MOUNT MASSIVE BY WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON (1843-1942)

Mount Massive  (4,398 m - 14, 428 ft)

United States of America 

In  Mount Massive From Iron Hill, 1870, collodion  photography, Fogg Museum 

The mountain 
Mount Massive (4,398 m - 14, 428 ft) is the second-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. This prominent fourteener of the Sawatch Range is located in the Mount Massive Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest, 10.6 miles (17.1 km) west-southwest (bearing 247°) of the City of Leadville in Lake County, Colorado, United States.
Mount Massive edges out the third-highest summit of the Rockies, Mount Harvard, by 7 feet (2.1 m), but falls short of Mount Elbert by 12 feet (3.7 m). It ranks as the third-highest peak in the contiguous United States after Mount Whitney and Mount Elbert.
Mount Massive was first surveyed and climbed in 1873 during the Hayden Survey of the American West. Survey member Henry Gannett is credited with the first ascent. Its name comes from its elongated shape: it has five summits, all above 14,000 ft (4,300 m), and a summit ridge over 3 mi (4.8 km) long, resulting in more area above 14,000 ft (4,300 m) than any other mountain in the 48 contiguous states, narrowly edging Mount Rainier in that category. Mount Elbert (14,440 ft (4,400 m)) is Mount Massive's nearest neighbor among the fourteeners; it lies about 5 mi (8.0 km) south-southeast of the peaks.
There are several glacial lakes in the wilderness area. The lower slopes of the mountain are covered in lodgepole pine forests, which gradually yield to Engelmann Spruce and Fir. Treeline is just below 12,000 feet. Among the mountain's fauna are the American pika, the mountain goat, elk, mule deer, moose, gray jay, martin, and the yellow-bellied marmot.

The artist
William Henry Jackson  was an American painter, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. He was a great-great nephew of Samuel Wilson, the progenitor of America's national symbol Uncle Sam.
In 1869 Jackson won a commission from the Union Pacific to document the scenery along the various railroad routes for promotional purposes. When his work was discovered by Ferdinand Hayden, who was organizing a geologic survey to explore the Yellowstone River region, he was asked to join the expedition.
The following year, he got a last-minute invitation to join the 1870 U.S. government survey (predecessor of U.S. Geological Survey) of the Yellowstone River and Rocky Mountains led by Ferdinand Hayden. He also was a member of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871[6] which led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Painter Thomas Moran was also part of the expedition, and the two artists worked closely together to document the Yellowstone region. Hayden's surveys (usually accompanied by a small detachment of the U.S. Cavalry) were annual multidisciplinary expeditions meant to chart the largely unexplored west, observe flora (plants), fauna (animals), and geological conditions (geology), and identify likely navigational routes, so as official photographer for the survey, Jackson was in a position to capture the first photographs of legendary landmarks of the West. These photographs played an important role in convincing Congress in 1872 to establish Yellowstone National Park, the first national park of the U.S. His involvement with Hayden's survey established his reputation as one of the most accomplished explorers of the American continent. Among Hayden's party were Jackson, Moran, geologist George Allen, mineralogist Albert Peale, topographical artist Henry Elliot, botanists, and other scientists who collected numerous wildlife specimens and other natural data.
Jackson worked in multiple camera and plate sizes, under conditions that were often incredibly difficult.  His photography was based on the collodion process invented in 1848 and published in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer.  Jackson produced more than 900 photographs for the commission, which are now part of a collection on display at the Library of congress.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SIR DONALD IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1902

VINTAGE POSTCARDS 

Mount Sir Donald  (3, 284 m - 10,774  ft)

Canada

 In Mount Sir Donald,  © Detroit Photographic Co..., 1902

The mountain 

Mount Sir Donald  (3, 284 m - 10,774  ft) is a peak in the Selkirk Mountains range near the Rogers Pass area of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally named Syndicate Peak in honor of the group who arranged the finances for the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but was later renamed after Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, head of the syndicate.

The  good rock quality of Mount Sir Donald and  its classic Matterhorn shape make it popular for alpine rock climbers, and the Northwest Arete route is included in the popular book 50 Classic Climbs of North America. There are no truly easy routes to its summit although some of the routes are not technically difficult. Even before its inclusion as one of the 50 classic climbs of North America the peak was a very popular objective indeed, especially the Northwest Ridge. It is worth noting that the peak seems to create its own weather at times as it towers above the surrounding peaks, and the lichen on the rock is very slippery when wet. The recorded routes on all sides range in rating from class 4 to 5.8+.

The first ascent was made in 1890 by two Swiss alpinist, Emil Huber and Carl Sulzer and porter Harry Cooper. As of the 1910s, an average of three or four ascents per year were being made.

Vintage postcards
Postcards became popular at the turn of the 20th century, especially for sending short messages to friends and relatives. They were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories. Postcards were an international craze, published all over the world. The Detroit Publishing Co. and Teich & Co. were two of the major publishers in the U.S, and sometimes individuals printed their own postcards as well. Yvon were the most famous in France. Many individual or anonymous publishers did exist around the world and especially in Africa and  Asia (Japan, Thailand, Nepal, China, Java) between 1920 and 1955. These photographer were mostly local notables, soldiers, official guides belonging to the colonial armies (british french, belgium...) who sometimes had rather sophisticated equipment and readily produced colored photograms or explorers, navigators, climbers (Vittorio Sella and the Archiduke of Abruzzi future king of Italy remains the most famous of them).
There are many types of collectible vintage postcards.
Hold-to-light postcards were made with tissue paper surrounded by two pieces of regular paper, so light would shine through. Fold-out postcards, popular in the 1950s, had multiple postcards attached in a long strip. Real photograph postcards (RPPCs) are photographs with a postcard backing.
Novelty postcards were made using wood, aluminum, copper, and cork. Silk postcards–often embroidered over a printed image–were wrapped around cardboard and sent in see-through glassine paper envelopes; they were especially popular during World War I.
In the 1930s and 1940s, postcards were printed on brightly colored paper designed to look like linen.

Most vintage postcard collectors focus on themes, like Christmas, Halloween, portraits of movie stars, European royalty and U.S. presidents, wartime imagery, and photos of natural disasters or natural wonders. Not to mention cards featuring colorful pictures by famous artists like Alphonse Mucha, Harrison Fisher, Ellen Clapsaddle, and Frances Brundage.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

POPOCATEPETL & IZTACCIHUATL (3) PAINTED BYJOSE MARIA VELASCO

JOSE MARIA VELASCO (1840-1912)

 Popocatépetl (5, 426 m -17, 802 ft) on right
Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) (on left)

Mexico

In  The volcanic peaks Popocatepetl and Iztacchihuatl in The Valley of Mexico, oil on canvas, 1890

 Other paintings by Velasco representing those volcanoes in this blog

The volcanoes 

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

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

Today the Government of the State of Mexico, where Velasco was from, presents an award for artistic merit in his name to painters born in that state. Among the most outstanding winners are Luis Nishizawa, Leopoldo Flores, Ignacio Barrios and Héctor Cruz. The José María Velasco Museum was opened in 1992 in Toluca City with the task of preserving and promoting his paintings.

_______________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau   

MOUNT ADAMS PAINTED BY CHILDE HASSAM

CHILDE HASSAM (1859-1935)
Mount Adams or Patho or Klikitat (3, 473m - 12, 281ft) 

United States of America (Washington State) 

In  Looking towards Mount Adams from Mount Hood, watercolor, 1904

The mountain

Mount Adams or Patho or Klikitat (3, 473m - 12, 281ft)  is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range, USA. Although Adams has not erupted in more than 1,000 years, it is not considered extinct. It is the second-highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington, after Mount Rainier/Tacoma. Mount Adams is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, and is one of the arc's largest volcanoes, located in a remote wilderness approximately 34 miles (55 km) east of Mount St. Helens. The Mount Adams Wilderness consists of the upper and western part of the volcano's cone. The eastern side of the mountain is designated as part of the territory of the Yakama Nation.

Adams' asymmetrical and broad body rises 1.5 miles (2.4 km) above the Cascade crest. Its nearly flat summit was formed as a result of cone-building eruptions from separated vents. A false summit, Pikers Peak, rises 11,657 feet (3,553 m) on the south side of the nearly half-mile (800 m) wide summit area. The true summit is about 600 feet (180 m) higher on the gently sloping north side. A small lava and scoria cone marks the highest point. Suksdorf Ridge is a long buttress descending from the false summit down to an elevation of 8,000 feet (2,000 m). This structure was built by repeated lava flows in the late Pleistocene. 

Air travelers flying the busy routes above the area sometimes confuse Mount Adams with nearby Mount Rainier/Tacoma, which has a similar flat-topped shape.

The Pacific Crest Trail traverses the western flank of the mountain.

In the early 21st century, glaciers cover a total of 2.5% of Adams' surface. During the last ice age about 90% of the mountain was glaciated. Mount Adams has 209 perennial snow and ice features and 12 officially named glaciers : Adams Glacier, Pinnacle Glacier, White Salmon Glacier,  Avalanche Glacier, Mazama Glacier, Klickitat Glacier, Rusk Glacier, Wilson Glacier, Gotchen Glacier, Crescent Glacier and Lava Glacier.

The painter
Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums. He produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was an influential American artist of the early 20th century.
In 1904 and 1908, he traveled to Oregon and was stimulated by new subjects and diverse views, frequently working out-of-doors with friend, lawyer and amateur painter Colonel C. E. S. Wood.
He produced over 100 paintings, pastels, and watercolors of the High Desert, the rugged coast, the Cascades, scenes of Portland.  As usual, he adapted his style and colors to the subject at hand and the mood of place, but always in the Impressionist vein. With the art market now eagerly accepting his work, by 1909 Hassam was enjoying great success, earning as much as $6,000 per painting. His close friend and fellow artist J. Alden Weir commented to another artist : "Our mutual friend Hassam has been in the greatest of luck and merited success. He sold his apartment studio and has sold more pictures this winter, I think, than ever before and is really on the crest of the wave. So he goes around with a crisp, cheerful air."

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

VOLCÀN DE FUEGO BY ALFRED MAUDSLAY

ALFRED MAUDSLAY (1850-1931)

Volcán de Fuego (3,763 m - 12,346 ft)

Guatemala

 In The Firepeak and Meseta,  A glimpse of Guatemala, 1889

Volcán de Fuego (3,763 m - 12,346 ft) is an active stratovolcano in Guatemala, on the borders of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepéquez departments. It sits about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west of Antigua, one of Guatemala's most famous cities and a tourist destination. 

It has erupted frequently since the Spanish conquest, most recently in June and November 2018.

Fuego is famous for being almost constantly active at a low level. Small gas and ash eruptions occur every 15 to 20 minutes, but larger eruptions are rare. Andesite and basalt lava types dominate, and recent eruptions have tended to be more mafic than older ones.

The volcano is joined with Acatenango and collectively the complex is known as La Horqueta.e greater Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve).

In 1881, French writer Eugenio Dussaussay climbed the volcano, then practically unexplored.

The strongest earthquakes experienced by the city of Santiago de los Caballeros before its final move in 1776 were the San Miguel earthquakes in 1717. In the city, people also believed that the proximity of the Volcán de Fuego (English: Volcano of Fire) was the cause of earthquakes; the great architect Diego de Porres even said that all the earthquakes were caused by volcano explosions.
On 3 June 2018, the volcano suddenly produced its most powerful eruption since 1974. Large pyroclastic density currents were produced that over-topped the barranca boundaries they had previously been confined to and unexpectedly hit El Rodeo, Las Lajas, San Miguel Los Lotes, and La Reunión villages in Escuintla, which buried the towns and killed many of the surprised residents. Later, 18 bodies were found in the village of San Miguel Los Lotes.

The photographer 
The  British diplomat, explorer and archaeologist Alfred Percival Maudslay  was also a photographer... and rather a good one according to the numerous photographs on dry plate he left.   He was one of the first Europeans to study Maya ruins.
After leaving Medical School, he moved to Trinidad, becoming private secretary to Governor William Cairns, and transferred with Cairns to Queensland. He subsequently moved to Fiji to work with Sir Arthur Gordon, its governor.  Later he served as British consul in Tonga and Samoa. In February 1880, Maudslay resigned from the colonial service to pursue his own interests, having spent six years in the British Pacific colonies. He then joined his siblings in Calcutta during their round-the-world trip, returned to Britain in December, and then set out for Guatemala via British Honduras.
In Guatemala, Maudslay began the major archaeological work for which he is now best remembered. He started at the Maya ruins of Quirigua and Copan where, with the help of Frank Sarg, he hired labourers to help clear and survey the remaining structures and artefacts. Sarg also introduced Maudslay to the newly found ruins in Tikal and to a reliable guide Gorgonio López. Maudslay was the first to describe the site of Yaxchilán. With Teobert Maler, Alfred Maudslay explored Chichén in the 1880s and both spent several weeks at the site and took extensive photographs. Maudslay published the first long-form description of Chichen Itza in his book, "Biologia Centrali-Americana".
In the course of his surveys, Maudslay pioneered many of the later archaeological techniques. He hired Italian expert Lorenzo Giuntini and technicians to make plaster casts of the carvings, while Gorgonio López made casts of papier-mâché. Artist Annie Hunter drew impressions of the casts before they were shipped to museums in England and the United States. Maudslay also took numerous detailed photographs – dry plate photography was then a new technique – and made copies of the inscriptions.
All told, Maudslay made a total of six expeditions to Maya ruins. After 13 years of preparation, he published his findings in 1902 as a 5-volume compendium entitled Biologia Centrali-Americana, which contained numerous excellent drawings and photographs of Maya ruins, Maudslay's commentary, and an appendix on archaic calendars by Joseph Thompson Goodman.
In 1907 the Maudslays moved permanently back to Britain. Maudslay become a President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1911–12. He also chaired the 18th International Congress of Americanists in London in 1912.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

EL COTOPAXI (2) BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)

Cotopaxi (5,897 m - 19,347 ft) 

Ecuador  

In El Copotopaxi, oil on canvas, 1853, Coleccion Patricia Phelp de Cisneros

The mountain 

Cotopaxi  is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains,  which rises at 5,897 m - 19,347 ft and is located in the Latacunga canton of Cotopaxi Province, about 50 km (31 mi) south of Quito, and 33 km (21 mi) northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador, in South America.  It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft). It is one of the world's highest volcanoes. Many sources claim that Cotopaxi means "Neck of the Moon" in an indigenous language, but this is unproven. The mountain was honored as a "Sacred Mountain" by local Andean people, even prior to the Inca invasion in the 15th century.

Most of the time, Cotopaxi is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito and is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about 3,800 metres (12,500 ft), with a width at its base of about 23 kilometres (14 mi). It has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 5,000 metres (16,400 ft). At its summit, Cotopaxi has an 800 X 550 m wide crater which is 250 m deep. The crater consists of two concentric crater rims, the outer one being partly free of snow and irregular in shape. The crater interior is covered with ice cornices and rather flat. The highest point is on the outer rim of the crater on the north side.

The first recorded eruption of Cotopaxi was in 1534.  With 87 known eruptions since then, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes.

The Painter 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT VINSON (2) PAINTED BY DAVID ROSENTHAL

DAVID ROSENTHAL (bn. 1953)
Mount Vinson  (4,892 m - 16,050 ft)
Antarctica

In Aerial View of the Vinson Massif in the Distance

The mountain 

Mount Vinson  (4,892 m -16,050 ft)is the highest peak in Antarctica  and it is part of the seven highest summits  in the world among:  

Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m) in Australia.

Mount Vinson lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres north of Hollister Peak. It was first climbed in 1966. An expedition in 2001 was the first to climb via the Eastern route, and also took GPS measurements of the height of the peak. As of February 2010, 1,400 climbers have attempted to reach the top of Mount Vinson.

Vinson Massif  is a large mountain massif that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8.1 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by USACAN, for Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On Nov. 1, 2006, USACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities.

The artist 

David Rosenthal is known as an Antarctic Painter, Painter of Ice, Arctic Artist, Alaskan Artist and an Extreme Artist. He has been lured to cold climates regularly to record snow, ice, and landscapes. Davids paintings of glaciers and icebergs are astoundingly realistic and at the same ethereal at the same time. However his work also includes much more than ice, icebergs and glaciers... Cordova, Alaska is the place David Rosenthal calls home. As an artist and art teacher David has taught and continues to teach many students in Alaska. While teaching art in Alaska, David has instructed students and artist in many programs including the Alaska Artists in the Schools Program, Prince William Sound Community College and University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions. Alaskan artist David Rosenthal makes it a priority to travel around Alaska as much as possible to continue to capture the incredible beauty in his artwork of Alaska.

Having spent over sixty months on the Ice, including four austral winters and six austral summers, David became an Antarctic artist and has created art images from a large variety of places in every season. David has completed paintings of the antarctic landscape from all across Antarctica. Time in Antarctica included travel as a participant in the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program during a summer and a winter at McMurdo Station as well as most of a winter at Palmer Station. David has also worked for the NSF contractor for two winters and four summers in various job capacities as a way to spend time and become familiar with the landscape.

Rosenthal's work also includes many water colors, oil paintings, sketches and small studies. The paintings seem to magically reflect the intensity of nature's colors and the atmospheric phenomena that David witnesses. The images in these galleries have been created during his travels from 1977 to the present 2016.  David really is a master of Extreme Art!

Source:

- David Rosenthal website

_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE TWINS BY JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF

JACOBUS HENDRIK PIERNEEF (1886-1957)

The Twins  (1,494m- 4, 901 ft & 1,504 m - 4, 934ft)   

South Africa  

In Twin Peaks, Jonkershoek  mountains 

charcoal and watercolour on paper laid down on board (45 x 60,5cm) Private Collection 

The mountains 

 The Twins  (1,494m- 4, 901 ft & 1,504 m - 4, 934ft)   are two summit in the Jonkershoek mountains, with their high peaks and deep kloofs, form part of the larger Boland mountain range, part of the greater Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, in Cape Province, South Africa..

The reserve lies north of the Hottentots-Holland Mountains within the Hottentots-Holland Mountain Catchment Area and it contains the smaller Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve. It includes the Jonkershoek Mountains and portions of the upper Jonkershoek valley. The Eerste River and Berg River have their origins in these mountains, the former also flowing through the Jonkershoek valley on its way to False Bay.

The painter 
Jacobus Hendrik (Henk) Pierneef (usually referred to as Pierneef)  was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. His distinctive style is widely recognized and his work was greatly influenced by the South African landscape.
Most of his landscapes were of the South African highveld, which provided a lifelong source of inspiration for him. Pierneef's style was to reduce and simplify the landscape to geometric structures, using flat planes, lines and colour to present the harmony and order in nature. This resulted in formalised, ordered and often-monumental view of the South African landscape, uninhabited and with dramatic light and colour.
Pierneef's work can be seen worldwide in many private, corporate and public collections, including the Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, King George VI Art Gallery, Pierneef Museum and the Pretoria Art Gallery.

_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

GAURISHANKAR BY KURT BOECK

KURT BOECK (1855–1933)

Gaurishankar (7,134m- 23,406ft) 

Nepal - China 

 In  Sikkim Himalaya Everest, Gaurishankar,  gelatine photo 1906 

The Mountain 

Gaurishankar (7,134m- 23,406ft)  also  called Gauri Sankar or Gauri Shankar is a mountain in the Himalayas, the second highest peak of the Rolwaling Himal, behind Melungtse (7,181m). 

The name comes from the Hindu goddess Gauri, a manifestation of Durga, and her Consort Shankar, denoting the sacred regard to which it is afforded it by the peoples of Tibet and Nepal. 

The Buddhist Sherpas call the mountain Jomo Tseringma. 

The mountain has two summits, the northern (higher) summit being called Shankar and the southern summit being called Gauri.  It rises dramatically above the Bhote Kosi only 5 km away, and is protected on all sides by steep faces and long, corniced ridges.

The first attempts to climb Gauri Sankar were made in the 1950s and 1960s but weather, avalanches and difficult ice faces defeated all parties.  From 1965 until 1979, the mountain was officially closed for climbing. When permission was finally granted in 1979, an American-Nepalese expedition finally managed to gain the top, via the West Face. This was a route of extreme technical difficulty. The permit from the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism stipulated that the summit could only be reached if an equal number of climbers from both nations were on the summit team. John Roskelley and Dorje Sherpa fulfilled that obligation.
In the fall of 2013, the complete south face was finally climbed by a four-man team of French climbers. After reaching the top of the south face at 4 pm on October 21, they decided not to continue to the 7,010 m south summit. It took them 11 hours to descend to the bottom of the face.

The artist 
Kurt Karl Alexander Oskar Boeck was a German theater actor, climber, travel writer  ans eventually early photographer. He began as an actor but in 1887when  he had the opportunity to accompany a research expedition to Asia, especially to Persia and the Caucasus, he could not resist the temptation.
Researching and traveling in lesser-known, far-off lands told him so much that when he returned home from Asia he did not find a commitment that suited his wishes, he turned completely to this interesting profession. First, Boeck undertook in 1890 at his own expense an expedition to the Himalayas, where he took the glacier leader Hans Kerner from Tyrol and drove in the years 1893, 1895 and 1898-1899 again to India to thoroughly get to know the country in all parts. Boeck's lectures in numerous national and international associations on these and his other travels in Burma, China, America, Japan, Siberia, etc., have made him, as well as his articles in magazines, known to the general public.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

VESUVIUS ERUPTION BY GEORGE-JULIUS POULETT SCROPE

 GEORGE-JULIUS POULETT SCROPE (1797-1876)

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

 Italy

In  The Eruption of Vesuvius as seen from Naples, October 1822,   

Historical drawing from George Julius Poulett Scrope

The mountain 

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

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

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

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

Vesuvius was formed as a result of the collision of two tectonic plates, the African and the Eurasian. The former was subducted beneath the latter, deeper into the earth. As the water-saturated sediments of the oceanic African plate were pushed to hotter depths in the earth, the water boiled off and caused the melting point of the upper mantle to drop enough to create partial melting of the rocks. Because magma is less dense than the solid rock around it, it was pushed upward. Finding a weak place at the Earth's surface it broke through, producing the volcano.

he area around Vesuvius was officially declared a national park on June 5, 1995. The summit of Vesuvius is open to visitors and there is a small network of paths around the mountain that are maintained by the park authorities on weekends.

There is access by road to within 200 metres (660 ft) of the summit (measured vertically), but thereafter access is on foot only. There is a spiral walkway around the mountain from the road to the crater.

The first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius opened in 1880. It was later destroyed by the 1944 eruption. "Funiculì, Funiculà", a famous Neapolitan song with lyrics by journalist Peppino Turco set to music by composer Luigi Denza, commemorates its opening.

The artist
George Julius Poulett Scrope (1797- 1876) was an English geologist and political economist as well as a magistrate for Stroud in Gloucestershire. He was educated at Harrow, and for a short time at Pembroke College, Oxford, but in 1816 he entered St John's College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1821.  Through the influence of Edward Clarke and Adam Sedgwick he became interested in mineralogy and geology.
During the winter of 1816–1817 he was at Naples, and was so keenly interested in Vesuvius that he renewed his studies of the volcano in 1818; and in the following year visited Etna and the Lipari Islands. In 1821 he married the daughter and heiress of William Scrope of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, and assumed her name; and he entered the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1833 as MP for Stroud, retaining his seat until 1868.
Meanwhile he began to study the volcanic regions of central France in 1821, and visited the Eifel district in 1823. In 1825 he published Considerations on Volcanos, leading to the establishment of a new theory of the Earth, and in the following year was elected FRS. This earlier work was subsequently amplified and issued under the title of Volcanos (1862); an authoritative text-book of which a second edition was published ten years later.
In 1827 he issued his classic Memoir on the Geology of Central France, including the Volcanic formations of Auvergne, the Velay and the Vivarais, a quarto volume illustrated by maps and plates. The substance of this was reproduced in a revised and somewhat more popular form in The Geology and extinct Volcanos of Central France (1858). These books were the first widely published descriptions of the Chaîne des Puys, a chain of over 70 small volcanoes in the Massif Central.
Scrope was awarded the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society of London in 1867. Among his other works was the History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe (printed for private circulation, 1852).
He died at Fairlawn near Cobham, Surrey on 19 January 1876.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

GUNUNG BROMO BY TEMPEST ANDERSON

TEMPEST ANDERSON (1846-1913)

Gunung Bromo (2,329m - 7,641ft)

Indonesia (Java Timur) 

The mountain 

Gunung Bromo (2,329m - 7,641ft) or Gunung Brama, an active volcano,in East Java, Indonesia,  is not the highest peak of the Tengger massif, but the best known. The massif area is one of the most visited tourist attractions in East Java, Indonesia. The volcano belongs to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. The name of Bromo derived from Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god. Gunung Bromo sits in the middle of a plain called the "Sea of Sand"  a protected nature reserve since 1919. The best way to visit Gunung Bromo is from the nearby mountain village of Cemoro Lawang, from where it is possible to walk during 45 mn to the volcano. It is also possible to take an organised jeep tour, which includes a stop at the viewpoint on Gunung Penanjakan (2,770 m - 9,088 ft).

On the fourteenth day of the Hindu festival of Yadnya Kasada, the Tenggerese people of Probolinggo, East Java, travel up the mountain in order to make offerings of fruit, rice, vegetables, flowers and sacrifices to the mountain gods by throwing it into the caldera of the volcano. The origin of the ritual lies in the 15th century legend when princess  Roro Anteng started the principality of Tengger with her husband, Joko Seger. The couple were childless and therefore beseeched the assistance of the mountain gods. The gods granted them 24 children but stipulated that the 25th child, named Kesuma, must be thrown into the volcano as a human sacrifice. The gods' request was implemented. The tradition of throwing sacrifices into the volcano to appease these ancient deities continues today and is called the Yadnya Kasada ceremony. Though fraught with danger, some locals risk climbing down into the crater in an attempt to recollect the sacrificed goods that they believe could bring them good luck.

Depending on the degree of volcanic activity, the Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Disaster Hazard Mitigation sometimes issues warnings against visiting Mount Bromo.

 Mount Bromo recently erupted in 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2015.

The photographer
Tempest Anderson  was an ophthalmic surgeon at York County Hospital in the United Kingdom, and an expert amateur photographer and vulcanologist. He was a member of the Royal Society Commission which was appointed to investigate the aftermath of the eruptions of Soufriere volcano, St Vincent and Mont Pelee, Martinique, West Indies which both erupted in May 1902. Some of his photographs of these eruptions were subsequently published in his book, Volcanic Studies in Many Lands. Tempest Anderson spent nine months in Mexico, Guatemala and the West Indies in 1906/1907. He travelled to Mexico to attend the 10th Congres Geologique International before sailing by mail steamer to Guatemala to study the effects of the 1902 earthquake. During the trip he observed and photographed Cerro Quemado, Santa Maria, and Atitlan. During this trip he collected first hand accounts of the 1902 eruption of the Santa Maria and the immediate aftermath. Captain Saunders of the Pacific Mail Steamer S.S. Newport observed the eruption cloud which rose to a great height. The Captain measured it using a sextant and recorded it as reaching 17 to 18 miles. The sounds accompanying the eruption were loud and were heard even louder at more distant places than close to the mountain. The eruption was heard as far away as Guatemala City, the noises so strong, they were assumed to come from neighbouring volcanoes.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TARANAKI / MT EGMONT BY SIR WILLIAM FOX

SIR WILLIAM FOX (1812-1893)

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

New Zealand  (North Island) 

 In Mount Egmont from the coast, watercolor, 1860, Alexander Turnbull Library

The mountain 
Taranaki / Mount Egmont  (2,518 m - 8,261 ft) is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
According to Māori mythology, Taranaki once resided in the middle of the North Island, with all the other New Zealand volcanoes. The beautiful Pihanga was coveted by all the mountains, and a great battle broke out between them. Tongariro eventually won the day, inflicted great wounds on the side of Taranaki, and causing him to flee. Taranaki headed westwards, following Te Toka a Rahotu and forming the deep gorges of the Whanganui River, paused for a while, creating the depression that formed the Te Ngaere swamp, then heading north. Further progress was blocked by the Pouakai ranges, and as the sun came up Taranaki became petrified in his current location. When Taranaki conceals himself with rainclouds, he is said to be crying for his lost love, and during spectacular sunsets, he is said to be displaying himself to her. In turn, Tongariro's eruptions are said to be a warning to Taranaki not to return.
Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont on 11 January 1770 after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty who had supported the concept of an oceanic search for Terra Australis Incognita. Cook described it as "of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow" surrounded by a "flat country ... which afforded a very good aspect, being clothed with wood and verdure".

The artist 
Sir William Fox was the second Premier of New Zealand and held that office on four separate occasions in the 19th century, while New Zealand was still a colony. He was known for his confiscation of Māori land rights, his contributions to the education system (such as establishing the University of New Zealand), and his work to increase New Zealand's autonomy from Britain. He has been described as determined and intelligent, but also as bitter and "too fond" of personal attacks. Different aspects of his personality are emphasised by different accounts, changing mainly due to the reviewers' political beliefs. HU use to be a  "amateur "watercolourist as well.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

DIE WILDSPITZE PAINTED BY EDWARD H. COMPTON

EDWARD H. COMPTON (1861-1960), 

The Wildspitze (3,774 m - 12, 382ft) and the Pitzal Glacier 

Austria (Tyrol) 

In The Pitzal glacier at the foot of the Wildsptize, Tyrol,  oil on canvas, 

The mountain and the glacier 
The Wildspitze (3,774 m - 12, 382ft)  is the highest summit of the Otzal Massif in Austria (Tyrol). At its foot lies the Pitztal Glacier (Pitztaler Gletscher), the highest ski glacier in the Tyrol. Located 100 km from Innsbruck International Airport and 38 km from Imst-Pitztal Station, at the end of the Pitze Valley in the Eastern Alps, the Pitztal Glacier Alpine Ski Area enjoys a snow of quality and a long season because of its altitude and its privileged situation.
The ski area of the Pitztal Glacier is made up of wide tracks like boulevards, suitable for carving. It is more oriented towards skiers at intermediate levels, sportsmen to experts.

The painter 

Edward Harrison Compton (1881–1960) not to be confused with his father Edward Theodore Compton (1849-1921) was a German landscape painter and illustrator of English descent. Compton was born in Feldafing in Upper Bavaria, Germany, the second son of notable landscape painter Edward Theodore Compton. He received his early art training from his father, and after a period of study in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts settled back in Bavaria. Like his father he was inspired by the Alps to become a mountain painter ("bergmaller") working in both oils and watercolour. However, an attack of Polio at the age of 28 meant that he had to find more accessible landscapes to paint in Germany, England northern Italy and Sicily. He also provided illustrations for several travel books published by A & C Black. Compton exhibited at galleries in Munich and Berlin, and also in England at the Royal Academy in London and in Bradford. He died in Feldafing in 1960.
He had two sisters, both of whom were artists: Marion Compton, the flowers and still-life painter, and Dora Keel-Compton, flower and mountain painter.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

STOK KANGRI / KANGLACHAN PEAK BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911), 

Stok Kangri / Kanglachan Peak (6,154 m -20,190 ft)

India 

In Moraines - Kanglachan, watercoulour on paper, 1850 

The mountain 
Stok Kangri  also known as Kanglachan Peak (6,154 m -20,190 ft)) is the highest mountain in the Stok Range of the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of north-west India. The peak is located in Hemis National Park, 12 km southwest of the trailhead in the village of Stok and around 15 km southwest of the city of Leh, the capital of Ladakh.
Despite its high altitude, Stok Kangri is a popular trekking peak and is often climbed as an initial non-technical foray into high altitude mountaineering. However, the difficulty of Stok Kangri is often underestimated and the need to acclimatise before and during the ascent makes Stok Kangri an enduring challenge.
In late July and August, all but the top of the peak may be snow-free. The elevation data was verified by GPS readings from 11 satellites at the Summit during a late July 2007 joint Nepalese-US expedition which encountered snow cover for 85% of the final four-hour, four km, 900 metre climb. Another GPS reading provided a 6136-meter elevation. The shortest route to the peak is along the Stok valley, following the Stok Chu to Stok village. This valley's grazing landscape, especially near the village, was devastated by the 2010 Ladakh floods, the most severe in decades.

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."

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MONTE PERDIDO PAINTED BY FRANZ SCHRADER

FRANZ SCHRADER (1844-1924) 

Monte Perdido ou Mont Perdu  (3,355 m -11,007ft)

Spain

The mountain

Monte Perdido (3,355 m -11,007ft), Mont Perdu in French, located in Spain, near the French-Spanish border, is the highest summit above sea level on the ridge separating the canyons of Ordesa and Pineta  in the Pyrénées. This is the central peak of  Tres Hermanas (Spanish) consist of the cylinder Marboré, the Soum de Ramond, and Monte Perdido itself.

Observable from the peaks popular at the time (including the Pic du Midi de Bigorre), Mount Perdido is no longer visible from the French valleys, as located behind the watershed line between France and Spain.

The limestone, rich in fossils are marine sedimentary origin. These sediments occupying a shallow sea were raised during the formation of the Pyrenees there are 40 million years (see article Geology of the Pyrénées).The summit a form of typical pyramidal peak of erosion by glaciers time of glaciation, he is still on the northeast side of the mountain the Monte Perdido glacier.

Ramond Carbonnières, is the firstpersonn to have discover Mount Perdu. Since his first stay in Barèges, in 1787, he was fascinated by the "massive limestone" of Marboré.  In 1796, convinced that the nature of the limestone Marboré is "ordinary" Ramond  determines an access route to the summit: the Estaubé Valley.

August 11, 1797, he organized a real strong expedition of fourteen participants to the summit: The hard glacial corridor Tuquerouye. His guides, Laurens and Mouré, and a Spanish smuggler to lead the Frozen lake at the foot of the north face of the peak. A second expedition, September 7, follows the same route: very tricky climb through the corridor Tuquerouye in hard ice late in the season, return by parets of Pinewood and port. Ramond finds confirmation of his thesis: limestone, rich in fossils are marine sedimentary origin. His observations during these "expeditions" are the subject of his masterpiece: Travel to Monte Perdido and in the adjacent part of the Pyrénées appeared in the An IX of the French Revolution (1801). It was only in 1802 that Ramond decided to reach the summit of Mont Perdu.

On 6 August 1802 first known ascent to the summit of Mont Perdu by two Barèges guys, Rondo and Laurens led at the top by an Aragonese shepherd. Rondo and Laurens had been sent scouts to recognize the ascent route by Ramond Carbonnières that, with the same guides, realized the second ascent of Mont Perdu, 10 August 1802. The route followed was long and complicated: Valley Estaubé, port Pine, crossing parets from Pinewood to the col de Niscle east of Monte Perdido, glacier climbing and the southern slope terraces.

The painter 

Jean-Daniel-François Schrader, better known as Franz Schrader, was a French mountaineer, geographer, cartographer and landscape painter. He made an important contribution to the mapping of the Pyrenees and was highly considered among the pyreneists.

He is the son of Prussian Ferdinand Schrader from Magdeburg, who emigrated to Bordeaux, and of Marie-Louise Ducos, cousin of geographers Élisée and Onésime Reclus. He shows a talent for drawing from an early age.  In 1866, while staying with his friend Léonce Lourde-Rocheblave in Pau, he has a sort of revelation at the "spectacle grandiose de la barrière montagneuse des Pyrenées ".

His vocation strengthens when reading stories by Ramond de Carbonnières (1755-1827) (Les Voyages au Mont-Perdu) and by Henry Russell (1834-1909) (Les Grandes Ascensions des Pyrénées, guide d'une mer à l'autre).

While devoting the main part of his leisure to long hikes in the mountains, during which he gathers thousands of observations for his topographical records, he still finds time to paint numerous panoramas of the Pyrenees as well as the Alps which he also studies, and to acquire a solid formation in topography.

To facilitate topographical work in rugged terrain, he develops the orograph in 1873. His first great cartographic work, in 1874, is the map of the massif of Gavarnie-Mont-Perdu at a scale of 1:40 000, for which he collects the measurements with the participation of Lourde-Rocheblave from nearby Pau. That map triggers such a sensation that it is included in the annual Mémoires of the Société des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de Bordeaux with an explanatory text the following year. The Club alpin français directory follows with the publication of an enthusiastic review, describing Schrader as qualified for "first rank topographer in a glorious master stroke". In 1876 he takes part in the creation of the Bordeaux section of the Club Alpin Français, becoming its first president.

In 1877 he travels to Paris with a recommendation from his cousins Élisée and Onésime Reclus. There, having met Émile Templier, nephew and collaborator of Louis Hachette, and Adolphe Joanne, president of the Parisian section of the Club Alpin Français, he is employed as a geographer by Librairie Hachette and is now able to practice his passion in the scope of his profession. He also gives geography lessons at the School of Anthropology and also becomes editor of the French Alpine Club directory

In 1927, three years after his death, his remains are transferred to a tomb on a slope of the Circus of Gavarnie (French Pyrenees).

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SNEFFELS PAINTED BY CHARLES PARTRIDGE ADAMS

 CHARLES PARTRIDGE ADAMS (1858 -1942)

Mount Sneffels (4,315 m- 14,150 ft)

United States of America (Colorado) 

In Mount Sneffels San Juan Colorado, Private collection

The mountain 

Mount Sneffels (4,315 m- 14,150 ft)is the highest summit of the Sneffels Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is  located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of Uncompahgre National Forest, 6.7 miles (10.8 km) west by south (bearing 256°) of the City of Ouray in Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The summit of Mount Sneffels is the highest point in Ouray County.

Mount Sneffels is notable for its great vertical relief, as it rises 7,200 feet above the town of Ridgway, Colorado 6 miles to the northeast.

The primary route to the summit follows a creek bed up from Yankee Boy Basin. A secondary route follows a ridge line to the summit from the saddle of Blue Lakes Pass.

Mount Sneffels was named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. An area on the western flank of Mount Sneffels gives the appearance of volcanic crater.

Nowadays, Mount Sneffels is one of the most photographed mountains in Colorado.

The painter 
Charles Partridge Adams was a largely self-taught American landscape artist who painted primarily in Colorado, and secondarily in California. Some paintings were also made in other Rocky Mountain states, the Pacific Northwest and Canada, and a few in Louisiana, the East Coast and Europe.
Adams is widely considered to have been Colorado’s finest landscape artist. He is best known for his stunning views of snowy mountain peaks in early morning or sunset light, or wreathed in storm clouds, and for his luminous sunset and twilight paintings of the river bottoms near Denver. His works show an intensely personal and poetic response to the Colorado mountains and plains, with unusual sensitivity to the changing effects of light, atmosphere and season.
Adams early work in the 1880s was largely representational and somewhat prosaic, with only hints of the more impressionist works to follow. His style began to coalesce in the early 1890s with some excellent luminous sunsets, some of which were in a Barbizon style, but overall his output was still uneven. In the later 1890s his painting became much more consistent, impressionist, and colorful, and this style prevailed through about 1915. After that his style became progressively “looser,” with larger brush strokes, brighter colors, more impasto, and much less attention to foreground and detail. Some paintings left at his death show only traces of his previous skill.
Adams experimented freely with different palettes and lighting, and some of these were much more successful than others. He must have created several hundred paintings of Longs and Meeker Peaks from his studio in Estes Park, Colorado, yet no two are alike, and some are strikingly different.
Some of his earlier paintings include animals or human figures, but he was not very successful at rendering these, and later paintings do not include them.
Roughly half of Adams paintings are oils and half are watercolors, which he began painting in the early 1890s. Although some of his watercolors are masterfully detailed and very carefully done, others are much less detailed, and must have been done very quickly for the tourist trade. As one watercolorist remarked about one of these, “That one must have taken him all of 15 minutes.” Over 950 paintings have been documented. His total output is unknown, but it is estimated to have been 3,000 or more.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

EL TUNGURUHUA (2) PAINTED BY RAFAEL TROYA

RAFAEL TROYA (1845-1920) 

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

Ecuador 

 In  El Tungurahua. Vista de la Cordillera de Utuñac, oil on canvas, 1893,  Colección del Banco Central del Ecuador, Quito.

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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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau