught in the Drawing School under the Caucasian Society for Encouragement of Fine Arts in 1880s–1910s.
In 2009 an exhibition of Zankovsky’s works was held in Moscow. Works by Ilya Zankovsky are in many museum collections, including the State Russian Museum, Odessa Fine Arts Museum, Omsk Regional Museum of Fine Arts named after M. A. Vrubel, and Dagestan Museum of Local History.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT UNZEN BY HASUI KAWASE

 HASUI KAWASE (1883-1957), 

Mount Unzen (1,500 m - 4,900 ft)

 Japan

 In Mount Unzen in Hizen, print on paper 

The mountain 
Mount Unzen or Unzen Dake (雲仙岳 ) (1,500 m -4,900 ft) is an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan's southernmost main island. Its highest peaks are Fugen-dake (普賢岳) (1,359 m -4,459 ft) and Heisei-shinzan (平成新山)  ( 1,486 -(4,875 ft). The latter emerged during the eruptions of the early, eponymous Heisei era (1989 - ...)
In 1792, the collapse of one of its several lava domes triggered a megatsunami that killed 14,524 people in Japan's worst volcanic-related disaster. The volcano was most recently active from 1990 to 1995, and a large eruption in 1991 generated a pyroclastic flow that killed 43 people, including three volcanologists.
Between 1991 and 1994 the volcano generated at least 10,000 small pyroclastic flows, destroying about 2,000 houses. From 1993 onward, the rate of lava effusion gradually decreased, and eruptions came to an end in 1995. Since then heavy rains have frequently remobilised pyroclastic material, generating lahars. Dikes have been constructed in several river valleys to channel lahar flows away from vulnerable areas, and warning systems and evacuation plans have been developed and deployed.
Mount Unzen was designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations, in 1991 as part of their International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, due to its history of violent activity and location in a densely populated area.

The artist
Hasui Kawase (川瀬 巴水) was one of the most prominent print japanese designers of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement. Kawase worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meishō (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Kawase's prints feature locales that are tranquil and obscure in urbanizing Japan. Hasui considered himself a realist and employed his training in Western painting in his compositions. Like Hiroshige he made travel and landscape prints, though his subjects were less known locations rendered with naturalistic light, shade, and texture, without the captions and titles that were standard in prints of Hiroshige's age.
Kawase left a large body of woodblock prints and watercolors. Many of the watercolors are linked to the woodblock prints, he also produced oil paintings, traditional hanging scrolls and a few byōbu (folding screens). In the West, Kawase is mainly known as a Japanese woodblock printmaker. He and Hiroshi Yoshida are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin-hanga style, and are known especially for their landscape prints.

TIZI N'TICHKA BY JACQUES MAJORELLE

JACQUES MAJORELLE  (1886-1962) 

Tizi n'Tichka  (2,260m- 7,415ft) 

Morocco

In Irounen, Grand atlas, Vallée d'Ounila, gouache sur papier, Private collection 

The mountain pass

Tizi n'Tichka (2,260m - 7,415ft)  is a mountain pass in Morocco, linking the south-east of Marrakesh-Safi to the city of Ouarzazate through the High Atlas mountains and visible from Ounila valley.  It lies above the great Marrakech Plains and is a gateway to the Sahara Desert. From November through March, snow can often fall on the pass, but it can be warm all year round in the strong sun.  It  is the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. The road was constructed along the old caravan trail by the French military in 1936, and is now part of National Route 9 (formerly Route P-31). 

The last, known Barbary lion in the wilderness of North Africa was shot near Tizi n'Tichka pass in 1942. Genetically speaking, however, the Barbary lion appears to live on in the Senegal lion of Western and Central Africa.

The painter 

Jacques Majorelle son of the celebrated Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis Majorelle, was a French painter. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in 1901 and later at the Académie Julian in Paris with Schommer and Royer. Majorelle became a noted Orientalist painter, but is most remembered for constructing the villa and gardens that now carry his name, Les Jardins Majorelle in Marrakech.
In around 1917 he travelled to Morocco to recover from heart problems and after short period spent in Casablanca, he visited Marrakech, where he fell in love with the vibrant colours and quality of light he found there. Initially, he used Marrakech as a base for trips to Spain, Italy and other parts of North Africa, including Egypt. Eventually, however, he settled in Marrakech permanently.
He drew inspiration for his paintings from his trips and from Marrakesch itself. His paintings include many street scenes, souks and kasbahs as well as portraits of local inhabitants. He opened a handicrafts workshop in Marrakech and also designed posters to promote travel to Morocco.  His work was profoundly affected by his voyages around the Mediterannean and North Africa. He introduced a more coloured vision, bathed in light where the drawing disappears and the image emerges from large spots of colour laid flat. It seemed as if he had discoved the sun in these countries. His style exhibited more freedom and spontaneity.
In 1919, he married Andrée Longueville and the pair lived in an apartment near the Jemâa el-Fna Square (then at the palace of Pasha Ben Daoud). In 1923, Jacques Majorelle bought a four acre plot, situated on the border of a palm grove in Marrakech and in 1931, he commissioned the architect, Paul Sinoir, to design a Cubist villa for him. He gradually purchased additional land, extending his holding by almost 10 acres. In the grounds around the residence, Majorelle began planting a luxuriant garden which would become known as the Jardins Majorelle or Majorelle Garden. He continued to work on the garden for almost forty years. The garden is often said to be the his finest work.  Majorelle developed a special shade of the colour blue, which was inspired by the blue tiles prevalent in southern Morocco. This colour was used extensively in Majorelle's house and garden, and now carries his name; Majorelle Blue.
The garden proved costly to run and in 1947, Majorelle opened the garden to the public with an admission fee designed to defray the cost of maintenance.  He sold the house and land in the 1950s, after which it fell into disrepair.
Majorelle was sent to France for medical treatment in 1962 following a car accident, and died in Paris, later that year of complications from his injuries. He is buried in Nancy, the place of his birth.
During his lifetime, many of Majorelle's paintings were sold to private buyers and remain in private collections. Some of his early works can be found in Museums around his birthplace such as the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy. Examples of his later work can be seen in the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesch, the French Consulate of Marrakech and in the Villa at the Majorelle Gardens. 

HOHE ACHT BY CARL FRIEDRICH LESSING

CARL FRIEDRICH LESSING  (1808- 1880) 

Hohe Acht (747m - 2, 450ft) 

 Germany 

1 & 2. In  Landscape in the Eifel Mountains, 1834, Oil on canvas, National Museum of Warsaw, 

The mountain
The Hohe Acht  (747m - 2, 450ft) is the highest mountain in the Eifel mountains of Germany. It is located on the boundary between the districts of Ahrweiler and Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Hohe Acht is located in the High Eifel east of Adenau. The mountain is a tertiary volcano, whose cone is composed of Lower Devonian rock and whose summit is made of basalt.
Emperor William Tower.
In 1908/09 the Emperor William Tower (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm) was erected on the Hohe Acht. The reason for the construction of this stone observation tower, based on plans by the architect, Freiherr von Tettau, Berlin, was the silver wedding of Emperor William II and Empress Augusta Victoria as well as the commemoration of Emperor William I.
The tower is 16.30 metres (53.5 ft) high and its walls are one metre thick at ground level. The work was carried out by master masons, Karl and Johannes Leidinger, from Adenau using local stone. The cost of construction was 18,000 marks. The tower has been a protected monument since 1987.
The Emperor William Tower offers a superb view across the whole Eifel (including the mountains of Scharteberg, Dцhmberg, Michelsberg, Hochthьrmerberg, Schцneberg, the nearby Nьrburg Castle and Hochkelberg), as well as the Siebengebirge and its GroЯer Цlberg and, in conditions of good visibility, as far as the Westerwald, the Taunus, the Hunsrьck and the Lower Rhine.
There is a network of footpaths around the Hohe Acht and, at many places there are good views over the Eifel landscape. In winter the Hohe Acht has some very good winter sport facilities including prepared cross country skiing trails, toboggan runs and ski lifts.

The artist
Carl (or Karl) Friedrich Lessing was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He was born near Breslau, and was a pupil of Heinrich Anton Dähling at the Berlin Academy. He first devoted himself to landscape. In this period of his artistic career Lessing was influenced by the landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich: his themes he depicted were castle ruins, forgotten cemeteries, rugged rock formations, which he inhabited with figures of monks, knights and thieves. In 1826 obtained a prize with his Cemetery in Ruins. He accompanied Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow to Düsseldorf, where he continued his studies, devoting himself to historical paintings. In 1830, when Schadow went to Italy, Lessing occupied his place as director of the academy, exercising great influence on the Düsseldorf school of painting. His picture Das trauernde Königspaar (Mourning Royal Couple) brought him great popularity. In 1837, he received a gold medal in Paris; he was a member of the Berlin Academy and was the recipient of several orders. In 1858 he was appointed director of the gallery in Karlsruhe, where he continued his activity as a painter until his death in 1880.

KORYAKSKY BY FRIEDRICH GEORG WEITSCH

FRIEDRICH GEORG WEITSCH (1758-1828)

Koryaksky (3,456 m -11,339 ft) or Koryakskaya Sopka

Russia (Kamchatka Peninsula) 

 In  Johann von Krusenstern in Avacha Bay, 1806, Oil on canvas, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum  

The mountain 
Koryaksky 3,456 m (11,339 ft) or Koryakskaya Sopka Коря́кская со́пка)  is an active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the asian part of russia. It lies within sight of Kamchatka Krai's administrative center, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Together with neighbouring Avachinsky, it has been designated a Decade Volcano, worthy of particular study in light of its history of explosive eruptions and proximity to populated areas.
Koryaksky lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, at a point where the Pacific Plate is sliding underneath the Eurasian Plate at about 80 mm/year. A wedge of mantle material lying between the subducting Pacific Plate and the overlying Eurasian Plate is the source of dynamic volcanism over the whole Kamchatka Peninsula. The volcano has probably been active for tens of thousands of years. Geological records indicate that there have been three major eruptions in the last 10,000 years, at 5500 BC, 1950 BC and 1550 BC. These three eruptions seem to have been mainly effusive, generating extensive lava flows. Koryaksky erupted for the first time in recorded history in 1890. The eruption was characterised by lava emissions from fissures that opened up on the volcano's southwestern flank, and by phreatic explosions. It was thought to have erupted again five years later, but it was later shown that no eruption had occurred; what was thought to be an eruption column was simply steam generated by strong fumarolic activity. Another brief, moderately explosive eruption occurred in 1926, after which the volcano lay dormant until 1956. The 1956 eruption was more explosive than the previous known eruptions, with VEI=3, and generated pyroclastic flows and lahars. The eruption continued until June 1957. On December 29, 2008, Koryaksky erupted with a 6,000 m (20,000 ft) plume of ash, the first major eruption in 3,500 years.
In light of its proximity to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Koryaksky was designated a Decade Volcano in 1996 as part of the United Nations' International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, together with the nearby Avachinsky volcano.

The painter 
Friedrich Georg Weitsch was a German painter and etcher. Weitsch began his artistic training with his father, "Pascha" Johann Friedrich Weitsch (1723–1803). He attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. After traveling to Amsterdam and Italy between 1784 and 1787, he returned home and became court painter to Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick.  In 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Art and became its director in 1798 (succeeding Bernhard Rode).  His work included landscapes, history and religious painting, and portraits of royal and civil authorities—the latter showing the influence of Anton Graff.  Some are held at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, the Städtisches Museum, and the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, all in Braunschweig.  He painted the very famous painting of the Chimborazo  featuring the portrait of Alexander von Humboldt with  landscape he imagined as well as the portrait of Aimé Bonpland and Carlos Montufarin Ecuador, he never saw.
_______________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE MONT SAINT-MICHEL BY THEODORE ROUSSEAU

THEODORE ROUSSEAU (1812-1867)  

Mont Saint Michel (92m-302ft) 

France (Normandie)

                                                               

The mount  

Le Mont-Saint-Michel (92 m - 302 ft) is an island commune in Normandy, France. Mont Saint-Michel (first called Mont Tombe) consists of leucogranite, which solidified from an underground intrusion of molten magma about 525 million years ago, during the Cambrian period, as one of the younger parts of the Mancellian granitic batholith. Early studies of Mont Saint-Michel by French geologists sometimes describe the leucogranite of the Mont as "granulite", but this granitic meaning of granulite is now obsolete.

It is located about one kilometre (0.6 miles) off the country's northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is 100 hectares (247 acres) in size.

The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times and since the 8th century AD has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The structural composition of the town exemplifies the feudal society that constructed it: on top, God, the abbey and monastery; below, the great halls; then stores and housing; and at the bottom, outside the walls, houses for fishermen and farmers. The commune's position - on an island just 600 m from land - made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned would-be assailants. The Mont remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War; a small garrison fended off a full attack by the English in 1433.  The reverse benefits of its natural defence were not lost on Louis XI, who turned the Mont into a prison. Thereafter the abbey began to be used more regularly as a jail during the monarchy.

One of France's most recognizable landmarks, visited by more than 3 million people each year, Mont Saint-Michel and its bay are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

 Over 60 buildings within the commune are protected in France as  "Monuments historiques" (Historical buildings).

In the 11th century, the italian architect William di Volpiano was chosen by Richard II, Duke of Normandy, to be the building contractor of the Mont Saint-Michel church. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, daringly placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight; these formed the basis for the supportive upward structure that can be seen today.

Robert de Thorigny, a great supporter of Henry II of England (also Duke of Normandy), reinforced the structure of the buildings and built the main façade of the church in the 12th century.

In 1204, Guy de Thouars, regent for the Duchess of Brittany, as vassal of the King of France, undertook a siege of the Mount. After having set fire to the village and having massacred the population, he was obliged to beat a retreat under the powerful walls of the abbey. The buildings, and the roofs fell prey to the flames. Horrified by the cruelty and the exactions of his Breton ally, Philip Augustus offered Abbot Jordan a grant for the construction of a new Gothic architectural set which included the addition of the refectory and cloister.

Charles VI is credited with adding major fortifications to the abbey-mount, building towers, successive courtyards, and strengthening the ramparts.

Since 2001, a community of monks and nuns of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem, sent from the mother-house of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais in Paris, have been living as a community on Mont Saint-Michel. They replaced the Benedictine monks who returned to the Mount in 1966. They are tenants of the centre for National Historical Monuments and are not involved in the management of the abbey. The community meets four times a day to recite the liturgical office in the abbey itself (or in the crypt of Notre-Dame des Trente Cierges in winter). In this way, the building keeps its original purpose as a place of prayer and singing the glory of God. The presence of the community attracts many visitors and pilgrims who come to join in the various liturgical celebrations.

In 2012, the community undertook the renovation of a house on the Mount, the Logis Saint-Abraham, which is used as a guest house for pilgrims on retreat.

The painter 

Etienne- Pierre-Théodore Rousseau was a French painter of the Barbizon school.  Not to be confused with Henri Rousseau (called Le Douanier), he was born in Paris, of a bourgeois family and received  at first a business training, but soon displayed aptitude for painting.  The influence of classically trained artists was against  Rousseau and its paintings had to wait until 1848 before to be presented adequately to the public.

In 1848, Rousseau took up his residence in the forest village of Barbizon, and spent most of his remaining days in the vicinity. He was now able to obtain fair sums for his pictures (but only about one-tenth of their value thirty years after his death), and the number of his admirers increased. He was still ignored by the authorities, for while Narcisse Virgilio Diaz was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1851,  Rousseau was left undecorated at this time, but was nominated and awarded the Cross soon afterwards. 

At the Exposition Universelle of 1853, where all Rousseau's rejected pictures of the previous twenty years were gathered together, his works were acknowledged to form one of the best of the many splendid groups there exhibited. But, after an unsuccessful sale of his works by auction in 1861, he contemplated leaving Paris for Amsterdam or London, or even New York. Rousseau's pictures are always grave in character, with an air of exquisite melancholy. They are well finished when they profess to be completed pictures, but Rousseau spent so much time developing his subjects that his absolutely completed works are comparatively few. He left many canvases with parts of the picture realized in detail and with the remainder somewhat vague; and also a good number of sketches and water-color drawings. His pen work in monochrome on paper is rare. There are a number of good pictures by him in the Louvre, and the Wallace collection contains one of his most important Barbizon pictures. There is also an example in the Ionides collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

JABAL NIBU / HAR NEVO / MOUNT NEBO BY ROBERT HAWKER DOWLING

ROBERT HAWKER DOWLING (1827 -1886)

Jabal Nibu / Har Nevo / Mount Nebo  (817m - 2, 680ft) 

 Jordan 

 In Moses on Mont Nebo overlooking the Promised Land, oil on canvas, 1860

The mountain 

Jabal Nībū   (817m - 2, 680ft)  in arabic iجبل نيبو‎,   in Hebrew: הַר נְבוֹ Har Nevo, in english Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge in Jordan,  mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy cap34 v1) as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.
According to the final chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses ascended Mount Nebo to view the Land of Israel, which God had said he would not enter, and to die there; he was buried in an unknown valley location in Moab.
According to Christian tradition, Moses was buried on the mountain, although his place of burial is not specified.(Deuteronomy 34:6). 
Some Islamic traditions also stated the same, although there is a grave of Moses located at Maqam El-Nabi Musa, 11 km (6.8 mi) south of Jericho and 20 km (12 mi) east of Jerusalem in the Judean wilderness.
 Scholars continue to dispute whether the mountain currently known as Nebo is the same as the mountain referred to in Deuteronomy.
According to 2 Maccabees, (2:4–7), the prophet Jeremiah hid the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in a cave there.
On March 20, 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the site during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. During his visit he planted an olive tree beside the Byzantine chapel as a symbol of peace. Pope Benedict XVI visited the site in 2009, gave a speech, and looked out from the top of the mountain in the direction of Jerusalem.
On the highest point of the mountain, Syagha, the remains of a Byzantine church and monastery were discovered in 1933. The church was first constructed in the second half of the 4th century to commemorate the place of Moses' death. The church design follows a typical basilica pattern. It was enlarged in the late fifth century A.D. and rebuilt in A.D. 597. The church is first mentioned in an account of a pilgrimage made by a lady Aetheria in A.D. 394. Six tombs have been found hollowed from the natural rock beneath the mosaic-covered floor of the church. In the modern chapel presbytery, built to protect the site and provide worship space, remnants of mosaic floors from different periods can be seen. The earliest of these is a panel with a braided cross presently placed on the east end of the south wall.
The Moses Memorial that houses the Byzantine mosaics has been closed for renovation from 2007 to 2016. It reopened on 15 October 2016.

The painter 
Robert Hawker Dowling (1827- 886) was an Australian colonial artist. Dowling was born in England the youngest son of Rev. Henry Dowling and his wife Elizabeth, née Darke. He was brought to Launceston, Tasmania with his parents in 1839 in the Janet. He received lessons from Thomas Bock and Frederick Strange, and in 1850 advertised as a portrait painter. In 1856 Dowling left for London partly with the help of friends in Launceston. He exhibited 16 pictures at the Royal Academy between 1859 and 1882 and others at the British Institute. Returning to Launceston he afterwards came to Melbourne and painted portraits of Sir Henry Loch, Dr James Moorhouse, Francis Ormond, and others. He went to London again in 1886 but died shortly after his arrival.

Dowling was a conscientious painter of figure subjects, often scriptural or eastern. He is represented in the Melbourne and Launceston galleries.

On 2 May 2007, one of Dowling's paintings – Masters George, William and Miss Harriet Ware with the Aborigine Jamie Ware – was bought for A$823,500 by the National Gallery of Victoria. [1]

References

MOUNT NEBO (UTAH) PHOTOGRAPHED BY WILLIAM BELL

 WILLIAM BELL (1830-1910)

Mount Nebo (3,637 m - 11,933 ft) 

United States of America (Utah) 

 In Mount Nebo taken in a hurricane of dust and wind, in 1872, NARA, College Park

The mountain 
Mount Nebo  (3,637 m - 11,933 ft) is the southernmost and highest mountain in the Wasatch Range of Utah (United States of America). Named after the biblical Mount Nebo situated in Jordan and  overlooking Israel, which is said to be the place of Moses' death, it is the centerpiece of the Mount Nebo Wilderness, inside the Uinta National Forest. Mount Nebo has two summits, with the North summit reaching 11,933 feet (3,637 m). The southern summit reaches 11,882 feet (3,622 m)  Original surveys placed the southern peak as the highest. The mountain was resurveyed in the 1970s and the North peak was found to be the highest. The mountain is partially or completely covered in snow from mid-October until July. Nearby towns include Payson, Nephi and Provo.
A substantial trail leads to the south summit, accessible from starting points on the East or West of the mountain. Another trail accesses the North peak, starting Northeast of the mountain. A 'bench trail' runs along the east side of the mountain from North to South at roughly 9,000' feet elevation. All of these trails are popular, although strenuous, destinations for hikers; and many are dangerous places for horseback riders. One old-time local rider warns: "There's dead horses in every canyon on that mountain!"
The Mount Nebo Scenic Byway, a National Scenic Byway, departs I-15 at Payson and climbs to over 9,000 feet before rejoining the interstate at Nephi. The route features panoramic views of Mount Nebo and the Utah Valley and Utah Lake far below. There are numerous trailheads along the route for the hiking enthusiast including a short walk to the "Devil's Kitchen", an area which has been described as a "mini Bryce Canyon".

The photographer 
William H. Bell was an English-born American photographer, active primarily in the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered for his photographs documenting war-time diseases and combat injuries, many of which were published in the medical book, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, as well as for his photographs of western landscapes taken as part of the Wheeler expedition in 1872.  In his later years, he wrote articles on the dry plate process and other techniques for various photography journals.
His career spanning six decades, Bell worked in nearly every major early photographic process, including daguerreotype, collodion processes, albumen prints, stereo cards, and early film.  He was considered a pioneer of the dry plate and lantern slide processes, and experimented with night photography, using magnesium wire for lighting.  He wrote technical articles on topics such as gelatine emulsions,  the use of pyrogallic acid to recover gold from waste solutions, and the development of isochromatic plates.
For his Wheeler Survey photographs, Bell used two cameras– an 11-inch (280 mm) x 8-inch (200 mm) for large prints, and an 8-inch (200 mm) x 5-inch (130 mm) for stereo cards.  He used both wet and dry collodion processes on this expedition, and his photographs are characterized by dark foregrounds with elements becoming increasingly lighter in tone as distance increases.
Landmarks photographed by Bell include the Grand Canyon, the Marble Canyon, the Paria River, Mount Nebo (above) , and the early Mormon settlement of Mona, Utah.
Bell's work was exhibited at the Vienna Universal Exposition and the Louisville Industrial Exposition in 1873, and at the Centennial Exposition in 1876.  His photographs are now included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,  the National Museum of Health and Medicine,  the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Division, and the George Eastman House.

AORAKI/ MOUNT COOK (1) BY CHARLES BLOMFIELD

CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848-1926) 

Aoraki/ Mount Cook (3,724m - 12, 218ft) 

New Zealand

 In Mount Cook  from the Tasman Valley, oil on canvas 

The mountain 

Aoraki / Mount Cook (3,724m - 12, 218ft)  is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height since 2014 is listed as 3,724 m since December 1991, due to a rockslide and subsequent erosion. It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers. Aoraki / Mount Cook consists of three summits, from South to North the Low Peak (3,593 m or 11,788 ft), Middle Peak (3,717 m or 12,195 ft) and High Peak. The summits lie slightly south and east of the main divide of the Southern Alps, with the Tasman Glacier to the east and the Hooker Glacier to the southwest.The mountain is in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, in the Canterbury region. The park was established in 1953 and along with Westland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Fiordland National Park forms one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and 72 named glaciers, which cover 40 percent of its 700 square kilometres (170,000 acres).

Aoraki is the name of a person in the traditions of the Ngāi Tahu iwi; an early name for the South Island is Te Waka o Aoraki (Aoraki's Canoe). In the past many believed it meant "Cloud Piercer",  Historically, the Māori name has been spelt Aorangi, using the standard Māori form.

Aoraki / Mount Cook has been known to Maori since their arrival in New Zealand some time around the 14th century CE. The first Europeans who may have seen Aoraki / Mount Cook were members of Abel Tasman's crew, who saw a "large land uplifted high" while off the west coast of the South Island, just north of present-day Greymouth on 13 December 1642 during Tasman's first Pacific voyage. The English name of Mount Cook was given to the mountain in 1851 by Captain John Lort Stokes to honour Captain James Cook who surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand in 1770. Captain Cook did not sight the mountain during his exploration.
Following the settlement between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown in 1998, the name of the mountain was officially changed from Mount Cook to Aoraki / Mount Cook to incorporate its historic Māori name, Aoraki. As part of the settlement, a number of South Island placenames were amended to incorporate their original Māori name. Signifying the importance of Aoraki / Mount Cook, it is the only one of these names where the Māori name precedes the English.

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.

THE MONT BLANC BY ALEXANDRE PERRIER

ALEXANDRE PERRIER (1862-1936)

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

  France - Italy  border

In Le Mont-Blanc vu du Praz-de-Lys, oil on canvas,  1900, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève

The mountain 

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

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

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

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

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

From 1416 to 1792, the entire mountain was within the Duchy of Savoy. In 1723 the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II, acquired the Kingdom of Sardinia. The resulting state of Sardinia was to become preeminent in the Italian unification.[ In September 1792, the French revolutionary Army of the Alps under Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fézensac seized Savoy without much resistance and created a department of the Mont-Blanc. In a treaty of 15 May 1796, Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia was forced to cede Savoy and Nice to France. In article 4 of this treaty it says: "The border between the Sardinian kingdom and the departments of the French Republic will be established on a line determined by the most advanced points on the Piedmont side, of the summits, peaks of mountains and other locations subsequently mentioned, as well as the intermediary peaks, knowing: starting from the point where the borders of Faucigny, the Duchy of Aoust and the Valais, to the extremity of the glaciers or Monts-Maudits: first the peaks or plateaus of the Alps, to the rising edge of the Col-Mayor". This act further states that the border should be visible from the town of Chamonix and Courmayeur. However, neither the peak of the Mont Blanc is visible from Courmayeur nor the peak of the Mont Blanc de Courmayeur is visible from Chamonix because part of the mountains lower down obscure them. A Sardinian Atlas map of 1869 showing the summit lying two thirds in Italy and one third in France.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna restored the King of Sardinia in Savoy, Nice and Piedmont, his traditional territories, overruling the 1796 Treaty of Paris. Forty-five years later, after the Second Italian War of Independence, it was replaced by a new legal act. This act was signed in Turin on 24 March 1860 by Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, and deals with the annexation of Savoy (following the French neutrality for the plebiscites held in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, against the Pope's will). A demarcation agreement, signed on 7 March 1861, defines the new border. With the formation of Italy, for the first time Mont Blanc is located on the border of France and Italy.

The 1860 act and attached maps are still legally valid for both the French and Italian governments. One of the prints from the 1823 Sarde Atlas  positions the border exactly on the summit edge of the mountain (and measures it to be 4,804 m (15,761 ft) high). The convention of 7 March 1861 recognises this through an attached map, taking into consideration the limits of the massif, and drawing the border on the icecap of Mont Blanc, making it both French and Italian.Watershed analysis of modern topographic mapping not only places the main summit on the border, but also suggests that the border should follow a line northwards from the main summit towards Mont Maudit, leaving the southeast ridge to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur wholly within Italy.

Although the Franco-Italian border was redefined in both 1947 and 1963, the commission made up of both Italians and French ignored the Mont Blanc issue. In the early 21st century, administration of the mountain is shared between the Italian town of Courmayeur and the French town of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, although the larger part of the mountain lies within the commune of the latter.

The painter 

Alexandre Perrier  is one of the most prominent Swiss artists of the turn of the century, but he is perhaps the one whose work remains today the least studied. He counted among his friends and acquaintances Cuno Amiet, Albert Trachsel and Ferdinand Hodler and exhibited at the side of the latter at the Secession of Vienna in 1901, as well as at the Exposition Universelle in Paris the previous year. A landscape painter by vocation, he devoted his whole life to the pictorial transposition of a limited choice of sites, such as  Mont Salève, Lake Geneva, The Mont-Blanc and The Grammont, whose light and atmosphere he sought to bring back. Influenced by Neo-Impressionist tendencies, he uses a technique decomposing his touch into small dots and lines, situating it stylistically between pointillism and divisionism. In the second part of his career his style evolved towards a freer painting, dissociating color and drawing, an artistic approach that confirms its originality and its modernity.

At his debut, he worked for a short period in a bank before going to Mulhouse in 1881, for training as a signatory of textile printing. In 1891, he moved to Paris where he worked as a fashion illustrator; He discovered new artistic movements such as neo-impressionism, symbolism and Art Nouveau. Shortly before the turn of the century, he returned to Geneva, where he remained until his death. He received a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1900. In 1902, he exhibited at the Secession of Vienna.

ALVAND KUH BY FREDERIC GADMER

FREDERIC GADMER (1878-1954)

Alvand Kuh (3,580 m - 11,750 ft)

Iran

 In Alvan Kuh at sunset, Autochrome Lumière, 1927, Musée Départemental Albert Kahn 

The mountain 

Alvand  Alwand or Alvand Kuh  (3,580 m - 11,750 ft) is one the most famous mountain of Iran. It is  located near Hamedan, west of Iran. Mountain of Alvand belong to pro-Zagros range mountains. IIts summit  consists mainly of intrusive rocks (granite, granitoid and diorite). The range bears a trilingual ancient inscription (Neo Elamite, Neo Babylonian and Old Persian) of King Darius the great and king Xerxes I, called Ganj Nameh, 10km south of Hamadan. To reach Alvand Kuh, travel in Iran to Hamedan. From Tehran to Hamedan (330 km) takes 5.5 hours by bus. You can stay in Hamedan a few days. Hamedan is oldest alive city of the world. It was the first capital of Persia (700-530 BC). Take a taxi in the city and go to Ganj-Nameh (5 km from the city center).

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

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

THE CLIFFS OF ETRETAT BY CLAUDE MONET

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926),

The Falaises d'Etretat (70 to 90 m -  230 to 300 ft)  

France (Normandie)  

In Les falaises à Etretat 1885, oil on canvas  Clark Institute, Williamstown.

The cliffs 

Etretat is best known for its chalk cliffs, including three natural arches and a pointed formation called L'Aiguille (the Needle), which rises 70 m- 230 ft above the sea. The Etretat Chalk Complex, as it is known, consists of a complex stratigraphy of Turonian and Coniacian chalks. Some of the cliffs are as high as 90 metres (300 ft).

These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet.  They were featured prominently in the 1909 Arsène Lupin novel The Hollow Needle by Maurice Leblanc. They also feature in the 2014 film Lucy, directed by Luc Besson.

Two of the three famous arches are visible from the town, the Porte d'Aval (Aval Cliff)  and the Porte d'Amont (Amont Cliff).  The Manneporte  (Main Door) is the third and the biggest one, and cannot be seen from the town.

- L'arche et L'aiguille  (The Ark and the Needle)

An underground river, then marine erosion formed a natural arch and a estimated 55 meter to 70 meters  high needle, relic piece of the cliff. Maurice Leblanc describes it in these terms in his novel The Hollow Needle (1909) : "An enormous roach, more than eighty meters high, colossal obelisk, plumb on its granite base"  At his time, the site already attracted many tourists among them "lupinophiles" admirers of Arsene Lupine: American students came for the key to the cave, where the "gentleman burglar" had found the treasure of kings of France.

- La porte d'Amont  (Amont Cliff)

The Porte d'Amont is the smallest of the three doors and the most visually famous.  The french writer Guy de Maupassant compares this cliff of upstream to " an elephant that plunges its trunk into the water ". At the top of the cliff stands the stone silhouette of the chapel Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, protector of fishermen. The present building succeeds a chapel of the nineteenth century. You can also reach the cliff but the staircase is much steeper.  The current building succeeds a 19th century chapel in neo-gothic style.   It was destroyed by the occupier during the Second World War. Then one arrive at the monument and the museum made by the architect Gaston Delaune and dedicated to Charles Nungesser and François Coli, two aviators who tried to rally New York in 1927 and which were seen for the last time in this place, after Having taken off from Le Bourget on the edge of their plane, the mythical White Bird.

The GR 21 long-distance hiking path (Le Havre to Le Tréport) passes through the town.

 The painter 
Oscar-Claude Monet better known as Claude Monet  was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting « Impression, soleil levant » (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons exactly like the japanese artist  Hokusai (1760-1849) did with his 36 views of Mount Fuji.
Monet has been described as "the driving force behind Impressionism". Crucial to the art of the Impressionist painters was the understanding of the effects of light on the local colour of objects, and the effects of the juxtaposition of colours with each other. Monet's long career as a painter was spent in the pursuit of this aim....
- More about Claude Monet's Life and works