MOUNT MARCY BY ROCKWELL KENT

ROCKWELL KENT (1882-1971)

Mount Marcy (1,629m - 5,343ft) 

United States of America 

In Adirondacks View, watercolor, 1928-30 

The mountain
Mount Marcy (1,629m - 5,343ft) in Mohawk langage Tewawe’estha is the highest point in New York State, USA. It is located in the Town of Keene in Essex County. The mountain is in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks Region of the High Peaks Wilderness Area. Its stature and expansive views make it a popular destination for hikers, who crowd its summit in the summer months.
Lake Tear of the Clouds, at the col between Mt. Marcy and Mt. Skylight, is often cited as the highest source of the Hudson River, via Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River, even though the main stem of the Opalescent River has as its source a higher point two miles north of Lake of the Clouds, and that stem is a mile longer than Feldspar Brook.
The mountain is named after Gov. William L. Marcy, the 19th-century Governor of New York, who authorized the environmental survey that explored the area. Its first recorded ascent was on August 5, 1837, by a large party led by Ebenezer Emmons looking for the source of the East Fork of the Hudson River.[6] Today the summit may be reached by multiple trails; though long by any route, a round-trip may be made in a day.

The painter
Rockwell Kent, artist, author, and political activist, had a long and varied career. During his lifetime, he worked as an architectural draftsman, illustrator, printmaker, painter, lobsterman, ship's carpenter, and dairy farmer. Born in Tarrytown Heights, New York, he lived in Maine, Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, and the Adirondacks and explored the waters around Tierra del Fuego in a small boat. Kent's paintings, lithographs, and woodcuts often portrayed the bleak and rugged aspects of nature; a reflection of his life in harsh climates.His experience as a carpenter and builder and his familiarity with tools served him well when he took up the graphic process. His blocks were marvels of beautiful cutting, every line deliberate and under perfect control. The tones and lines in his lithography were solidly built up, subtle, and full of color. He usually made preliminary studies- old-mater style- for composition or detail before starting on a print. Nothing was vague or accidental about his work; his expression was clear and deliberate. Neither misty tonalities nor suggestiveness were to his taste. He was a highly objectified art - clean, athletic, sometimes almost austere and cold. He either recorded adventures concretely, or dealt in ideas. His studio was a model of the efficient workshop: neat, orderly, with everything in its place. His handwriting, the fruit of his architectural training, was beautiful and precise.
Among the many notes of increasing awareness of Kent's contributions to American culture is the reproduction of one of Kent's pen-and-ink drawings from Moby Dick on a U.S. postage stamp, part of the 2001 commemorative panel celebrating such American illustrators as Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, and Norman Rockwell.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

CADILLAC MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826 -1900) 

Cadillac Mountain (466 m - 1,530 ft)

United States of America (Maine) 

In Mount Desert by 1850, oil on canvas,  Museum of Fine arts Boston

The Mountain,
Cadillac Mountain (466 m- 1,530 ft) is located on Mount Desert Island, within Acadia National Park, in the U.S. state of Maine. Its summit is the highest point in Hancock County and the highest within 25 miles (40 km) of the shoreline of the North American continent between the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia and peaks in Mexico. It is known as the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise, although that is only true for a portion of the year. Before being renamed in 1918, the mountain had been called Green Mountain. The new name honors the French explorer and adventurer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac. In 1688, De la Mothe requested and received from the Governor of New France a parcel of land in an area known as Donaquec which included part of the Donaquec River (now the Union River) and the island of Mount Desert in the present-day U.S. state of Maine. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, a shameless self-promoter who had already appropriated the "de la Mothe" portion of his name from a local nobleman in his native Picardy, thereafter referred to himself as Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, Donaquec, and Mount Desert ! From 1883 until 1893 the Green Mountain Cog Railway ran to the summit to take visitors to the Green Mountain Hotel. The hotel burned down in 1895 and the cog train was sold and moved to the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire

The painter
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes.
Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes. Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases. Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.
Church, like most second generation Hudson River School painters, used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings. Romanticism was prominent in Britain and France in the early 1800s as a counter-movement to the Enlightenment virtues of order and logic. Artists of the Romantic period often depicted nature in idealized scenes that depicted the richness and beauty of nature, sometimes also with emphasis on the grand scale of nature.
This tradition carries on in the works of Frederic Church, who idealizes an uninterrupted nature, highlighted by creating excruciatingly detailed art. The emphasis on nature is encouraged by the low horizontal lines, and preponderance of sky to enhance the wilderness; humanity, if it is represented, is depicted as small in comparison with the greater natural reality. The technical skill comes in the form of luminism, a Hudson River School innovation particularly present in Church's works. Luminism is also cited as encompassing several technical aspects, which can be seen in Church’s works. One example is the attempt to “hide brushstrokes,” which makes the scene seem more realistic and lessen the artist’s presence in the work. Most importantly is the emphasis on light (hence luminism) in these scenes. The several sources of light create contrast in the pictures that highlights the beauty and detailed imagery in the painting.

MOUNT PAGAN BY RUDOLF HELLGREWE

RUDOLF HELLGREWE (1860–1935) 

Mount Pagan (571m - 1,873ft)

United States of America (Northern Mariana Islands) 

In Insel Pagan Diorama,  Mariana Islands, 1900

The mountain 
Mount Pagan (571m - 1,873ft) is  the most active of the two stratovolcanoes on Pagan Island, a volcanic island in the Mariana Islands archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, belonging to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands under administration of the USA.
Formerly inhabited, the inhabitants were evacuated due to volcanic eruptions in 1981.
Jerome Aldan ( the mayor for CNMI’s Northern Islands, which includes Pagan, told a New Zealand radio program that the U.S. military’s description of the island as “uninhabited” was false. According to an article by James Cave for the Huffington Post, an article which used Hadfield as its source:
"More than 50 families in Saipan consider Pagan their home island and have plans and desires to return to homesteads," The island is occupied by two people, who live in shacks and have one flushing toilet and plumbing, electricity and small ranch.
According to an April 17, 2015, article by Wyatt Olson for Stars and Stripes military news network, "the legislature of the Northern Mariana Islands is considering a joint resolution calling on the governor to oppose the military expansion on the 10-mile-long island. ... In wording that hints at the hornet’s nest the U.S. may have stirred with the proposal, the joint resolution asserts that “throughout the CNMI’s history, foreign powers and outside influences have made major decisions and have dictated the course of development” for the region and that the U.S. “once again stands poised to make some very important decisions with respect to the military utilization of the Northern Islands.” 

The artist 
The  landscape painter and illustrator Rudolf Hellgrewe is the most famous painter of Germany's colonies. He taught for a long time at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Berlin. He attended the Königstädtische Realschule and later the Andreas Realschule in Berlin before studying under Eugen Bracht and Christian Wilberg at the Berliner Kunstakademie (Berlin Art Academy). He was drawn to landscape painting, and became known as the "painter of Brandenburg's lakes and sunsets".
In 1885–86, Hellgrewe travelled to East Africa, where he made numerous paintings. He later illustrated the books of the African explorers Carl Peters and Hermann von Wissmann, and produced dioramas of life in Germany's tropical colonies for use in schools. In 1888 at Berlin he published many of his works as a book, Aus Deutsch-Ostafrika. He took part in the colonial exhibitions of 1896 and 1907, and was one of the founding members of the Deutsches Kolonialmuseum (German Colonial Museum) in 1899. He also joined the Berlin Writers' Club. In 1903 the great German Colonial House was constructed based on the native architecture of the colonies. Hellgrewe provided the ceiling paintings.
Hellgrewe received Medal for Art and Science from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Honorary Medal of the Geographical Society of Jena. He died at Berlin in 1935.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

RAHOTU / MITRE PEAK BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913)

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

New Zealand (South Island)

In Mitre Peak, 1870 , watercolour, 1870 

About the works
During his years in New Zealand, from 1860 to 1879, John Barr Clark Hoyte travelled around the country searching for dramatic landscapes to paint.
The numerous watercolours of Mitre Peak he painted are thought to date from the 1870s.

The mountain
Mitre Peak/ Rahotu (1,683m - 5,522 ft) is an iconic mountain in the South Island of New Zealand, located on the shore of Milford Sound. It is one of the most photographed peaks in the country. The distinctive shape of the peak in southern New Zealand gives the mountain its name, after the mitre headwear of Christian bishops. It was named by Captain John Lort Stokes of the HMS Acheron.
Part of the reason for its iconic status is its location. Close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park in the southwestern South Island, it is a stunning sight. The mountain rises near vertically from the water of Milford Sound, which technically is a fjord.
The peak is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks, with Mitre Peak not even the tallest one, however from most easily accessible viewpoints, Mitre Peak appears as a single point.
Milford Sound is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site as declared by UNESCO.
The only road access to Milford Sound is via State Highway 94, in itself one of the most scenic roads in New Zealand.

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

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THAMSERKU AND KANGTEGA BY ISABELLE SCHEIBLI

ISABELLE SCHEIBLI (bn. 1949) 

Thamserku ( 6,608m - 21, 680ft) 

Kangtega (6,782m - 22,251ft) 

Népal 

In Le Thamserku et le Kangtega depuis Thame, watercolour on paper, 2005, Private collection
Courtesy Isabelle Scheibli.

The mountains 
Thamserku ( 6,608m - 21, 680ft) is a mountain in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal. The mountain is connected by a ridge leading eastward to Kangtega. Thamserku is a prominent mountain to the east of Namche Bazaar and lies just north of Kusum Kangguru. The first ascent was made in 1964 from the south by members of Edmund Hillary's Schoolhouse Expedition: Lynn Crawford, Pete Farrell, John McKinnon and Richard Stewart. Below the basin on the southwest face, they reached the south ridge after climbing a difficult couloir. The team described the climb as difficult and the route has not been repeated in its entirety by anyone else. In 2014, Russian climbers Alexander Gukov and Alexey Lonchinskiy made the first ascent on the southwest face
Kangtega (6,782m - 22,251ft) known also as The Snow Saddle, is a major mountain peak of the Himalayas in Nepal.  It was first ascended in 1963. by David Dornan, Tom Frost, Michael Gill, Jim Wilson,[ in an expedition led by Edmund Hillary.

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

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE ESJA PAINTED BY ASGRIMUR JONSSON

ASGRIMUR JONSSON (1876-1958)

The Esja or Esjan (914 m - 2, 999ft)

Iceland 

In The island Viðey and the mountain Esja, oil on canvas 1931

The mountain
Esja (914 m - 2,999 ft) often called "Esjan" or "The Esja" is situated in the south-west of Iceland, about 10 km to the north of Iceland's capital city Reykjavik. Esja is not a single mountain, but a volcanic mountain range, made from basalt and tuff. The etymology of the name is unclear. Esja can be used as a first name in Iceland. In the Kjalnesingasaga, there is a rich widow among Irish settlers named Esja, but it is likely that the women's name is derived from the mountain and not vice versa.
The easternmost summits of the mountain range, called Móskarðshnúkar, are of an unusually light colour. An Icelandic writer in the 19th century, so goes the story, hoped to see the sun there after a long period of rain. But when he looked closer, it was only the mountaintops with their colours. In reality, it is the rhyolite stone, often to be found in Icelandic nature near old (and also active) central volcanoes.

The painter
Asgrímur Jónsson was an Icelandic painter, and one of the first in the country to make art a professional living. He studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen between 1900 and 1903 and traveled widely after graduation. The subjects of his pictures are mostly the landscapes of his home country, particularly mountains. His painting style is similar to the French impressionists like Corot. Some of his pictures also illustrate Icelandic sagas and folk tales.
He was also noted for his murals in various churches in Iceland. A number of his works are on display in the National Gallery of Iceland. Jónsson influenced many artists in Iceland. A short time before he died he had donated his house in Reykjavík to the Icelandic Government along with all those paintings which were at that time in his possession. These consisted of 192 oil paintings and 277 water colours together with a great number of unfinished pictures dating from various periods in his life. During his lifetime Ásgrímur Jónsson was honoured in many ways. He was made honorary professor at the University of Iceland and, in 1933 he was made Grand Knight of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon. He was an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and Knight of Dannebrog, first class. He died in 1958 and was buried in Gaulverjabær.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SNOWDON PAINTED BY SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS

SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS (1918-2006)

Mount Snowdon (1, 085 m -3,560 ft) 

United Kingdom (Wales)

The mountain
Mount Snowdon (1, 085 m -3,560 ft),Yr Wyddfa in welsh, is the highest mountain in Wales and the highest point in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. A 1682 survey estimated that the summit of Snowdon was at a height of 1,130 m - 3,720 feet ; in 1773, Thomas Pennant quoted a later estimate of 1,088 m- 3,568 ft above sea level at Caernarfon. Recent surveys give the height of the summit as 1,085 m -3,560 ft. The name Snowdon is from the Old English for "snow hill", while the Welsh name – Yr Wyddfa – means "the tumulus" or "the barrow", which may refer to the cairn thrown over the legendary giant Rhitta Gawr after his defeat by King Arthur. As well as other figures from Arthurian legend, the mountain is linked to a legendary Afanc (water monster) and the Tylwyth Teg (fairies). Mount Snowdon is located in Snowdonia National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) in Gwynedd. It has been described as "probably the busiest mountain in Britain", with approximately 444,000 people having walked up the mountain in 2016. It is designated as a national nature reserve for its rare flora and fauna. The rocks that form Snowdon were produced by volcanoes in the Ordovician period, and the massif has been extensively sculpted by glaciation, forming the pyramidal peak of Snowdon and the Arêtes of Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd. The cliff faces on Snowdon, including Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, are significant for rock climbing, and the mountain was used by Edmund Hillary in training for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest.
The summit can be reached by a number of well-known paths, and by the Snowdon Mountain Railway, a rack and pinion railway opened in 1896 which carries passengers the 4.7 miles (7.6 km) from Llanberis to the summit station.

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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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

GIEWONT PAINTED BY WALERY ELJASZ RADZIKOWSKI

WALERY ELJASZ RADZIKOWSKI (1840-1905)

Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft)

Poland 

The mountain 
Giewont Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft) is a mountain massif in the Tatra Mountains of Poland. It is 1,895 m - at its highest. The massif has three peaks :
- Great Giewont - Wielki Giewont (1,895 m- 6, 217 ft)
- Long Giewont - Długi Giewont (1,867 m- 6, 125 ft)
- Small Giewont - Polish Mały Giewont (1,728 m - 5,669 ft)
There is a mountain pass located between Great and Long Giewont, known as Szczerba (1,823 m- 5, 980 ft). Long Giewont and Great Giewont are situated at a higher altitude than the nearby town of Zakopane, making them clearly visible from that city.
On Great Giewont, there is a 15 m steel cross (erected in 1901) - the site of religious pilgrimages. The area is notorious for its hazardous nature during thunderstorms, so this should be taken into consideration when approaching the summit.
The first recorded ascent to Giewont's summit was undertaken in 1830 by Franciszek Herbich and Aleksander Zawadzki (a19th century explorer). The first winter ascent of Giewont occurred in 1904 by a group of five mountaineers led by Mariusz Zaruski. Nowadays the climbing on Giewont is strictly banned. On the other hand, hiking on the hiking trails is allowed and the access (except the winter) is not difficult hence Giewont is a very popular destination among amblers and Sunday tourists. In the summer up to few thousands tourists a day ascend the top.
Giewont lies in the area of the Polish Tatra National Park (Tatrzański Park Narodowy). In Polish folklore it is associated with a legend about oversleeping knights, who will awake when Poland is in danger.

The painter
Walery Eljasz Radzikowski was a Polish painter and photographer, promoter of the Tatra Mountains and Zakopane, co-founder of the Tatra Society, author of Tatra guides, a correspondent member of the Society of the Polish National Museum in Rapperswil from 1897, a member of the Faculty of the Gymnastic Society "Sokół" in Krakow in 1895.
He painted mainly historical paintings, landscapes of the Tatras, as well as sights of Krakow's landmarks, portraits, religious paintings and wall paintings. During his studies, together with his colleagues, he took outdoor trips, during which he painted sketches, and landscapes. He created not only on canvas, but also on natural ground, such as the image of Our Lady of Skalska on a limestone wall in the Mnikowska Valley. During the expeditions to the Tatras in drawings and paintings, he preserved the mountain views and customs of the highlanders.
In 1890, he began to photograph the Tatra Mountains, local construction, residents' traditions and their costumes. They served him as a help for paintings and drawings, they were also published in magazines, albums and in the form of postcards. He was not a pioneer of the Tatra photography (the first photos were taken at the end of the 1850s by Walery Rzewuski and Meletius Dutkiewicz), but he contributed to its popularization.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

UNDOOLYA (2) BY ALBERT NAMATJIRA

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959)

Undoolya (794 m - 2,606 ft)

Australia (Northern Territory) 

 In  Mount Undoolya, watercolor, 1950 

The mountain 

Undoolya or Mount Undoolya (794 m- 2,606 ft)  is located in the MacDonnell region and the Northern Territory state, in the central part of Australia, 1,900 km north-west of Canberra is the nation's headline.  The ground around Mount Undoolya is usually flat, but on the east it is the hills.  The surrounding area has an altitude of 871 meters and 14.8 km north of Mount Undoolya.  Nor more than 2 people per square kilometer around Mount Undoolya.  No city around.

Mount Undoolya is surrounded by lakes. The climate is warm. 

The Painter 

Albert Namatjira  born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.
Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australia—indeed, reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nation—and he was publicly regarded as a model Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.
Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style, Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Ghost gums with luminous white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school. Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on the banks of the Finke River, west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Namatjira learnt watercolour technique from the artist, Rex Battarbee.
More about  Albert Namatjira 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT ROLLESTON BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913)

Mount Rolleston  (2,271m - 7,451ft)

New Zealand (South Island) 

The mountain 

Mount Rolleston (2,271m - 7,451ft) is a prominent peak in Arthur's Pass National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It was named by the surveyor Arthur Dudley Dobson in 1864, who observed the peak while searching for a route through the Southern Alps to the West Coast gold fields. The name honours the then Superintendent of the Canterbury Province, William Rolleston.

While not the highest mountain in the National Park, it is well known because it can be viewed from State Highway 73 that runs through Arthur's Pass to the West Coast of the South Island. It is also popular with climbers, as it can be climbed in a day starting from Arthur's Pass township. Mount Rolleston was first climbed in 1912 by climbers H. Thomson and J. Gilligan. 

Mount Rolleston can be climbed via several routes, including the Rome or Goldney Ridges,  the latter of which allows access to Otira Slide, which in winter can be descended by skis.

The upper slopes of Mount Rolleston are the headwaters of several rivers, most notably the Waimakariri and several tributaries of the Otira.

The painter 
John Barr Clark Hoyte was born in England, probably in London,  Nothing is known of Hoyte's education and artistic training and we are reduced to the obvious deduction that he was heir to the English tradition of topographic draughtsmanship and watercolour painting. Firm drawing underlies his landscapes, making it appropriate to group him with colonial surveyor–architect artists such as Edward Ashworth, Edmund Norman and George O'Brien.
During his years in New Zealand John Hoyte travelled assiduously in search of new scenes to exploit.   His pictorial exploration of the colony's principal dramatic landscapes was completed when he took a cruise circumnavigating the South Island in early 1877, exploring the coast of Fiordland with particular attention. New Zealand subjects would continue to inspire his production long after he had settled in Australia, where they shared his attention with coastal and mountain views drawn chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sydney.
Despite his apparent commercial success, however, Hoyte's standing, like that of George O'Brien, waned in the 1870s: a decade which marked a major shift in New Zealand colonial taste as the Turnerian Romantics such as Gully, J. C. Richmond and W. M. Hodgkins moved into greater prominence. They and their style were to dominate the following decades.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 BY TOSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 遠志

TOSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 遠志 (1911-1995)

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)

Japan

In Mount Fuji from Ohito, Autumn1983, Woodblock print 

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 

Tōshi Yoshida (吉田 遠志), was a Japanese printmaking artist associated with the sōsaku-hanga movement, and son of famous shin-hanga artist Hiroshi Yoshida. One of Yoshida's legs was paralysed during his early childhood. Not being able to attend school, he enjoyed watching animals and his father's printmaking workshop. Encouraged by his grandmother Rui Yoshida, Tōshi often sketched animals. Yoshida's artistic career was a long struggle between fidelity to his father's legacy and freedom from it. Hiroshi Yoshida, a shin-hanga landscape artist, dictated Tōshi's early artistic development. In 1926, Tōshi chose animals as his primary subjects to distinguish himself from his father, who was a landscape printmaker. However, in the 1930s, Tōshi started making landscape paintings and prints similar to his father's works. Father and son traveled together and even painted side by side. From 1930 to 1931, Hiroshi and Tōshi traveled to India, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Calcutta, and Burma.

- More about Toshi Yoshida

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

JEBEL AÏSSA PAINTED BY LÉON CARRÉ

LÉON CARRÉ (1878-1942) 

Jebel Aïssa (2,236 m- 7,336ft) 

Algeria

In Paysages de l'Atlas, watercolour, 1940, Private collection 

The mountain 
Jebel Aïssa (2,236 m- 7,336ft) in arabic جبل عيسى‎  or Mount Issa high mountain in western Algeria, thus the 4th highest in Algeria. It is part of the Ksour Range of the Saharan Atlas, within the larger Atlas Mountain System. Jebel Aïssa  is located in the Naâma Province and is one of the main summits of the mountains of the Saharan Atlas.
The Jebel Aissa National Park is a protected area within the area of the mountain since 2003.
The Ksour Range (جبال القصور‎ ) or Jebel Ksour , Stretching across the provinces of Béchar and El Bayadh, it is the westernmost range of the Saharan Atlas, with the Amour Range further east.
Neolithic art, in the form of engraved stones representing horses, elephants and other animals, is found in different caves and walls throughout the range (such as at Thyout)

The artist
The French orientalist painter and illustrator Léon Carré entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, then he joined the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on 1896 thanks to Léon Bonnat. He was the double winner of the Chenavard prize. He exhibited at the Salon of French Artists in 1900 and, in 1905, at the Salon des Independants, and made a first trip to Algeria in 1907.
He exhibited at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts from 1911, and at the Autumn Fair.
Winner of the Villa Abd-el-Tif scholarship in 1909, he settled in Algiers. Orientalist painter, he practices oil, gouache and pastel. In 1927, Léon Carré helped decorate the Ile-de-France liner for the Transatlantic Company, and designed numerous posters for the PLM Company (including the centenary of Algeria in 1930).
He also drew the 50 franc banknote issued by the Bank of Algeria in 1942.
He was recently rediscovered as a great landscaper regarded to his numerous post impressionist paintings and watercolors of Atlas mountains and Kabylia  landscapes (see above)

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MONT DE NYANBO IN VINTAGE STAMPS

VINTAGE STAMPS

Mont de Nyangbo  (575 m-1887ft )

 République de Côte d'Ivoire

The mountain 
Mont de Nyangbo  (575 m-1887ft )  is a mountain and is located in Ivory Coast. The estimate terrain elevation above seal level is 575 metres. Variant forms of spelling for Mont de Nyangbo or in other languages: Pic de Niangbo, Mont de Niangbo, Mont de Nyangbo, Mont de Niangbo, Mont de Nyangbo, Pic de Niangbo.


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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

KILIMANDJARO BY RUDOLF HELLGREWE

RUDOLF HELLGREWE (1860–1935) 

Kilimandjaro (5,885m - 19, 340ft)

Tanzania 

In   Kilimandjaro two peaks in 1911, watercolor

The mountain 
Mount Kilimanjaro (5,885m - 19, 340ft) is a dormant volcano in Tanzania composed of three volcanic cones, "Kibo", "Mawenzi" and "Shira." 
The Kilimandjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. The first recorded ascent to the summit  was by Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller in 1889.
The mountain is part of the Kilimanjaro National Park and is a major climbing destination. The mountain has been the subject of many scientific studies because of its shrinking glaciers, especially since 200.
The origin of the name "Kilimanjaro" is not precisely known, but a number of theories exist. European explorers had adopted the name by 1860 and reported that "Kilimanjaro" was the mountain's Kiswahili name. The 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia also records the name of the mountain as "Kilima-Njaro", as well as the title of the watercolor above. Johann Ludwig Krapf wrote in 1860 that Swahilis along the coast called the mountain Kilimanjaro. Although he did not support his claim, he claimed that "Kilimanjaro" meant either "mountain of greatness" or "mountain of caravans". Under the latter meaning, "Kilima" meant "mountain" and "Jaro" possibly meant "caravans". Jim Thompson claimed in 1885, although he also did not support his claim, that the term Kilima-Njaro "has generally been understood to mean" the Mountain (Kilima) of Greatness (Njaro). Though not improbably it may mean the "White" mountain. "Njaro" is an ancient Kiswahili word for "shining". Others have assumed that "Kilima" is Kiswahili for "mountain".
In the 1880s, the mountain became a part of German East Africa and was called "Kilima-Ndscharo" in German following the Kiswahili name components.
On 6 October 1889, Hans Meyer reached the highest summit on the crater ridge of Kibo. He named it "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze" ("Kaiser Wilhelm peak").
That name apparently was used until Tanzania was formed in 1964, when the summit was renamed "Uhuru", meaning "Freedom Peak" in Kiswahili.
- More informations about Kilimandjaro 


The artist 
The  landscape painter and illustrator Rudolf Hellgrewe is the most famous painter of Germany's colonies. He taught for a long time at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Berlin. He attended the Königstädtische Realschule and later the Andreas Realschule in Berlin before studying under Eugen Bracht and Christian Wilberg at the Berliner Kunstakademie (Berlin Art Academy). He was drawn to landscape painting, and became known as the "painter of Brandenburg's lakes and sunsets".
In 1885–86, Hellgrewe travelled to East Africa, where he made numerous paintings. He later illustrated the books of the African explorers Carl Peters and Hermann von Wissmann, and produced dioramas of life in Germany's tropical colonies for use in schools. In 1888 at Berlin he published many of his works as a book, Aus Deutsch-Ostafrika. He took part in the colonial exhibitions of 1896 and 1907, and was one of the founding members of the Deutsches Kolonialmuseum (German Colonial Museum) in 1899. He also joined the Berlin Writers' Club. In 1903 the great German Colonial House was constructed based on the native architecture of the colonies. Hellgrewe provided the ceiling paintings.
Hellgrewe received Medal for Art and Science from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Honorary Medal of the Geographical Society of Jena. He died at Berlin in 1935.
___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

BAFFIN MOUNTAINS BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

mountains (2, 147m to 1, 675m - 7, 044ft to 3, 495ft) 

Canada (Nunavut)

The mountains 
The Baffin Mountains are a mountain range composed by 10 peaks running along the northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada; they are are part of the Arctic Cordillera. The ice-capped mountains are some of the highest peaks of eastern North America. While they could be considered a single mountain range as they are separated by bodies of water to make Baffin Island, this is not true, as they are closely related to the other mountain ranges that make the much larger Arctic Cordillera mountain range.
The highest point is Mount Odin (2,147 m -7,044 ft) while Mount Asgard at (2,015 m -6,611 ft) is perhaps the most famous. The highest point in the northern Baffin Mountains is Qiajivik Mountain (1,963 m -6,440 ft).
Highest Peaks of the Baffin Mountains are :
- Mount Odin (2,147m - 7,044ft)
- Mount Asgard (2,015m - 6,611ft)
- Qiajivik Mountain (1,963m - 6,440ft)
- Angilaaq Mountain (1,951m - 6,401ft)
- Kisimngiuqtuq Peak (1,905m - 6,250ft)
- Ukpik Peak (1,809m - 5,935ft)
- Bastille Peak (1,733m - 5,686ft)
- Mount Thule (1,711m- 5,61ft)
- Angna Mountain (1,710m- 5,610ft)
- Mount Thor (1,675m- 5,495ft)
There are no trees in the Baffin Mountains because the mountains are north of the Arctic tree line. The dominant vegetation in the Baffin Mountains is a discontinuous cover of mosses, lichens and cold-hardy vascular plants such as sedge and cottongrass.
Rocks that comprise the Baffin Mountains are primarily deeply dissected granitic rocks. It was covered with ice until about 1500 years ago, and vast parts of it are still ice-covered. Geologically, the Baffin Mountains form the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield, which covers much of Canada's landscape.
The ranges of the Baffin Mountains are separated by deep fjords and glaciated valleys with many spectacular glacial and ice-capped mountains. The snowfall in the Baffin Mountains is light, much less than in places like the Saint Elias Mountains in southeastern Alaska and southwestern Yukon which are plastered with snow.
The largest ice cap in the Baffin Mountains is the Penny Ice Cap, which has an area of 6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi). During the mid-1990s, Canadian researchers studied the glacier's patterns of freezing and thawing over centuries by drilling ice core samples.
The Auyuittuq National Park was established in 1976. It features many of Arctic wilderness, such as fjords, glaciers and ice fields. In Inuktitut - the language of Nunavut's Aboriginal people, Inuit - Auyuittuq means "the land that never melts". Although Auyuittuq was established in 1976 as a national park reserve, it was upgraded to a full national park in 2000.
There were Inuit settlements in the Baffin Mountains before European contact. The first European contact is believed to have been by Norse explorers in the 11th century, but the first recorded sighting of Baffin Island was Martin Frobisher during his search for the Northwest Passage in 1576.


The Painter
Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic. He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT EREBUS (4) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

   EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912) 

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica

  In  Antarctica mountains with Mount Erebus, 1911, watercolour, 

 Royal Geographical Society Museum, London

The mountain 

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes:  Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.

The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus is a dark region in Hades in Greek mythology. Present with Ross on the Erebus was the young Joseph Hooker, future president of the Royal Society and close friend of Charles Darwin. Erebus was an Ancient Greek primordial deity of darkness, the son of Chaos.

Mount Erebus is classified as a polygenetic stratovolcano. The bottom half of the volcano is a shield and the top half is a stratocone. The composition of the current eruptive products of Erebus is anorthoclase-porphyritic tephritic phonolite and phonolite, which are the bulk of exposed lava flow on the volcano.  Erebus is the world's only presently erupting phonolite volcano.

Researchers spent more than three months during the 2007–08 field season installing an unusually dense array of seismometers around Mount Erebus to listen to waves of energy generated by small, controlled blasts from explosives they buried along its flanks and perimeter and to record scattered seismic signals generated by lava lake eruptions and local ice quakes. By studying the refracted and scattered seismic waves, the scientists produced an image of the uppermost (top few km) of the volcano to understand the geometry of its "plumbing" and how the magma rises to the lava lake. These results demonstrated a complex upper-volcano conduit system with appreciable upper-volcano magma storage to the northwest of the lava lake at depths hundreds of meters below the surface.

The artist

Edward Adrian Wilson,  nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904)  and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.

Dr. Edward A. Wilson  is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper.

Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes..

Un blog de Francis Rousseau

HALF DOME PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANSEL ADAMS

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)  

United States of America (California) 

In  Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1960 

The mountain
Half Dome (2, 695 m - 8,844 ft)   is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, part of the Sierra Nevada Range. It is a well-known rock formation in the park, named for its distinct shape; One side is a sheer face while the other three sides are smooth and round, making it appear like a dome cut in half. The granite crest rises more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor. The impression from the valley floor that this is a round dome that has lost its northwest half is an illusion. From Washburn Point, Half Dome can be seen as a thin ridge of rock, an arête, that is oriented northeast-southwest, with its southeast side almost as steep as its northwest side except for the very top. Although the trend of this ridge, as well as that of Tenaya Canyon, is probably controlled by master joints, 80 percent of the northwest "half" of the original dome may well still be there. As late as the 1870s, Half Dome was described as "perfectly inaccessible" by Josiah Whitney of the California Geological Survey. The summit was finally conquered by George G. Anderson in October 1875, via a route constructed by drilling and placing iron eyebolts into the smooth granite.
Today, Half Dome may now be ascended in several different ways. Thousands of hikers reach the top each year by following an 8.5 mi (13.7 km) trail from the valley floor. After a rigorous 2 mi (3.2 km) approach, including several hundred feet of granite stairs, the final pitch up the peak's steep but somewhat rounded east face is ascended with the aid of a pair of post-mounted braided steel cables originally constructed close to the Anderson route in 1919.
Alternatively, over a dozen rock climbing routes lead from the valley up Half Dome's vertical northwest face. The first technical ascent was in 1957 via a route pioneered by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, today known as the Regular Northwest Face. Their five-day epic was the first Grade VI climb in the United States. Their route has now been free soloed several times in a few hours' time. Other technical routes ascend the south face and the west shoulder.

 The photographer
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist.
His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, books, and the internet. Adams and Fred Archer developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. He primarily used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. Adams founded the photography group known as Group f/64, along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham.
In September 1941, Adams contracted with the Department of the Interior to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations for use as mural-sized prints for decoration of the Department's new building. Part of his understanding with the Department was that he might also make photographs for his own use, using his own film and processing.
Full entry Wanderingvertexes

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

LHOTSE (2) PAINTED BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

Lhotse (8, 516m - 27, 940ft) 

China (Tibet Autonomous Region)

Nepal (Khumbu) 

 

In Pink  Peak Himalayas,  Roerich Museum, New York City  

The mountain 

Lhotse (8, 516 m - 27, 940 ft), which means “South Peak” in Tibetan is the fourth highest mountain in the world  after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. Part of the Everest massif, Lhotse is connected to the latter peak via the South Col. 

 In addition to the main summit, the mountain comprises the smaller peaks Lhotse Middle (8,414 m- 27,605 ft) and Lhotse Shar (8,383 m - 27,503 ft). The summit is on the border between Tibet and the Khumbu region of Nepal.

The main summit of Lhotse was first climbed on May 18, 1956, by the Swiss team of Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger from the Swiss Mount Everest/Lhotse Expedition. On May 12, 1970, Sepp Mayerl and Rolf Walter of Austria made the first ascent of Lhotse Shar.  Lhotse Middle remained, for a long time, the highest unclimbed named point on Earth; on May 23, 2001, its first ascent was made by Eugeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov and Petr Kuznetsov of a Russian expedition.

By December 2008, 371 climbers had summitted Lhotse while 20 died during their attempt. 

Lhotse was not summited in 2014, 2015, or 2016 due to a series of incidents, however, it was summited again in May 2017. 

The painter 
Nicholas Roerich known also as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих) is quite an important figure of mountain paintings in the early 20th century.  He was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as an enlightener, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth was he was quite influenced by a movement in Russian society around the occult and was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices. His paintings are said to have hypnotic expression.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he lived in various places around the world until his death in Naggar, Himachal Pradesh, India. Trained as an artist and a lawyer, his main interests were literature, philosophy, archaeology, and especially art. After the February Revolution of 1917 and the end of the czarist regime, Roerich, a political moderate who valued Russia's cultural heritage more than ideology and party politics, had an active part in artistic politics. With Maxim Gorky and Aleksandr Benois, he participated with the so-called "Gorky Commission" and its successor organization, the Arts Union (SDI).
After the October Revolution and the acquisition of power of Lenin's Bolshevik Party, Roerich became increasingly discouraged about Russia's political future. During early 1918, he, Helena, and their two sons George and Sviatoslav emigrated to Finland. After some months in Finland and Scandinavia, the Roerichs relocated to London, arriving in mid-1919. Later, a successful exhibition resulted in an invitation from a director at the Art Institute of Chicago, offering to arrange for Roerich's art to tour the United States. During the autumn of 1920, the Roerichs traveled to America by sea.  The Roerichs remained in the United States from October 1920 until May 1923.
After leaving New York, the Roerichs – together with their son George and six friends – began the five-year-long 'Roerich Asian Expedition' that, in Roerich's own words: "started from Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Oyrot region of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam, and Tibet" with a detour through Siberia to Moscow in 1926.
In 1929 Nicholas Roerich was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the University of Paris. He received two more nominations in 1932 and 1935. His concern for peace resulted in his creation of the Pax Cultura, the "Red Cross" of art and culture. His work for this cause also resulted in the United States and the twenty other nations of the Pan-American Union signing the Roerich Pact on April 15, 1935 at the White House. The Roerich Pact is an early international instrument protecting cultural property.
In 1934–1935, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (then headed by Roerich admirer Henry A. Wallace) sponsored an expedition by Roerich and USDA scientists H. G. MacMillan and James F. Stephens to Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and China.
Roerich was in India during the Second World War, where he painted Russian epic heroic and saintly themes, including: Alexander Nevsky, The Fight of Mstislav...
In 1942, Roerich received Jawaharlal Nehru at his house in Kullu. Together they discussed the fate of the new world: "We spoke about Indian-Russian cultural association, it is time to think about useful and creative cooperation ...”.
Gandhi would later recall about several days spent together with Roerich's family: "That was a memorable visit to a surprising and gifted family where each member was a remarkable figure in himself, with a well-defined range of interests." ..."Roerich himself stays in my memory. He was a man with extensive knowledge and enormous experience, a man with a big heart, deeply influenced by all that he observed". During the visit, "ideas and thoughts about closer cooperation between India and USSR were expressed. Now, after India wins independence, they have got its own real implementation[clarification needed]. And as you know, there are friendly and mutually-understanding relationships today between both our countries".
In 1942, the American-Russian cultural Association (ARCA) was created in New York.
Its active participants were Ernest Hemingway, Rockwell Kent, Charlie Chaplin, Emil Cooper, Serge Koussevitzky, and Valeriy Ivanovich Tereshchenko. The Association's activity was welcomed by scientists like Robert Millikan and Arthur Compton.  Roerich died on December 13, 1947.
Presently, the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City is a major institution for Roerich's artistic work. Numerous Roerich societies continue to promote his theosophical teachings worldwide. His paintings can be seen in several museums including the Roerich Department of the State Museum of Oriental Arts in Moscow; the Roerich Museum at the International Centre of the Roerichs in Moscow; the Russian State Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; a collection in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; a collection in the Art Museum in Novosibirsk, Russia; an important collection in the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria; a collection in the Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod Russia; National Museum of Serbia ; the Roerich Hall Estate in Nagar village in Kullu Valley, India; the Sree Chitra Art Gallery, Thiruvananthapuram, India; in various art museums in India; and a selection featuring several of his larger works in The Latvian National Museum of Art.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

CHOGOLISA (2) PHOTOGRAPHED BY VITTORIO SELLA

VITTORIO SELLA  (1859-1943)

 Chogolisa (7,668 m - 25,157 ft)  

Pakistan

In  Luigi Amedeo di Savoia , Duke of Abruzzi climbing Chogolisa, 
Photographed  during the 1909 historical expedition of the Duke of Abruzzi
© The Sella Foundation

The mountain 

Chogolisa  (7,668 m- 25,157 ft). also called  Bride Peak is a mountain in the Karakoram region of Pakistan. It lies near the Baltoro Glacier in the Concordia region which is home to some of the highest peaks of the world. Chogolisa has several peaks, the highest on the SW face  is Chogolisa I (7,668 m- 25,157 ft). The second highest at 7,654 metres on the NE side is Chogolisa II, once named Bride Peak by Martin Conway in 1892.
In 1909, a expedition led by Duke of the Abruzzi reached 7,498 m (24,600 ft) from a base camp located on the northern side and a high camp on the Chogolisa saddle at 6,335m (photo above). Bad weather stopped the team from ascending further, but their climb established a world altitude record.
Hermann Buhl and Kurt Diemberger attempted Chogolisa in 1957 after they had successfully summitted Broad Peak behind Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller a few weeks earlier. On June 25 they left camp I and camped in a saddle at 6,706m on the SE ridge. On June 27 a sudden snow storm forced them to retreat and on the descent, Buhl broke off a big cornice and fell into the mountain's near vertical north face. His body has never been found.
In 1958, a Japanese expedition from Kyoto University led by Takeo Kuwabara made the first ascent of Chogolisa II, placing M. Fujihira and K. Hirai on top.
The first ascent of Chogolisa I was made on August 2, 1975 by Fred Pressl and Gustav Ammerer of an Austrian expedition led by Eduard Koblmueller. Koblmueller almost suffered the same fate as Buhl, as he also fell through a cornice on the ascent; fortunately, he was roped and team members were able to pull him to safety.

The Photographer

Vittorio Sella is a mountain italian climber and photographer who took his passion for mountains from his uncle, Quintino Sella, founder of the Italian Alpine Club.  He accomplished many remarkable climbs in the Alps, the first wintering in the Matterhorn and Mount Rose (1882) and the first winter crossing of Mont Blanc (1888).
He took part in various expeditions outside Italy:
- Three in the Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896 where a summit still bears his name;
- The ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska in 1897
- Sikkim and Nepal in 1899
- Possibly climb Mount Stanley in Uganda in 1906 during an expedition to the Rwenzori
- Recognition at K2  and Chogolisa in 1909
- In Morocco in 1925.
During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2- Chogolisa), he accompanied the Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia.
Sella continues the practice of climbing into his old age, completing his final attempt in the Matterhorn at the age of 76; a climb he had to interrupt the rise following an accident in which one of his guides injured. He died in his hometown during World War II.  His photographic collection is now managed by the Sella Foundation.
His photos mountain are still  considered today to be among the finest ever made.
Jim Curran believes that "Sella remains probably the greatest photographer of the mountain.  His name is synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement. "
The quality of the pictures of Vittorio Sella is partly explained by the use of a view camera 30 × 40 cm, despite the difficulty of the transportation of such a device, both heavy and fragile in places inaccessible; to be able to transport it safely, he had to make special pieces that can be stored in saddle bags.  His photographs have been widely distributed, either through the press or in the galleries, and were unanimously celebrated; Ansel Adams, who was able to admire thirty-one in an exhibition that was organized at Sella American Sierra Club, said they inspired him "a religious kind of sense of wonder."  Many of his pictures were taken in the mountains for the very first time in the History, which give them a much artistic, historical  but also scientific value ; for example, one could measure the decline in the Rwenzori glaciers in Central Africa.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

GUNUNG SUMBING PAINTED BY ERNEST DEZENTJE

ERNEST DEZENTJE (1885-1972) 

Gunung Sumbing  (3,371m -11,060 ft) 

Indonesia  (Java)

The mountain 
Gunung Sumbing  (3,371 m - 11,060 ft)  or Gurung Sumbing  (meaning Mount Sumbing) is a prominent high stratovolcano that lies across a 1400-m-high saddle from symmetrical Sundoro (3,136m) volcano in central Java. Prominent cones are located on the N and SE flanks, which is somewhat more dissected than Sundoro. An 800-m-wide horseshoe-shaped summit crater breached to the NE is partially filled by a lava dome that fed a lava flow down to 2400 m elevation. Emplacement of the dome followed the eruption of extensive pyroclastic flows down the NE flank.
The only report of historical activity, in about 1730 CE, may have produced the small phreatic craters found at the summit.
The announcement of an eruption in the Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (30 July-5 August 2008) was later found to be false. The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) noted that a pilot reported an eruption plume from Sumbing on 1 August 2008. The plume allegedly rose to an altitude of 4.9 km and drifted W. However, ash was not identified on satellite imagery. Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) observers at the local observatory saw only non-eruptive processes at the volcano, and they noted brush fires in September and October. A common problem in this active region occurs when drifting plumes become linked to the wrong volcano.

The painter
The ‘Indisch’- Indonesian landscape painter Ernest Regnard Leonce Dezentjé was an autodidact.  His career  (mostly local) began when first president of the Republic of Indonesia, Soekarno (1901-1970), - who declared the independence of the country in 1945, felt in love with his painting and decided to make him the  "court painter".  Dezentje was then labelled an impressionist of the early Indonesian School, being considered by critics and young artists as a  typical establishment artist.  Along his eminently nationalistic themas the mountains and volcanoes of Indonesia took a important place.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau