JEBEL EL-AZREG PAINTED BY NASR'EDDINE ETIENNE DINET

NASR'EDDINE ETIENNE DINET (1861-1929)

Jebel el-Azreg (1,491 m - 4,892 ft)

Algeria

In  Midi en juillet à Bou-Saâda (Noon In July in Bou Saâda), watercolour, 1884  

The mountain
Jebel el-Azreg  (1,491m) is the highest point of the Ouled Nail mountains (جبال أولاد نايل), a  range of the Saharian Atlas, located in Algeria near the town of Bou-Saâda. The Ouled Nail mountains  owe their name to the tribal confederation of Ouled Naïl who live in the massif.
The Ouled Nail mountains  are located between Jebel Amour to the east and the Zab mountains to the west, from Djelfa to Messaad, and constitute a set of links and depressions. The human presence in the region is attested from prehistoric times; enameled vestiges of Libyan-Berber writings, rock engravings and funerary monuments are found here. In antiquity, the region was populated by the Gétules, then by the Romans who installed advanced military posts as the castellium of Demmedi in Messaad.
During the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the seventh century, the region was inhabited by Zen Berbers: Sindjas, Ghomra and Laghouat who were islamized but remained independent over successive dynasties and empires. In the eleventh century, Zoghba Arab hordes enter the region.
During the Ottoman period, the Eastern tribes (Ouled Naipl Cheraga) depended on the authority of the Beylik of Constantine while the tribes of the West (Gheraba) fell under that of the Titteri.
The first French incursions into the region date from 1843, in 1861 the city of Djelfa is created. During the Algerian war, the region became a stronghold of the NLA, the armed wing of the FLN.
The Ouled Nail mountains  are home to some ksour, especially to Zaccar and Amourah, which testify that sedentary and village life was more developed at certain times. Numerous rock formations are present in the Ouled Naïl mountains, which are an extension of those of Jebel Amour and the Ksour mountains, the oldest dating back to 8000 BC .

The painter 

Nasr'Eddine Dinet (born as Alphonse-Étienne Dinet in Paris) was a French orientalist painter.

Compared to modernist painters such as Henri Matisse, who also visited northern Africa in the first decade of the 20th century, Dinet’s paintings are extremely conservative. They are highly mimetic, indeed ethnographic, in their treatment of their subject.

Dinet’s understanding of Arab culture and language set him apart from other orientalist artists. Surprisingly, he was able to find nude models in rural Algeria. Before 1900, most of his works could be characterized as "anecdotal genre scenes". As he became more interested in Islam, he began to paint religious subjects more often. He was active in translating Arabic literature into French, publishing a translation of an Arab epic poem by Antarah ibn Shaddad in 1898.

Dinet was born the son of a prominent French judge.   From 1871, he studied at the prestogious Lycée Henry IV in Paris, where the future president Alexandre Millerand was also among the students. Upon graduation in 1881 he enrolled in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and entered the studio of Victor Galland. The following year he studied under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian. He also exhibited for the first time at the Salon des artistes français.

Dinet made his first trip to Bou Saâda by the Ouled Naïl Range in southern Algeria in 1884, with a team of entomologists. The following year he made a second trip on a government scholarship, this time to Laghouat. At that time he painted his first two Algerian pictures: les Terrasses de Laghouat  (Laghouat Terraces) or  Oued M’Sila après l’orage (Oued M'Sila after the storm).

He won the silver medal for painting at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, and in the same year founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts along with Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin, Carolus-Duran and Charles Cottet. In 1887 he further founded with Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg, the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français.

In 1903 he bought a house in Bou Saâda and spent three quarters of each year there.

He announced his conversion to Islam in a private letter of 1908, and completed his formal conversion in 1913, upon which he changed his name to Nasr’Eddine Dinet. In 1929 he and his wife undertook the Hajj to Mecca. The respect he earned from the natives of Algeria was reflected by the 5,000 who attended his funeral on 12 January 1930 in Bou Saâda. There he was eulogized by the former Governor General of Algeria Maurice Viollette.

.___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

HUANDOY / TULLPARAJU PAINTED BY TEOFILO CASTILLO GUAS

TEOFILO CASTILLO  GUAS (1857-1922) 

Huandoy / Tullparaju (6,390 m - 20, 870 ft) 

 Peru 

In Huandoy seen from la laguna de Llanganuco, watercolour, Banca nacional del Peru

The mountain 

Huandoy / Tullparaju (6,390 m - 20, 870 ft) is a mountain located inside Huascarán National Park in Ancash, Peru. It is the second-tallest peak of the Cordillera Blanca section of the Andes, after Huascarán. The fisrt name Huandoy is  probably from Quechua Wantuy meaning  to transfer, to transpose, to carry, to carry a heavy load).  The second name Tullparaju is  possibly from Quechua Tullpa which means rustic cooking-fire, stove and Rahu  which means snow, ice, mountain with snow...  Huandoy / Tullparaju and  Huascarán  are rather nearby, separated only by the Llanganuco glacial valley (which contains the Llanganuco Lakes  represented in the painting above)) at 3,846 m asl.
Huandoy / Tullparaju  is a snow-capped mountain with four peaks arranged in the form of a fireplace, the tallest of which is 6,395 m. The four peaks are each over 6,000 m, and are :
- Huandoy (6, 395 m - 20, 981ft)
- Huandoy-West (6,356 m - 20, 853 ft)
- Huandoy-South (6,160 m - 20,209 ft)
- Huandoy-East (6,000 m- 19, 685 ft)
It was first climbed in 1932 by a German team.

The painter 
Teófilo Castillo Guas was a Peruvian painter, art critic and photographer. Representative of the Peruvian pictorial academicism,  he was influenced by the impressionism.
He studied at the Seminary of Santo Toribio in Lima and later in Europe: Spain, Belgium and France, countries where he contacted masterly art production. Returning to Peru, he stood out by exhibiting his paintings, inspired by the traditions of Ricardo Palma.
In 1888 he traveled to Buenos Aires where he married María Gaubeka and worked as a photographer and painter. In 1906 he returned to Peru to open his own workshop.
In the bieginning ot 20th century,  he worked as a painter and art critic in charge of the artistic direction of the magazines Prisma, La Ilustración Peruana and Variedades , where he presented reproductions in three colors (trichromes) of his main works.
He enthusiastically promoted the founding of the National School of Fine Arts in Lima.
From 1920 to his death, he settled in Tucumán, where he directed the magazine Sol y Nieve (Sun and Snox . In addition, he painted a large canvas depicting General Manuel Belgrano presenting the Argentine flag to the Congress of Tucumán in 1816, a work that the Argentine government acquired for 20,000 pesos.
He was also noted for his canvases of colonial evocation inspired by episodes of the Peruvian Traditions of Ricardo Palma, which he made with a quick, colorful brush, in which the characters and the crowds in the processions vibrate, among browns and pinks, greens and blues.

MOURRE NEGRE BY JEAN-BAPTISTE OLIVE

 JEAN-BAPTISTE OLIVE (1848-1936)    

Mourre Nègre  (1, 125m - 3, 691 ft)  

 France (Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur) 

In Champs de coquelicots dans le Luberon, 1872,  oil on canvas  Private collection 

The mountain 

The Mourre Nègre  (1, 125m - 3, 691 ft)   is the highest point of the Luberon Massif. Nowadays, this summit is rounded and capped with a hertzian antenna, which allows to see it from quite far away. It is located in the Grand Lubéron, straddling the communes of Auribeau, Cabrières-d'Aigues and Castellet.

Mourre and Negre both come from the Provençal, the first means "muzzle" and is often used to designate rounded summits, the second means "black".

The Grand Lubéron is the main part of the Luberon massif in terms of size, length and width. It must not be confused with Monts du Vaucluse. 

Open or semi-open (closed in drought) to road traffic, the "path of the peaks" and the "path of the riders" roam the peaks of the Grand Lubéron including Mourre Nègre. It is accessed by Lourmarin, Cucuron, Cabrières-d'Aigues and Vitrolles-en-Luberon South Luberon side as well as by Auribeau North side. Several other paths allow the discovery of the Luberon. Some are reserved for walkers, or riders. 

The painter 

Jean-Baptiste Olive was a French painter, the son of a wine merchant, born in Marseille. Étienne Cornellier, a decorator, encouraged him to register at École des beaux-arts de Marseille where he studied under the guidance of Joanny Rave. While training as a decorator, he painted many scenes of Marseille, its Vieux-Port (Old Harbour), its islands, and its seashore. In 1874 he travelled to Italy, mainly to Genoa and Venice. He occasionally participated in some of Provence's exhibitions at the time. In 1881 he became a member of Société des Artistes Français, and one year later he relocated to Paris. He contributed to the decoration of several Parisian places like the Cirque d’Hiver, the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur and the Exposition Universelle warded several prizes there.  In 1900 he won an order by the company Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée for two paintings created as decoration for the golden room at Le Train Bleu, a spectacular restaurant designed by architect Marius Toudoire in the Paris-Gare de Lyon train station (both paintings can still be seen there in this restaurant still in activity).
He was supported by several patrons, among them General Malesherbes and Marie-Louis Gassier, the owner of company Berger, a producer of pastis. In 1948, twelve years after his death, Marseille's Musée Cantini dedicated an exhibition to his centenary, displaying eighty-two of his paintings.
Although relatively little-known outside France - unlike his Marseillais fellow citizen Adolphe Monticelli, Olive is one of Provence's most iconic painters and an emblematic figure of the French marine art movement.
While proud of his Marseille origins, he long remained doubtful of his own painting talent.  While proud of his Marseille origins, he long remained doubtful of his own painting talent. His introverted character was in sheer contrast with his artwork's dazzling luminosity.

KILAUEA BY EDUARDO LEFEBVRE SCOVELL

EDUARDO  LEVEBRE SCOVELL (1864-1918)

 Kilauea  (1,247 m - 4,091 ft) 

 United States of America  (Hawaii)




1. Kilauea caldera in 1908, oil on canvas, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. 

2. Kilauea in 1890, oil on canvas,  Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu.

The mountain 

Kīlauea (1,247 m-4,091 ft) is a currently active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano is between 300,000 and 600,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. It is the second youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. Structurally, Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently formed caldera at its summit and two active rift zones, one extending 125 km (78 mi) east and the other 35 km (22 mi) west, as an active fault of unknown depth moving vertically an average of 2 to 20 mm (0.1 to 0.8 in) per year.

Kīlauea's eruptive history has been a long and active one; its name means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The earliest lavas from the volcano date back to its submarine preshield stage, samples having been recovered by remotely operated underwater vehicles from its submerged slopes; samples of other flows have been recovered as core samples. Lavas younger than 1,000 years cover 90 percent of the volcano's surface. The oldest exposed lavas date back 2,800 years. The first well-documented eruption of Kīlauea occurred in 1823 (Western contact and written history began in 1778), and since that time the volcano has erupted repeatedly. Most historical eruptions have occurred at the volcano's summit or its eastern rift zone, and are prolonged and effusive in character. The geological record shows, however, that violent explosive activity predating European contact was extremely common, and in 1790 one such eruption killed over 80 warriors; should explosive activity start anew the volcano would become much more of a danger to humans. Kīlauea's current eruption dates back to January 3, 1983, and is by far its longest-duration historical period of activity, as well as one of the longest-duration eruptions in the world; as of January 2011, the eruption has produced 3.5 km3 (1 cu mi) of lava and resurfaced 123.2 km2 (48 sq mi) of land.

Kīlauea's high state of activity has a major impact on its mountainside ecology where plant growth is often interrupted by fresh tephra and drifting volcanic sulfur dioxide, producing acid rains particularly in a barren area south of its southwestern rift zone known as the Kaʻū Desert. Nonetheless, wildlife flourishes where left undisturbed elsewhere on the volcano and is highly endemic thanks to Kīlauea's (and the island of Hawaiʻi's) isolation from the nearest landmass. Historically, the five volcanoes on the island were considered sacred by the Hawaiian people, and in Hawaiian mythology Kīlauea's Halemaumau Crater served as the body and home of Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes. William Ellis, a missionary from England, gave the first modern account of Kīlauea and spent two weeks traveling along the volcano; since its foundation by Thomas Jaggar in 1912, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, located on the rim of Kilauea caldera, has served as the principal investigative and scientific body on the volcano and the island in general. In 1916 a bill forming the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson; since then the park has become a World Heritage Site and a major tourist destination, attracting roughly 2.6 million people annually.

In 2018, Kilauea enters in a new important phase of eruptions.

The painter 

Eduardo Lefebvre Scovell  was a British artist, one of the so called Volcano School, a group of non-native artists who painted dramatic nocturnal scenes of Hawaii's erupting volcanoes. Following his education at Eton College and the University of Cambridge, Scovell studied art in Paris. He then traveled extensively, including one year in Rome and Florence. Several years were spent in India, China and Japan. He visited Brazil and spent eight years in Hawaii where he specialized in volcano scenes. He was in San Francisco during the earthquake and fire of 1906 and then settled in Los Angeles. Scovell was a resident there until his death on 23 September 1918.
Scovell's paintings Kilauea several times between 1890 and 1908 (see above) ;  those paintings are in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

THE CUILLIN PAINTED BY GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON

GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON  (1788 - 1833)

The Cuillin (992m - 3,255ft)

United Kingdom (Scotland- Isles of Skye) 

 In Cuchullin Mountains, Isles of Skye, Scotland,  watercolor, 1822,V&A Museum, London.

The mountains 

The Cuillin (992m - 3,255ft) is a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin ( known locally as Red Hills), which lie to the east of Glen Sligachan.

The peaks of the Black Cuillin are mainly composed of gabbro, a very rough igneous rock which provides a superb grip for mountaineers; and basalt, which can be very slippery when wet.  The rocks forming the ridge of the Black Cuillin (and outliers such Bla Bheinn) are dark in colour, particularly in the shade, but when in sunlight the Black Cuillin can appear grey to brown in colour (as shown in the paintings above).   The main ridge forms a narrow crest, with steep cliffs and scree slopes.[5] The ridge is about 14 km long (measured from Gars-behinn in the south to Sgщrr nan Gillean in the northeast), and curves in an irregular semi-circle around Loch Coruisk, which lies at the heart of the range. The highest point of the Cuillin, and of the Isle of Skye, is Sgщrr Alasdair in the Black Cuillin.

The Red Cuillin are mainly composed of granite, which is paler than the gabbro (with a reddish tinge from some angles in some lights) and has weathered into more rounded hills with vegetation cover to summit level and long scree slopes on their flanks. These hills are lower and, being less rocky, have fewer scrambles or climbs.  The highest point of the red hills is Glamaig (775 m), one of only two Corbetts on Skye.

About those mountains, one can read  in Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report no 374: "The mountains rise up dramatically from the sea creating formidable, enclosed sea lochs, with the absence of foothills enhancing their vast scale. Many iconic views of Scotland are centred here, whether Sgurr nan Gillean soaring above Sligachan, Loch Scavaig and the Cuillin ridge from Elgol, or Bla Bheinn above Torrin. "

The painter 

George Fennell Robson was an English watercolour painter. He received instruction in drawing from a Mr. Harle of Durham. In 1806 he went to London with £5 in his pocket.[
Robson began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1807, in 1810 landscapes in the Bond Street gallery of the Associated Painters, where he was a member, and in 1813 with the Society of Painters in Oil and Watercolours. At the anniversary meeting on 30 November 1819 he was elected president of the last society, for a year. Robson was an honorary member of the Sketching Society, but weakness of sight prevented him from drawing at their evening meetings.
Robson published in 1808 a print of Durham, the profits of which enabled him to visit Scotland. In 1811 and 1812 he exhibited drawings of the Trossachs and Loch Katrine; and in 1814 published Scenery of the Grampians, with forty mountain landscapes, etched by Henry Morton after his drawings. From 1813 to 1820 he contributed, on the average, twenty drawings annually to the Oil and Watercolour Society's exhibition, mostly of the Perthshire highlands, but comprising also scenes from Durham, the Isle of Wight, and Wales.
When in 1821 the Society of Painters in Oil and Watercolours, now the Royal Watercolour Society of Painters, excluded oil paintings, Robson contributed 26 drawings to the exhibition of that year. Between 1821 and 1833 he exhibited 484 works there.
From 1829 to 1833 Robson worked with Robert Hills, the animal painter. His main talent was for the treatment of mountain scenery under broad effects of light and

POPOCATEPETL & IZTACCIHUATL PAINTED BYJOSE MARIA VELASCO

JOSE MARIA VELASCO (1840-1912)
Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) (on left)

 Popocatépetl (5, 426 m -17, 802 ft) on right 

Mexico

In  Volcanes Popocatepetl y Iztacchihuatl en Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel,
oil on  canvas,1875

The mountains 

Popocatépetl  (5,426 m (17,802 ft),  on right in this painting,  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. 

Iztaccíhuatl  (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) is  dormant volcanic mountain in Mexico located on the border between the State of Mexico and Puebla. It is the nation's third highest, after Pico de Orizaba 5,636 m (18,491 ft) and Popocatépetl 5,426 m (17,802 ft). The name "Iztaccíhuatl" is Nahuatl for "White woman", reflecting the four individual snow-capped peaks which depict the head, chest, knees and feet of a sleeping female when seen from east or west.The peak is sometimes nicknamed La Mujer Dormida ("The Sleeping Woman".)  Iztaccíhuatl is to the north of Popocatépetl, to which it is connected by the high altitude Paso de Cortés. Depending on atmospheric conditions Iztaccíhuatl is also visible much of the year from Mexico City some 70 km (43 mi) to the northwest.

The first recorded ascent was made in 1889, though archaeological evidence suggests the Aztecs and previous cultures climbed it previously. It is the lowest peak containing permanent snow and glaciers in Mexico.

In Aztec mythology : Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, Popocatépetl. The emperor sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca, promising him Iztaccíhuatl as his wife when he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl's father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was falsely told that Popocatépetl had died in battle, and believing the news, she died of grief. When Popocatépetl returned to find his love dead, he took her body to a spot outside Tenochtitlan and kneeled by her grave. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains. 

Popocatépetl became an active volcano, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.




The painter 

José Maria Tranquilino Francisco de Jesus Velasco Gomez Obregуn, generally known as José Marнa Velasco, was a 19th-century Mexican most famous painter who made Mexican geography a symbol of national identity through his paintings. A wonderful landscaper, 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.

EL TUNGURUHUA PAINTED BY RAFAEL TROYA

RAFAEL TROYA (1845-1920) 

El Tungurahua (5,023 m - 16,480 ft)

Ecuador 

In El Tungurahua en erupción, 1916,  Colegio Nacional de Señoritas, Ibarra, Ecuador

The mountain 
El Tungurahua (5,023 m - 16,480 ft) 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.
According to one theory the name Tungurahua is a combination of the Quichua Tunguri (throat) and Rahua (fire) meaning "Throat of Fire". According to another theory it is based on the Quichua Uraua for crater. Tungurahua is also known as "The Black Giant" and, in local indigenous mythology it is allegedly referred to as Mama Tungurahua ("Mother Tungurahua").
With its elevation, Tungurahua  is just over tops the snow line (about 4,900 m- 16,100 ft) and its top is snow-covered and did feature a small summit glacier which melted away after the increase of volcanic activity in 1999.

The painter 
Rafael Troya (1845-1920)  was an Ecuadorian painter born, the son of the painter Vicente Troya. Being a teenager, he is taken to the Colegio de la Compañia de Jesus in Quito, but he soon abandons the clerical career to dedicate himself to what was his true vocation: painting. With the painter Luis Cadena, he learns the technique of colors. In 1872, he definitely choose the landscape and accompanied  Reis and Stübel on their study trips in Ecuador on Nature and Archeology. Troya becomes the portraitist of nature, painting compositions full of color and life. In 1890 he came back in the capital of Imbabureña, and decided to be completely dedicated to his art. There he made several masterpieces, such as the paintings on the Apostles, which today are admired in the Ibarra Cathedral, the Ibarra Foundation, preserved in the Hall of the city of Ibarra; Allegory of love, panoramic view of Ibarra; The earthquake of Imbabura, and several religious canvases that are conserved in some churches of Quito, in the church of Caranqui and in the Museum of the Central Bank of Quito. In his paintings, green and bluish tones predominate, characteristic of his native land. He painted a lot of mountains of the Andes and  the most famous volcanoes of the Cordillera.
_____________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

PIZ LAGREV PAINTED BY GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI

GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI (1868-1933)

Piz Lagrev (3,165m - 10,384 ft)

Switzerland

In   Maloja et le Piz Lagrev , oil on canvas, private collection 

The mountain 
Piz Lagrev (3,165m - 10,384 ft) is a mountain of the Albula Alps, overlooking Lake Sils in the Swiss canton of Graubunden. On its northern side lies the Julier Pass. Piz Lagrev is the culminating point of the range lying between the Septimer Pass and the Julier Pass. Northeast of Piz Lagrev is a small glacier named Vadret Lagrev and an unnamed lake at its bottom.

The painter 
Giovanni Giacometti was a Swiss painter, the father of  the famous painter and sculptor Alberto  Giacometti, and of Diego Giacometti, the furniture designer as well as the father of the architect Bruno Giacometti ! In 1886, he studied painting at the School of Decorative Arts in Munich, where he met Cuno Amiet the following year. Both decide to pursue their studies in Paris, in October stood at the Académie Julian, where Giacometti remains until 1891.
In 1893, shortly after his return to Switzerland, to Bergell, he became friends with Giovanni Segantini, his eldest ten years, which has great influence on his work by opening it to the beauty of the mountain scenery and the rules of divisionism. After his sudden death in 1899, Giacometti met Ferdinand Hodler, who teaches him to create a rigorous and ornamental composition by appropriate use of shapes and colors.
He sees regularly Cuno Amiet, who after a year spent in Pont-Aven,  shared his experience with him. In 1900 he exhibited in the Swiss Pavillon of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. From 1905, Giacometti works again in a great complicity with Amiet and begins to break free from the influence of Segantini. In 1906, held an exhibition of his work at Kunstlerhaus Zurich. In 1907 he went to Paris with Amiet to the Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne. They copy all the works of Van Gogh. In 1908, he exhibited with the French Fauves at the Richter Gallery in Dresden.
In 1909, the Tannhauser Gallery presents his works in Munich. He meets Alexi von Jawlensky, and in 1911 participates in the Berlin Secession. In 1912, Giacometti has a solo show at the Kunsthaus Zurich presents two works in the Sonderbund of Cologne. In 1918 after Hodler' s death, he began to be involved into the Swiss political world  paying an important part as a committed artist, following intthat way friend Amiet.
 ______________________________

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT UTSU / 鬱岳 BY UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE / 歌川 広重

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE  / 歌川 広重 (1797-1858)

Mount Utsu / 鬱岳 (818m - 2,848ft)

Japan   

 In Mount Utsu from Okabe  from the series 53 Stations of the Tôkaidô Road, woodblock print, 1832 

The Mountain 

Mount Utsu  (鬱岳) (818m- 2,848ft)  is located in the Kitami Mountains (北見山地), a mountain range of Hokkaidō, Japan. Unlike much of the rest of Japan, the Kitami Mountains are not very seismically active.The Kitami Mountains are north of the Ishikari Mountains and east of the Teshio Mountains. Rocks from the Kitami mountains are mostly sedimentary from the Cretaceous-Paleogene periods. Volcanic rock was placed down on top of this from volcanoes that erupted in the Miocene or later.The Kitami Mountains formed in the inner arc of the Kurile Arc.

Mount Utsu, the lowest peak of Kitami Mountains range, is a meisho which means a place well known for its mythology and paths of overgrown ivy and maples trees. Mount Utsu is often used metaphorically to contrast a kind of reality within the dream world. Utsu is a play on the word Utsutsu which’s literal meaning is reality and has connotations of one’s awakening moments and also a mountain of sadness. It appears in stories and operates in both the prose and poetry. It’s appears in famous works such as The Ise Stories which is a narrative that tells the travels of an unnamed protagonist. Mount Utsu in  the Suruga Province is mentioned in Chapter 9 of the Ise Stories and this chapter is a tale of the protagonists’ exile to eastern Japan. In this part of the story, the unnamed protagonist meets a wandering monk at Mount Utsu which means the main protagonist is awakening to reality. He then ask the monk to present his lover with a poem of longing, despair and sadness. In the poem, he says he can no longer see his love, not even in his dreams, which symbolizes that she hasn’t been thinking of him. In ancient Japanese tradition, it is believed that if he sees his lover in a dream, that she will be thinking about him... Mount Utsu has been depicted in many paintings as well, like The Fifty Three Stations of the Tōkaidō by Hiroshige (see above).

The artist

Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重), also know as Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his landscapes, such as the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (see above) and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō; and for his depictions of birds and flowers. The subjects of his work were atypical of the ukiyo-e genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and other scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868). The popular Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series by Hokusai was a strong influence on Hiroshige's choice of subject, though Hiroshige's approach was more poetic and ambient than Hokusai's bolder, more formal prints.
Hiroshige produced over 8,000 works
He dominated landscape printmaking with his unique brand of intimate, almost small-scale works compared against the older traditions of landscape painting descended from Chinese landscape painters such as Sesshu. The travel prints generally depict travelers along famous routes experiencing the special attractions of various stops along the way. They travel in the rain, in snow, and during all of the seasons. In 1856, working with the publisher Uoya Eikichi, he created a series of luxury edition prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition of mica to lend a unique iridescent effect, embossing, fabric printing, blind printing, and the use of glue printing (wherein ink is mixed with glue for a glittery effect).
For scholars and collectors, Hiroshige's death marked the beginning of a rapid decline in the ukiyo-e genre, especially in the face of the westernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

Hiroshige's work came to have a marked influence on Western painting towards the close of the 19th century as a part of the trend in Japonism. Western artists closely studied Hiroshige's compositions, and some, such as Vincent van Gogh or Claude Monet, painted copies of Hiroshige's prints.

MOUNT SINAÏ PAINTED BY JEAN-LEON GERÔME

JEAN-LEON GERÔME  (1824-1904) 

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

Egypt

 In Moïse au Mont Sinaï (Moses in Mount Sinaï), oil on canvas, 1895-1900, Private collection 

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 Sinaï. 

The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and in the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments (depicted in the Jean-Léon Gérôme painting above).

Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629m - 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 

Jean-Léon Gérôme  was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period. He was also a teacher with a long list of students.
In 1856, he visited Egypt for the first time. Gérômes recurrent itinerary followed the classic grand tour of most occidental visitors to the Orient; up the nile to Cairo, across to Fayoum, then further up the Nile to Abu Simbel, then back to Cairo, across the Sinai Peninsula through Sinai and up the Wadi el-Araba to the Holy land, Jerusalem and finally Damascus. This would herald the start of many orientalist paintings depicting Arab religion, genre scenes and North African landscapes. In an autobiographical essay of 1878, Gérôme described how important oil sketches made on the spot were for him: "even when worn out after long marched under the bright sun, as soon as our camping spot was reached I got down to work with concentration. But Oh! How many things were left behind of which I carried only the memory away! And I prefer three touches of colour on a piece of canvas to the most vivid memory, but one had to continue on with some regret.
He did not only gather themes, artefacts and costumes for his oriental scenes, but also made oil studies from nature for their backgrounds. Several of these quick sketches are filled with details that exceed his wished for three touches of colour.
Gérôme's reputation was greatly enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of works of a more popular kind : The Duel ; After the Masked Ball (Musée Condé, Chantilly);  Egyptian Recruits crossing the Desert;  Memnon and Sesostris and Camels Watering.

MOUNT ARARAT PAINTED BY IVAN AIVAZOVSKY

IVAN  AIVAZOVSKY (1817-1900)

Mount Ararat  (5,137 m - 16,854ft)

Turkey (since 1921)

 In Valley of Mount Ararat in Armenian Highlands, oil on canvas, 1882 

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.

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: "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 

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

MOEL SIABOD PAINTED BY SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS

SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS (1918-2006)

Moel Siabod (872m - 2,861ft) 

United Kingdom (Wales)

In Snow on Siabod, 1968, oil on canvas, National Museum Wales, National Museum Cardiff

The mountain 

Moel Siabod  (872m - 2,861ft) is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, which sits isolated above the villages of Betws-y-Coed and Capel Curig. It is the highest peak in the Moelwynion mountain range. The UK National Mountain Centre, Plas-y-Brenin, is located at the foot of Moel Siabod. From the top of the mountain, it is reputedly possible to see 13 of the 14 highest peaks in Wales on a clear day without turning one's head.

The name Moel Siabod is frequently translated as  "shapely hill" , although William Williams in Observations on the Snowdon Mountains (1802) proposed that the name comes from siadod, meaning  "bare hill, whose head or crown is covered in new-fallen snow".

The mountain is easily accessible from the north via Capel Curig and nearby Pont Cyfyng (by a separate but similar path) and from the south via Dolwyddelan.

The Painter 
Sir John "Kyffin" Williams, KBE, RA was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century.
His works typically drew inspiration from the Welsh landscape and farmlands. His works may be seen in a permanent exhibition in the Oriel Kyffin Williams Gallery which opened in 2008 at Oriel Ynys Môn in Llangefni, Anglesey, as well as at many other galleries elsewhere in Britain. He was president of the Royal Cambrian Academy and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in 1974.
In 1995 Williams received the Glyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival. He was awarded the OBE for his services to the arts in 1982 and a KBE in 1999.
The Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize was established in 2009. The winning works from the 2018 prize are due to be exhibited at the Oriel Kyffin Williams Gallery.
In February 2011 it was announced that Williams' paintings of Patagonia would be shown for the first time.  His last passport, on show in the Oriel Ynys Môn gallery at Llangefni, 2004–2014, has the name Sir John Williams. Kyffin was his grandmother's maiden name.
Williams' works are held in many public collections, including the Government Art Collection, the Arts Council Collection and the National Museum of Wales.

_______________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

AMA DABLAM BY ISABELLE SCHEIBLI

ISABELLE SCHEIBLI (bn.1949)

Ama Dablam   (6,812 metres - 22,349 ft),

 Nepal 

 In L'Ama Dablam vu de Tengboche, 2005, watercolor 

The mountain 
Ama Dablam   (6,812 metres - 22,349 ft), is  a nearly 7000m mountain in the Himalaya range of eastern Nepal ;  the main peak being 6,812 m - 22,349 ft, the lower western peak being 6,170 m - 20,243 ft. Ama Dablam means "Mother's necklace"; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother (Ama) protecting her child, and the hanging glacier thought of as the Dablam, the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods, worn by Sherpa women.
For several days, Ama Dablam dominates the eastern sky for anyone trekking to Mount Everest basecamp. Ama Dablam is the third most popular Himalayan peak for permitted expeditions. The most popular route by far is the Southwest Ridge.  Climbers typically set up three camps along the ridge with camp 3 just below and to the right of the hanging glacier, the Dablam. Any ice that calves off the glacier typically goes left, away from the camp. However, a 2006 avalanche proved that this is not always the case. A climbing permit and a liaison officer are required when attempting Ama Dablam. As with Mt. Everest, the best climbing months are April–May (before the monsoon) and September–October.
Ama Dablam was first climbed on 13 March 1961 by Mike Gill (NZ), Barry Bishop (USA), Mike Ward (UK) and Wally Romanes (NZ) via the Southwest Ridge. They were well-acclimatised to altitude, having wintered over at 5800 metres near the base of the peak as part of the Silver Hut Scientific Expedition of 1960-61, led by Sir Edmund Hillary.

The artist 
Isabelle Scheibli (bn. 1949) is a french journalist, screenwriter, essayist and watercolorist, passionate about mountains. She is the author of the novel "Gaspard de la Meije" published in 1984. As a journalist she worked for several mountains magazines such as "Vertical" or "Montagne Magazine". She wrote several films scenarii related to the mountain such as "Le passe montagne" (1996), "Jours Blancs" (1990) or "Gaspard de la Meije" (1984) based on her novel, winner of a prize in the Festivals of Trent and of Les Diablerets, and also recompensed by the La Fondation de France. As a watercolorist, she illustrated three albums from the Carrés de France collection for Editions Equinox, about the Haute Savoie (2002), the Savoie (2003), the Drôme Provençale (2008).
Isabelle Scheibli made several voyages to Patagonia and Antarctica, which are her favorite places on earth. She doesn’t always paint in situ, due to the extreme conditions in these lands, especially speaking about watercolors! She often paints watertcolors in her studio from her drawings or photos, she realised herself in the Antarctic.  About those voyages she wrote :
 «Painting the glacial world is a long-term process. To accompany close alpinists and Himalayists in their expeditions, I have often been in the mountains, in the Alps, in Nepal and in Tibet. The peaks have become a privileged motive. In 2014, I had the opportunity to go to Patagonia, to follow the coast of the Beagle Channel on a sailboat and to go to the foot of the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego. It was a very violent aesthetic shock.  Here the conditions did not always allow me  to paint as I wished. When I returned I undertook a work in my atelier from the many drawings, watercolors and photos that I had brought back. The dimension of immensity quickly led me to paint in a large format, which I had never done before. In 2016, I set out on a sailboat to approach the absolute quintessence of the glacier, an entire continent of ice, Antarctica. I had somewhat underestimated the navigation part of this trip but the discovery of this icy pole was a glare. Once again I brought back watercolors stolen between two gusts, many drawings and photos. And I got to work on the way back, immersing myself completely »

BREITHORN (2) PAINTED BY BLANCHE BERTHOUD

BLANCHE BERTHOUD (1864-1938)

The Breithorn (4,165 m -13,664 ft)

Switzerland - Italy border

In Alpenpartie mit Sicht auf das Breithorn, oil on canvas

The mountain 
The Breithorn  (4,165 m -13,664 ft) which means "broad horn" in german - is a mountain range of the Pennine Alps as well as its highest peak (also called Breithorn Western Summit). The Breithorn is located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It lies on the main chain of the Alps, approximately halfway between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa and east of the Theodul Pass. Most of the massif is glaciated and includes several subsidiary peaks, all located east of the main summit: the Western summit (4, 165m), the Middle summit (4,159m),  the Eastern Breithorn-twin also called The Gendarm (4,106m), the Roccia Nera (Schwarzfluh) (4,075m). The main summit is sometimes distinguished by the name Western Breithorn (German: Breithorn (Westgipfel), Italian: Breithorn Occidentale). The nearest settlements are Zermatt (Valais) and St-Jacques (Aosta Valley).
The Breithorn was first climbed in 1813 by Henry Maynard (climber), Joseph-Marie Couttet, Jean Gras, Jean-Baptiste Erin and Jean-Jacques Erin.

The painter 
Blanche Berthoud was a Swiss painter from the region Neufchatel (Switzerland) who was very active throughout the first half of the 20th century. She was part of the  Société romande des femmes peintres  (Romande Society of Women Painter) founded  by the painter Jeanne Lombard (1865-1945) who defended very fiercely mountain women painters, a world often reserved for men. She made several paintings and watercolors of the Breithorn, one of which was acquired by the Museum of Art and History of Neufchatel.


2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

HUANGSHAN / 黄山 PAINTED BY FAN KUAN / 范寬

FAN KUAN / 范寬 (950- 1032)
Huangshan / 黄山 (1,864m - 6,115ft)
China


In Traveler Among Mountains and Streams,  National Palace Museum, Taipe



About this painting 

This 206.3 cm (about 6.75 feet)  landscape known as the Travelers among Mountains and Streams, painted by Fan Kuan is considered one of the finest monumental landscape paintings by a Chinese artist. It also became a model for later Chinese painters. Fan Kuan based the painting on the Daoist principle of becoming one with nature. When looking at the painting, the viewer realizes how small he or she is compared to the big picture of nature.




The mountain 

Huangshan / 黄山, sometimes called Yellow Mountains, is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. Vegetation on the range is thickest below 1,100 meters -3,600 ft), with trees growing up to the treeline at 1,800 meters -5,900 ft). The Huangshan mountain range has many peaks, some more than 1,000 meters (3,250 feet) high. The three tallest and best-known peaks are Lotus Peak (Lian Hua Feng, 1,864 m), Bright Summit Peak (Guang Ming Ding, 1,840 m), and Celestial Peak (Tian Du Feng, literally Capital of Heaven Peak, 1,829 m).

The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan pine trees, hot springs, winter snow, and views of the clouds from above. Much of Huangshan's reputation derives from its significance in Chinese arts and literature. In addition to inspiring poets such as Li Bai, Huangshan and the scenery therein has been the frequent subject of poetry and artwork, especially Chinese ink painting and, more recently, photography. Overall, from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20,000 poems were written about Huangshan, and a school of painting named after it. The mountains also have appeared in modern works. James Cameron, director of the 2009 film Avatar, cited Huangshan as one of his influences in designing the fictional world of that film.  The area also has been a location for scientific research because of its diversity of flora and wildlife. In the early part of the twentieth century, the geology and vegetation of Huangshan were the subjects of multiple studies by both Chinese and foreign scientists. The mountain is still a subject of research. For example, in the late twentieth century a team of researchers used the area for a field study of Tibetan macaques, a local species of monkey.

Huangshan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of China's major tourist destinations.  The World Heritage Site covers a core area of 154 square kilometres and a buffer zone of 142 square kilometres. In 2002, Huangshan was named the "sister mountain" of Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.




 The artist 

 Fan Kuan (范寬, ca.950–1032) was a Chinese landscape painter during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). A native of Huayuan (華原, modern Yaoxian 耀縣) in Shaanxi (陜西) Province, Fan Kuan often traveled the area between the capital and Luoyang (洛陽). Although he was known for his magnanimous character, straightforward personality, and fondness of drink and Daoism, Fan Kuan is famous now for his landscape painting.

In his early study of painting, he followed the style of the Shandong (山東) artist Li Cheng (李成, 919–967). Later, however, Fan Kuan came to realize that if he really wanted to portray the land, he had to take Nature as his teacher rather than other artists or their works. After all, a personal landscape exists in nature and in the mind. Fan Kuan thereupon went to the Cuihua Mountain (翠華山) and secluded himself among the forests and mountains, devoting himself to observing the effects of atmospheric, weather, and seasonal changes on the scenery. Contemporaries thereupon praised him for being able to commune with the mountains.

Little else is known of his life, except the admiration and love he had for viewing the mountains of northern China. Fan Kuan was listed as the 59th of the 100 most important people of the last millennium by LIFE magazine.

PIC LAPERRINE PAINTED BY CAMILLE LEROY

CAMILLE LEROY (1905-1995) 

Pic Laperrine or Pic Iharen (1, 732m - 5, 682ft)

Algeria 

In Le pic Laperrine dans le massif du Hoggar en Algérie, watercolour, 1955

The mountain 
Pic Laperrine or Iharen ((1, 732m - 5, 682ft), in the Hoggar (Algeria) is located a few kilometers northeast of Tammanrasset ; it is inhabited by Tuareg. The Laperrine peak is named after a French general ot he colonial era, François-Henry Laperrine d'Hautpoul who died of exhaustion not far away on March 5, 1920 after being forced to land his plane out of fuel.

The artist
Camille Leroy is a french painter who practiced, at the age of eleven, the miniature on wood and watercolor. He studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, then at the National School of Fine Arts from 1920 to 1927 where he was a pupil of Fernand Cormon (1845-1815) , François Flameng (1856-1923) and Lucien Simon (1861-1945).
He received the General Council Prize, the Artistic Grand Prize of the city of Algiers and the  Gold Medal of the Society of Orientalist Painters.
He did his military service in Algeria in 1925. He received the Abd El Tif Prize in 1937 and then settled permanently in Algiers.
He was appointed professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Algiers in 1940.
Involved int he french  "Resistance" against german occupation, he joined the Free French Forces and took part in the campaign in Tunisia, the Italian campaign, the landing in France and the Rhine and Danube countryside. He received the Croix de Guerre.
At the end of the war, he resumed his activities at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Algiers.
He left Algeria in 1970, approximatively the years after the declaration of Independence of Algeria c and moved to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in France where he died.

MOUNT KATAHDIN (2) BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH  (1826-1900)

Mount Katahdin (1,605 m - 5,267 ft)

United States of America (Maine)

In  Mount Katahdin  from Millinocket Camp, oil on canvas,  1895, Portland Museum of Art,  Maine 

The mountain  
Mount Katahdin (1,605 m - 5,267 feet)  is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The mountain, being a mile above sea level, towers above the comparatively low Maine lakes and forests. Named Katahdin by the Penobscot Indians, which means "The Greatest Mountain", Katahdin is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park.  The official name is "Mount Katahdin" as decided by the US Board on Geographic Names in 1893.
Among some Native Americans, Katahdin was believed to be the home of the storm god Pamola, and thus an area to be avoidedIt is a steep, tall mountain formed from a granite intrusion weathered to the surface.
Katahdin was known to the Native Americans in the region, and was known to Europeans at least since 1689. It has inspired hikes, climbs, journal narratives, paintings, and a piano sonata. The area around the peak was protected by Governor Percival Baxter starting in the 1930s. Katahdin  is located near a stretch known as the Hundred-Mile Wilderness.
Katahdin is referred to 60 years after Field’s climb of Agiokochuk (Mount Washington) in the writings of John Gyles, a teenage colonist who was captured near Portland, Maine in 1689 by the Abenaki. While in the company of Abenaki hunting parties, he traveled up and down several Maine rivers including both branches of the Penobscot, passing close to “Teddon”. He remarked that it was higher than the White Hills above the Saco River.
The first recorded climb of "Catahrdin" was by Massachusetts surveyors Zackery Adley and Charles Turner, Jr. in August 1804.  In the 1840s Henry David Thoreau climbed Katahdin, which he spelled "Ktaadn"; his ascent is recorded in a well-known chapter of The Maine Woods. A few years later Theodore Winthrop wrote about his visit in Life in the Open Air. Painters Frederic Edwin Church and Marsden Hartley are well-known artists who created landscapes of Katahdin.
In the 1930s Governor Percival Baxter began to acquire land and finally deeded more than 200,000 acres (809 km2) to the State of Maine for a park, named Baxter State Park after him. The summit was officially recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names as "Baxter Peak" in 1931.

The painter
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes. Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes.  Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases.  Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.

MITRE PEAK / RAHOTU BY GORDON TOVEY

 GORDON TOVEY (1901-1974)

Mitre Peak / Rahotu  (1,683m -  5,522 ft) 

New Zealand (South Island)

  In Mitre Peak, 1966, oil on canvas,  Christchurh Art gallery.

The mountain 

Mitre Peak/ Rahotu  (1,683m -  5,522 ft) is an iconic mountain in the South Island of New Zealand, located on the shore of Milford Sound. It is one of the most photographed peaks in the country. The distinctive shape of the peak in southern New Zealand gives the mountain its name, after the mitre headwear of Christian bishops. It was named by Captain John Lort Stokes of the HMS Acheron. 

Part of the reason for its iconic status is its location. Close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park in the southwestern South Island, it is a stunning sight.  The mountain rises near vertically from the water of Milford Sound, which technically is a fjord.

The peak is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks, with Mitre Peak not even the tallest one, however from most easily accessible viewpoints, Mitre Peak appears as a single point.

 Milford Sound is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site as declared by UNESCO.

The only road access to Milford Sound is via State Highway 94, in itself one of the most scenic roads in New Zealand.

 The painter
Arthur Gordon Tovey was a notable New Zealand artist, art teacher and administrator, educationalist, and writer. Born in Wellington, he started exhibiting in 1922, and in 1924 he took a job as an artist with the Railways Advertising Branch.  This work took him to London, where some of his posters for the Southern Railway Posters won praise.  In 1930, following his marriage, he moved back to New Zealand, and two years later he began teaching art at the Dunedin School of Art at King Edward Technical College.  He rose to be head of the school in 1937 and became known for innovative programs integrating the visual and performing arts.  His students in this period included Colin McCahon and Doris Lusk.
During World War II, he worked on camouflage.
 In 1943, he became a full-time art lecturer at Dunedin Training College, where he again introduced educational innovations.  In 1946, he was appointed the first supervisor of art and craft for the Wellington Department of Education.  He was particularly interested in fostering understanding of, and education in, Maori arts, crafts, music, and mythology, and he wrote two books on these subjects, Art and Craft for the South Pacific (1959) and The arts of the Maori (1961).
He retired in 1966, returning to painting and writing full-time. During this period, he published an epic poem, The Twice Born Seed.

KANGCHENJUNGA BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)

Kangchenjunga (8, 538m - 28,169 ft) 

India, Népal 

In Kangchenjunga from Kanglachen pass, watercolor on sketchbook, 1848-1851

The mountain 

Kangchenjunga  (8,586 m (28,169 ft) is the  third highest mountain in the world. It  lies partly in Nepal and partly in Sikkim, India. Kangchenjunga is the second highest mountain of the Himalayas after Mount Everest. Three of the five peaks – Main, Central and South – are on the border between North Sikkim and Nepal. Two peaks are in the Taplejung District, Nepal.

Kangchenjunga Main is the highest mountain in India, and the easternmost of the mountains higher than 8,000 m (26,000 ft).  Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest.  It is listed int the  Eight Thousanders and as Seven Third Summits

Kangchenjunga is the official spelling adopted by Douglas Freshfield, A. M. Kellas, and the Royal Geographical Society that gives the best indication of the Tibetan pronunciation. Freshfield referred to the spelling used by the Indian Government since the late 19th century. There are a number of alternative spellings including Kangchendzцnga, Khangchendzonga, and Kanchenjunga.  Local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal to the devout when the world is in peril; the treasures comprise salt, gold, turquoise and precious stones, sacred scriptures, invincible armor or ammunition, grain and medicine. Kangchenjunga's name in the Limbu language is Senjelungma or Seseylungma, and is believed to be an abode of the omnipotent goddess Yuma Sammang.

It rises in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies about 128 km (80 mi) east of Mount Everest.

Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that

Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition. They stopped short of the summit as per the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition. Other members of this expedition included John Angelo Jackson and Tom Mackinon.  In May 1979,  Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker established a new route on the North Ridge their third ascent which was the first one ever made without oxygen.

In 1983, Pierre Beghin made the first solo ascent accomplished without the use of supplemental oxygen.  In 1992, Wanda Rutkiewicz was  the first woman in the world to ascend and descend K2 and a world-renowned Polish climber, died after she insisted on waiting for an incoming storm to pass, which she did not survive.  In 1998, Ginette Harrison was the first woman who climbed Kangchenjunga North face ;  Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, an Austrian mountaineer, was the second woman to reach the summit in 2006.

In May 2014, the Bulgarian diabetic climber Boyan Petrov reached the peak without the use of supplemental oxygen.

The artist 

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877).  He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.
Voyage to the Himalayas and India 1847–1851
On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya.  He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams', who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur, up the Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling, arriving on 16 April 1848.
Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.
In an article of the Alpine Journal, it was demonstrated by Stephen Goodwin how the sketch above is the very first known drawing in situ of Mount Everest.  "Is this 1848 sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker the first recorded view of Mount Everest by a European? Drawn in situ on the ‘Choonjerma pass’ – now generally referred to as the Mirgin la – in eastern Nepal, it has, for many years, lain unidentified in the archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Its ‘discovery’ adds one more facet to the remarkable accomplishments of Hooker during his three years of exploration and research in the eastern Himalaya."