MOUNT KHUMBILA / KHUMBU YUL-LHA BY HEINRICH C. BERANN

HEINRICH C. BERANN  (1915-1999)

Mount Khumbila / Khumbu Yul-Lha (5,761 m- 18, 901ft) 

Nepal 

In Kumbu Himal map, 1950 for National Geographic 

The mountain 

Mount Khumbila or Khumbu Yul-Lha (5,761 m- 18, 901ft)  roughly translated as "God of Khumbu" is one of the high Himalayan peaks in the Khumbu region of Eastern Nepal within the boundaries of Sagarmatha National Park. Considered too sacred to be climbed by most local Sherpa people, the mountain is considered home to the patron God of the local area. The mountain overlooks the famous southern approaches to its larger neighbours including Ama Dablam and Mount Everest.

Khumbila has never been climbed; one attempt prior to the 1980s ended when climbers were killed in an avalanche, and there have been no subsequent attempts.

Khumbila is said to be a god, and an old one. The prayers for Khumbila are believed to date back to the time when the ancestors of the Sherpas were still in Tibet (more than 500 years ago). Khumbila is said to have been subdued and converted to Buddhism by Guru Rimpoche, the 8th-century saint who spread Buddhism throughout the Himalaya . In fact, Guru Rimpoche is said to have spent some time meditating in a cave above Khunde, perhaps on the mountain Khumbila itself.

Local buildings often have prayer flags on bamboo wands to honour Khumbila.

The artist

Heinrich C. Berann, (1915–1999) the father of the modern panorama map, was born into a family of painters and sculptors in Innsbruck, Austria. He taught himself by trial and error. In the years 1930-1933 he attended the arts and design school "Bundeslehranstalt für Malerei" in Innsbruck.

Winning of first prize at a competition for a panorama map created great enthusiasm in him. Using his artistic heritage and new self-discovered techniques he invented a new way of painting landscapes for tourist purposes. The further development of both these panorama maps and his artistic style was influenced by lasting impressions he received during his military service in German Army in Norway and Northern Finland in 1942.

In 1962 he painted Mount Everest for the National Geographic Society, one of his most famous panoramic maps. He worked with Marie Tharp and Bruce C. Heezen to produce maps of the entire ocean floor in 1977.

He later created four panoramas for the United States National Park Service: Yellowstone National Park, North Cascades National Park, Yosemite National Park and finally Mt. McKinley National Park (now Denali). He was very sick when he painted Denali (above) - but he finished it in the age of 81.

In 2000, Tom Patterson of the National Park Service explored ways of digitally creating panoramas like Berann did for the Park Service.

LES GRANDES JORASSES BY GABRIEL LOPPÉ

GABRIEL LOPPÉ (1825-1913)

Les Grandes Jorasses (4,208m -13, 806 ft) 

 France - Italy border  

In Lever de soleil sur les Grandes Jorasses, 1872, oil on canvas,
Collection Amis du Vieux Chamonix

The mountain 

The Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m - 13,806 ft) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, on the boundary between Haute-Savoie in France and Aosta Valley in Italy.  Les Grandes Jorasses are, simply speaking, the most strikingly complex and powerful structure of the entire Mont Blanc massif. If Mt. Blanc is the king of the Alps, the Grandes Jorasses complex is truly the queen.

The summits on the mountain (from east to west) are:

- Pointe Walker (4,208 m; 13,806 ft), named after Horace Walker, who made the first ascent of the mountain.

- Pointe Whymper (4,184 m; 13,727 ft), he second-highest summit named after Edward Whymper, who made the first ascent.

- Pointe Croz (4,110 m - 13,484 ft), named after Michel Croz, a guide from Chamonix.

- Pointe Elena (4,045 m -13,271 ft), named after Princess Elena of Savoy.

- Pointe Margherita (4,065 m- 13,337), named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I of Italy

- Pointe Young (3,996 m - 13,110 ft)   named after Geoffrey Winthrop Young.

The first ascent of the highest peak of the mountain (Pointe Walker) was by Horace Walker with guides Melchior Anderegg, Johann Jaun and Julien Grange on 30 June 1868. The second-highest peak on the mountain (Pointe Whymper )was first climbed by Edward Whymper, Christian Almer, Michel Croz and Franz Biner on June 24, 1865, using what has become the normal route of ascent and the one followed by Walker's party in 1868.

North Face

Located on the French side of the mountain, the north face is one of the three great north faces of the Alps, along with the north faces of the Eiger and the Cervin/Matterhorn (known as 'the Trilogy'). One of the most famous walls in the Alps, it towers 1200 m (3,900 ft) above the Leschaux Glacier, stretching 1 km from end to end. 

South face

On the Italian side of the mountain, the south face can be accessed from the Boccalatte cabin, above the hamlet of Planpincieux in the Italian Val Ferret, part of the  municipality.

Summit ridge.

From the Col des Hirondelles, the summit ridge connects Pt. Walker to the other summit points and then descends to the Col des Grandes Jorasses where a bivouac shelter is located - the Bivouac E Canzio hut. The ridge forms the French-Italian border, almost all of which is above 4,000 m -13,000 ft).

The painter 

Gabriel Loppé (1825–1913) was a French painter, photographer and mountaineer. He became the first foreigner to be made a member of the Alpine Club in London. His father was a captain in the French Engineers and Loppé's childhood was spent in many different towns in south-eastern France. Aged twenty-one Loppé climbed a small mountain in the Languedoc and found a group of painters sketching on the summit. He had found his calling and subsequently went off to Geneva where he met the reputed leading Swiss landscapist, Alexandre Calame (1810 -1864). Loppé took up mountaineering in Grindelwald in the 1850s and made friends easily with the many English climbers in France and Switzerland. Although he was frequently labelled as a pupil of Calame and his rival Francois Diday, Loppé was almost an entirely self-taught artist. He became the first painter to work at higher altitudes during climbing expeditions earning the right to be considered the founder of the peintres-alpinistes school, which became established in the Savoie at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Notable followers of Loppé include, Charles Henri Contencin (1875-1955) and Jacques Fourcy (1900-1991). Together with the first ascent of Mt Mallet in Chamonix’s Grandes Jorasses range, Loppé made over 40 ascents of Mont Blanc during his climbing career, which lasted until the late 1890s.  He frequently made oil sketches from alpine summits, including a panorama of the view from the summit of Mont Blanc.
His paintings became celebrated for their atmosphere and spontaneity and he soon found himself taking part in many exhibitions in London and in Paris.
By 1896 Loppé had spent over fifty seasons climbing and painting in Chamonix. As the valley’s unrivalled ‘Court painter’ his work was in constant demand with the majority of his pictures going to English climbers and summer tourists.
In his later years, Loppé became fascinated with photography and was quite an innovator in this field too. His long exposure photograph of the Eiffel Tower struck by lightning, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris remains one of his iconic images.

PICO NAIGUATA / CERO EL AVILA (2) BY FRITZ MELBYE

FRITZ MELBYE (1826-1896)   

Pico Naiguatá  (2,765m - 9,072ft)

Venezuela 

In Vista de Caracas (2), Venezuela, oil on canvas  1860, 

Museo de Bellas Arte de Caracas

The mountain 

Pico Naiguatá  (2,765m - 9,072ft) is the summit of a mountain called Cerro el Avila in South America near Caracas, Venezuela, part of the Venezuelan Coastal Range, of which it is the highest peak. It is situated on the border of the Venezuelan states Miranda and Vargas. It is the highest point in both of these states and the fourth highest of the Caribbean after Pico Simón Bolivar and Pico Cristóbal Colón of The Santa Marta Coastal range in Colombia and Pico Duarte in the Dominican Republic.

The El Ávila National Park (or Waraira Repano, from an indigenous name for the area) protects part of the Cordillera de la Costa Central mountain range, in the coastal region of central-northern Venezuela. El Ávila National Park is located along the central section of the Cordillera de la Costa mountain system, in the Cordillera de la Costa Central mountain range.  El Ávila was declared a park in 1958, fulfilling an interest in its protection that had been prevalent since the 19th century. With its creation came the protection of the forested mountains that surround Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. These mountains now serve as both a recreational area and as a buffer to pollution and urban expansion. El Ávila has always been an important resource for the inhabitants of Caracas, who have used the area for a variety of activities, some of which have threatened its conservation.




The painter 

Fritz Sigfred Georg Melbye  was a Danish marine painter, the brother of Anton Melbye and Vilhelm Melbye who were also marine painters. He traveled widely, painting seascapes, coastal and harbour scenes as well as some landscapes in Europe, the Caribbean, Venezuela, North America and Asia.

In 1849, he set off for the Danish West Indies, settling on Saint Thomas. There he met the young Camille Pissarro whom he inspired to take up painting as a full-time profession. Pissarro became his pupil as well as close friend.

In April 1852, Melbye was on Saint Croix, preparing a trip to Venezuela. Pissarro decided to join him and they spent two years together in Caracas and the harbour city of La Guaira before Pissarro returned to Saint Thomas. Melbye stayed until 1856 and then briefly returned to Europe, living some time in Paris, before traveling to North America where he set up a studio in New York City.

He continued to travel widely, mainly to the Caribbean but also north to Newfoundland. A close friend in New York and frequent travelling companion on his Caribbean travels was the famous American landscape painter Frederick Church who also had a studio in New York.

In 1866, Melbye set off on a journey to the Far East in search of new adventures, leaving his studio in Church's care. In Asia he used Peking as a base for travels around the region which also took him to Japan. He died in Shanghai three years later.

Fritz Melbye initially painted seascapes in the family tradition his brother had taught him, but he increasingly turned to landscapes, coastal and town views with mountains. He preferred a realistic style, often with romantic scenes. He exhibited at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen from 1849-1858.

In Peking he was commissioned to paint the Imperial Summer Palace and during his years in America he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

MOUNT KENYA IN VINTAGE POSTCARDS 1940

VINTAGE POSTCARDS 1940 

Mount Kenya (5,199 m -17,057 ft) 

Kenya 

 In  Mount Kenya, The Commonwealth institute London, Anonymous painter, 1940, Posstcard 

The mountain 
Mount Kenya  (5,199 m -17,057 ft)  is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro.   The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa and Kiinyaa which mean "God's resting place" in all three languages.  Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 mi) south of the equator, around 150 kilometres (93 mi) north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.
Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African rift.   Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the centre.  There are currently 11 small glaciers and 8 peaks of which the highest are : Batian (5,199 m -  (17,057 ft), Nelion (5,188 m - 17,021 ft)) and Point Lenana (4,985 m - 16,355 ft).   The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.

There are several vegetation bands from the base to the summit. The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax. An area of 715 km2 (276 sq mi) around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.  The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year.
The main ethnic groups living around Mount Kenya are Kikuyu, Ameru, Embu and Maasai.
The first three are closely related. They all see the mountain as an important aspect of their cultures.  The most famous Maasai  are semi-nomadic people, who use the land to the north of the mountain to graze their cattle. They believe that their ancestors came down from the mountain at the beginning of time.  The Maasai name for Mount Kenya is Ol Donyo Keri, which means 'mountain of stripes', referring to the dark shades as observed from the surrounding plains.  At least one Maasai prayer refers to Mount Kenya: " God bless our children, let them be like the olive tree of Morintat, let them grow and expand, let them be like Ngong Hills like Mt. Kenya, like Mt. Kilimanjaro and multiply in number. "
All these cultures arrived in the Mount Kenya area in the last several hundred years.

BEN LOMOND/ BEINN LAOMAINN BY GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON

GEORGE FENNEL ROBSON  (1788 - 1833) 

 Ben Lomond / Beinn Laomainn (974 m - 3,196 ft
United Kingdom Scotland 

The mountain 

Ben Lomond  / Beinn Laomainn  (974 m- (3,196 ft) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Situated on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, it is the most southerly of the Munros. Ben Lomond lies within the Ben Lomond National Memorial Park and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, property of the National Trust for Scotland. Its accessibility from Glasgow and elsewhere in central Scotland, together with the relative ease of ascent from Rowardennan, makes it one of the most popular of all the Munros. On a clear day, it is visible from the higher grounds of Glasgow and across Strathclyde; this may have led to it being named 'Beacon Mountain', as with the equally far-seen Lomond Hills in Fife. Ben Lomond summit can also be seen from Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Britain, over 40 miles (64 km) away. The West Highland Way runs along the western base of the mountain, by the loch.
Ben Lomond's popularity in Scotland has resulted in several namesakes in the former British colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.

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

CERRO PEDERNAL (2) BY GEORGIA O' KEEFFE

GEORGIA O' KEEFFE (1887–1986)

Cerro Pedernal (3,006 m - 9,862 ft)

United State of America (New Mexico) 




 In Cerro Pedernal, 1941, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fé




The mountain 

Cerro Pedernal  (3,006 m - 9,862 ft) locally known as just "Pedernal", is a narrow mesa in northern New Mexico (U.S.A). The name is Spanish for "flint hill". The mesa lies on the north flank of the Jemez Mountains, south of Abiquiu Lake, in the Coyote Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.  Cerro Pedernal is essentially a high, long butte created by a volcanic process. Viewed along its East-West line, it appears as a tall point rising out of the New Mexico desert, but viewed along its North-South vantage, its true shape is more apparent as a long ridge.

Pedernal is the source of a chert used by the prehistoric Gallina people. The native peoples of the area used the rock around this mountain for arrowheads and other tools. 

Its cliffs are popular with rock climbers. Despite Cerro Pedernal's history and beauty, she is seldom climbed. The high butte is ringed by a long, sheer cliff band that seems impossible to climb unroped. Perhaps this is why few see her summit. However, there is a weakness in the cliffs that offers a short Class 4 scramble to the top. From the summit of Cerro Pedernal, you are afforded uncommon views. The Sangre de Cristo range is visible from Colorado to New Mexico. The Colorado 14er Culebra Peak is easily visible, as well as New Mexico's highest point, Wheeler Peak. On a clear day, the southern San Juan range in Colorado is visible, and even the La Platas around Durango. Ringing Cerro Pedernal is the Jemez range, which are mostly rolling mountains with lush greens. To the West is high desert landscape of deep red sandstone, blue rivers, and the tans and browns of the high desert. The summit of Cerro Pedernal is quite a spectacular spot. 

The famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe used to live for a time in this area (Ghost Ranch) and painted Cerro Pedernal several times (more than 20 paintings). She referred to Pedernal as her "favorite mountain."   Her ashes were scattered on its top.




The painter 

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, known internationally for her boldly innovative art. Her distinct flowers, dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are iconic and original contributions to American Modernism.

Born on November 15, 1887, the second of seven children, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905-1906 and the Art Students League in New York in 1907-1908. Under the direction of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox she learned the techniques of traditional realist painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically in 1912 when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow’s emphasis on composition and design offered O’Keeffe an alternative to realism. She experimented for two years, while she taught art in South Carolina and west Texas. Seeking to find a personal visual language through which she could express her feelings and ideas, she began a series of abstract charcoal drawings in 1915 that represented a radical break with tradition and made O’Keeffe one of the very first American artists to practice pure abstraction.

O’Keeffe mailed some of these highly abstract drawings to a friend in New York City, who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz. An art dealer and internationally known photographer, he was the first to exhibit her work in 1916. He would eventually become O’Keeffe’s husband.

In the summer of 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape, distinct indigenous art, and unique regional style of adobe architecture inspired a new direction in O’Keeffe’s artwork. For the next two decades she spent part of most years living and working in New Mexico . She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death. O’Keeffe’s New Mexico paintings coincided with a growing interest in regional scenes by American Modernists seeking a distinctive view of America. Her simplified and refined representations of this region express a deep personal response to the high desert terrain.

In the 1950s, O’Keeffe began to travel internationally. She created paintings that evoked a sense of the spectacular places she visited, including the mountain peaks of Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji. At the age of seventy-three she embarked on a new series focused on the clouds in the sky and the rivers below.

Suffering from macular degeneration and discouraged by her failing eyesight, O’Keeffe painted her last unassisted oil painting in 1972. But O’Keeffe’s will to create did not diminish with her eyesight. In 1977, at age ninety, she observed, “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”

Late in life, and almost blind, she enlisted the help of several assistants to enable her to again create art.  In these works she returned to favorite visual motifs from her memory and vivid imagination.

Georgia O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe, on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 BY KOYO OKADA / 岡田紅陽

KOYO OKADA / 岡田紅陽  (1895- 1972)
Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)

Japan

In Mount Fuji in the mist, 1950, photo

The mountain 

The legendary Mount Fuji or Fujiyama (富士山) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). Several names are attributed to it:  "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Usually Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san".  The other Japanese names for Mount Fuji,  have become obsolete or poetic like: Fuji-no-Yama (ふじの山 - The Mountain of Fuji), Fuji-no-Takane (ふじの高嶺- The High Peak of Fuji), Fuyō-hō (芙蓉峰 - The Lotus Peak), and Fugaku (富岳／富嶽), created by combining the first character of 富士, Fuji, and 岳, mountain.

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.

Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.

Mount Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains (三霊山) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.

It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Shrine and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove; while on the low alps of Mount Fuji lies the Taisekiji temple complex, where the central base headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is located.

The artist 

Kōyō Okada (岡 田紅陽) is a Japanese photographer, winner of the 1954 edition of the Japan Photography Society Award. Koyo Okada devoted his whole life to photographing Mt.Fuji. 

He used to be photographing Mt.Fuji, wearing wadded kimono from his favorite Japanese style hotel, and neighbors called him ‘Koyo-san’ with intimacy. He was born in Uonuma of Nigata prefecture, and his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were artists. He got interested in taking photos when he was in Waseda University, and he met Mt.Fuji seen from Oshino village when he was 21 years old. Since that time, the relationship with Mt.Fuji of more than 50 years had started. The life of Japanese people of those days with Mt.Fuji and the rural scenery at the foot of Mt.Fuji, which are in the picture, reminds us of the time and nature which Japan is losing. You should absolutely go to see his photos.

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.
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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.
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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.

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2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau