MOUNT TABOR BY JACOB PEETERS

 

JACOB PEETERS (1637-1695)

Mount Tabor (575 m -1,886 ft)

Israel (Galilee)

In Den bergh Thabor in Palestynen, 1692, engraving from World Atlas

The mountain 
Mount Tabor  (575 m - 1,886 ft), (not to be confused with Mount Thabor int he French Alps ) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Sea of Galilee.  Mount Tabor is a Inselberg : an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic.
In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.
In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Mount Tabor is shaped almost like half a sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and dominating  the town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor. At the top of the mountain are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is easily visible from afar.
At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli. A hiking tracks starts from the Bedouin village Shibli and is about five kilometers long. It is part of the Israel National Trail.

The artist
Flemish engraver and book-seller, Jacob Peeters (1637-1695) was descended from a family of artists. He kept a shop in Antwerp, where he “sold every kind of prints and engravings, small and larger geographical maps, drawn in ink, coloured, as well as of a larger size...”
Peeters is known mainly for his “World Atlas”, published in 1692.
The album forms part of a series of dithyrambic publications, which exalted the brilliant victories of the Venetians on the Ottomans. Similar books were published by the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, which had been founded by Vincenzo Coronelli.
The plates of the edition were based on drawings by Jacob Peeters' brother, Johannes or Jan Peeters (1625-1677), who made several views of cities, later etched by Merian. Johannes was a pupil of their older brother, Bonaventura Peeters, also a very well-known painter who specialized in seascapes.
Most of the plates were etched by Gaspar Bouttats (1640-1695), a well-known books merchant and engraving master. The description of each city and subject is given at the beginning of the edition, while each copy of the work includes a different number of plates. There are plates showing locations, cities and ports at Montenegro, Albania, Croatia, the Ionian and Aegean seas, Central Greece (the Peloponnese, Attica and Thessaly), Asia Minor, Syria, Cyprus, the Holy Land, Turkey, Yemen, Irak, Armenia, the Caspian Sea and other places all the way to Iran and India...

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MT ST HELEN AND MT ADAMS PAINTED BY CHILDE HASSAM

CHILDE HASSAM (1859-1935)

Mount St. Helens / Louwala-Clough (2, 549 m - 8, 363 ft) 

Mount Adams / Patho or Klikitat (3, 473m - 12, 281ft) 
United States of America (Washington State)

In Adams and St. Helen's, Early Morning, watercolor, 1887, Private collection

The mountains

Mount St. Helens or Louwala-Clough (2, 549m- 8,363 ft) knownas Lawetlat'la to the Cowlitz people, and Loowit to the Klickitat people, is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is 96 miles (154 km) south of Seattle, Washington, and 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who made a survey of the area in the late 18th century.The volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes. This volcano is well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows.

More about Mt St Helens 

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.

More about Mt Adams

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."
The most distinctive and famous works of Hassam's later life comprise the set of some 30 paintings known as the "Flag series". He began these in 1916 when he was inspired by a "Preparedness Parade" (for the US involvement in World War I), which was held on Fifth Avenue in New York (renamed the "Avenue of the Allies" during the Liberty Loan Drives of 1918).Thousands participated in these parades, which often lasted for over twelve hours.
Being an avid Francophile, of English ancestry, and strongly anti-Germany, Hassam enthusiastically backed the Allied cause and the protection of French culture.
In 1919, Hassam purchased a home in East Hampton, New York. Many of his late paintings employed nearby subjects in that town and elsewhere on Long Island. In 1920, he received the Gold Medal of Honor for lifetime achievement from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and numerous other awards through the 1920s. Hassam traveled relatively little in his last years, but did visit California, Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico.
He died in East Hampton in 1935, at age 75.
He denounced modern trends in art to the end of his life, and he termed "art boobys" all the painters, critics, collectors, and dealers who got on the bandwagon and promoted Cubism, Surrealism and other avant-garde movements. Until a revival of interest in American Impressionism in the 1960s, Hassam was considered among the "abandoned geniuses". As French Impressionist paintings reached stratospheric prices in the 1970s, Hassam and other American Impressionists gained renewed interest and were bid up as well.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

GLACIER DU RHONE / RHONEGLETSCHER BY FELIX VALOTTON

FELIX VALOTTON (1865-1925),
Rhone Glacier / Rhonegletscher (3,600/2,500m -
Switzerland

In Glacier du Rhône, woodcut, 1892

About the work

Those very famous woodcuts and  illustrations in black and white brings to the young Swiss painter Felix Valotton an international fame. In 1891, he literally renewed the art of xylography following the publication of an article by Albert Aurier, "Le Symbolisme en peinture", calling for an "idealistic" and decorative art, from which would be banished "Concrete truth, illusionism, trompe-l'oeil". The engravings that Valotton show in 1892 made such a sensation that he was invited to take part in various shows (Salon des artistes français, Salon des indépendants, Salon d'automne).

In the begining of 1892 Valotton engraved on wood a series of mountains from the French and Swiss Alps, which he exhibited at the first Salon de la Rose-Croix in 1892. They were immediately noticed by the Nabis, a group he rallied from 1893 to 1903 before making a long friendship with Édouard Vuillard.

The Glacier
The Rhône glacier (Rhonegletscher or Rottengletscher in German) is located at the north-eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It gives birth to the Rhone, upstream of Gletsch, which flows then into the valley of Conches.
The Rhône glacier begins on the southwestern face of the Dammastock massif at an altitude of about 3,600 meters. The first 2,500 meters of the glacier consists of a firn, the Eggfirn, which undergoes a difference of 600 meters. At an altitude of 3,081 meters, the glacier is connected to the Trift Glacier by a small pass, the Undri Triftlimi. This other glacier flows north on the Bernese territory towards the Susten pass. The Rhône glacier then follows a gentler slope with a gradient of about 14% towards the south. It is bordered on the east by the Galenstock (3,586 m), and on the west by the Tieralplistock (3,383 m) and the Gärstenhörner Bar (3,189 m). The glacial tongue ends at an altitude of about 2,250 m1 and gives birth to the Rhone.
The Rhône glacier is one of the most studied glaciers in the Alps. In 1546, Sebastian Münster described it in his book Cosmographia Universalis5. The erratic blocks of the Swiss plateau with their imposing mass could not have been brought by the force of the water and it is this observation which pushed the scientists to take a closer interest in the alpine glaciers, thus establishing the bases of the glaciology. Louis Agassiz was one of the leading pioneers in the field and studied among others the Rhone glacier.
The first measurements on the Rhone glacier date back to 18746, thanks to the work of engineer Philipp Gosset. Since this year, the length, thickness of the ice and other observations are carefully recorded.  Its thickness decreases annually by 25 centimeters.
 
The painter 

Félix Edouard Vallotton was a Swiss/French painter and printmaker associated (from 1892) with Les Nabis, a group of young artists that included Pierre Bonnard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Maurice Denis, and Edouard Vuillard, with whom Vallotton was to form a lifelong friendship. During the 1890s, when Vallotton was closely allied with the avant-garde, his paintings reflected the style of his woodcuts, with flat areas of color, hard edges, and simplification of detail. His subjects included genre scenes, portraits and nudes. Examples of his Nabi style are the deliberately awkward Bathers on a Summer Evening (1892–93), now in the Kunsthaus Zurich, and the symbolist Moonlight (1895), in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Vallotton's paintings of the post-Nabi period found admirers, and were generally respected for their truthfulness and their technical qualities, but the severity of his style was frequently criticized. Typical is the reaction of the critic who, writing in the March 23, 1910 issue of Neue Zurcher Zeitung, complained that Vallotton "paints like a policeman, like someone whose job it is to catch forms and colors. Everything creaks with an intolerable dryness ... the colors lack all joyfulness."

In its uncompromising character his art prefigured the New Objectivity that flourished in Germany during the 1920s, and has a further parallel in the work of Edward Hopper.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE MONT BLANC (2) PAINTED BY CESARE MAGGI

 

 CESARE MAGGI (1881-1962)  

The Mont Blanc (4,808 m -15,777 ft)
 (from Italian side)

France - Italy

In  The Mont Blanc seen from Italy, Oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cm, Prviate collection

The mountain
The Mont-Blanc (in French) (4 ,808.73 m -15,777 ft) or Monte Bianco (in Italian), both meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps and the highest in Europe after the Caucasus peaks. It is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence. The Mont Blanc is one of the Seven Summit, which includes the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass. The 7 highest summit, (which are obviously 8 with 2 in Europe !) are : Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m), Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Mount Vinson (4,892m) and Mount Kosciuszko (2,228m) in Australia.

The overcrowding threshold of Mont Blanc is reached, with 300 to 400 departures per day in summer.

 At the summit of the National Mountain Council held in Sallanches at the end of August 2006, it was estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 people set out in 2005 to conquer Mont Blanc. With the opening of new markets (Russia, China, India), 50,000 to 100,000 people could tomorrow try the adventure, the figure of 200,000 has even been advanced. 

These prospects are nightmarish for the defenders of the site and for some political leaders of the valley, such as the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, common on which Mont Blanc is located.

- More about the Mont-Blanc

The painter
The italian painter Cesare Maggi was born into a family of actors, Maggi embarked on classical studies at his father’s wish but also took up painting at a very early age His debut in Florence at the Esposizione Annuale della Società di Belle Arti di Firenze in 1898 was followed by a short trip to Paris to catch up with the latest developments.
The crucial turning point in Maggi’s art came in 1889 with the posthumous show of work by Giovanni Segantini held by the Milanese Society of Fine Arts, which prompted a definitive shift to landscape painting of a Divisionist character. After a short stay in the Engadin, he returned to Milan before finally settling in Turin. Commercial collaboration with Alberto Grubicy until 1913 enabled Maggi to establish himself quickly as one of the leading representatives of the second generation of Divisionist painters in Italy. He painted a repertoire of readily comprehensible mountain landscapes focusing primarily on aspects of the visual perception of the reflection of light and colour but lacking the deep spirituality of Segantini’s work. He took part in the major Italian and European exhibitions and the Venice Biennale devoted an entire room to his work at the Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte of Venice in 1912. After an interlude devoted to portrait painting in the same decade, the artist’s mature work focused on greater simplification of subject matter, mostly in landscapes.
Maggi obtained the chair in painting at the Albertina Academy, Turin, in 1936.
___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MONTE VERITA PAINTED BY MARIANNE WEREFKIN

                  

MARIANNE WEREFKIN (1860-1938)
Monte Verita (332 m-1,089 ft)
Switzerland

In The Sorrowful City, circa 1930, Οil on canvas, Municipal Foundation, Ascona

The hill
Monte Verità (332 m - 1,089 ft) (Mount Truth) is a hill above Ascona. At the end of the nineteenth century, a small group of people, led by the son of an Antwerp industrialist, Henri Oedenkoven (1875-1935) and his girlfriend, German pianist and feminist Ida Hofmann (1864-1926), bought the hill and constituted themselves into a community. The founders then practiced a life close to nature, vegetarian and naturist, openly advocating free love. They stayed on Monte Verità until 1920 and then left for Brazil.
The hill became the meeting place of famous thinkers and artists, such as Hermann Hesse, Bruno Goetz, Carl Gustav Jung, or Erich Mühsam6, then Gilbert Durand, Henry Corbin, Gershom Sholem and many others, who also animated the Eranos Circle, which met near Lake Maggiore in Casa Eranos.
In 1989, the Monte Verità Foundation was created in collaboration with the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which now operates a scientific center that regularly organizes seminars. 

The painter
Marianne von Werefkin (Марианна Владимировна Веревкина) is a Russian-Swiss painter of the Expressionist period. Marianna Vladimirovna Verëvkina is the daughter of the commander of the Yekaterinburg regiment in the Urals. In 1880 she was a pupil of Ilia Repin, the greatest realist painter in Russia.
In 1888, she had a hunting accident in which she pulled herself into the right hand with which she was painting. In 1892, she met Alexi von Jawlensky who then met Helene Neznakomova who came to live with the couple of painters. All three then made a trip through Germany in 1896. For nearly ten years she did not paint anymore.
They then resided in France from 1905 to 1906.
In 1909, Alexi von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Vassily Kandinsky and others founded the New Association of Munich Artists (NKV), which held its first exhibition at the Thannhauser Gallery in Munich in December and which gave birth in 1912 to the group named "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider).
In 1907, she began her expressionist work. It adopts the style of Paul Gauguin and Louis Anquetin.
At the outbreak of the First World War, they emigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva, then to Zurich. In 1918, they separate, and Werefkin settles in Ascona. In 1924, she created the artist group "Großer Bär". In the years that followed, she painted posters. His friends Carmen and Diego Hagmann preserve her from poverty.

_____________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

EL CAPITAN PAINTED BY THOMAS HILL

 

THOMAS HILL  (1829-1908)

El Capitan (2,309m - 7,573 ft) 

United States of America

In El Capitan, oil on cnavas,  Oakland Museum of California

The mountain
El Capitan  (2,309m - 7,573 ft) is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.
The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when it explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan ("the captain") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah".
It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief". In modern times, the formation's name is often contracted to "El Cap", especially among rock climbers and BASE jumpers.
The top of El Capitan can be reached by hiking out of Yosemite Valley on the trail next to Yosemite Falls, then proceeding west. For climbers, the challenge is to climb up the sheer granite face. There are many named climbing routes, all of them arduous, including Iron Hawk and Sea of Dreams, for example.
The Nose was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore in 47 days using "siege" tactics: climbing in an expedition style using fixed ropes along the length of the route, linking established camps along the way.
In September 1973, Beverly Johnson and Sibylle Hechtel were the first team of women to ascend El Capitan via the Triple Direct route.

The painter
Thomas Hill produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hill’s work was often driven by a vision resulting from his experiences with nature.
Hill was loosely associated with the Hudson River School of painters. The Hudson River School celebrated nature with a sense of awe for its natural resources, which brought them a feeling of enthusiasm when thinking of the potential it held. Mainly the earlier members of the Hudson River School, around the 1850-60’s, displayed man as in unison with nature in their landscape paintings by often painting men on a very small scale compared to the vast landscape. Thomas Hill often brought this technique into his own paintings in for example in his painting, Yosemite Valley, 1889.
He made early trips to the White Mountains with his friend Benjamin Champney and painted White Mountain subjects throughout his career. An example of his White Mountain subjects is Mount Lafayette in his Mount Lafayette in Winter.
Hill acquired the technique of painting en plein air. These paintings in the field later served as the basis for larger finished works.
Hill’s move to California in 1861 brought him new material for his paintings. He chose monumental vistas, like Yosemite. During his lifetime, Hill’s paintings were popular in California, costing as much as $10,000. Hill's best works are considered to be these monumental subjects, including Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls and Yosemite Valley.

_____________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MT LIEBIG PAINTED BY ALBERT NAMATJIRA

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959) 

Mount Liebig (1, 274 m- 4, 180 ft)

Australia ( Northern Territories) 

In Haasts Bluff, watercolour, 24.5 x 60 cm, 1930, National Gallery of Australia 

The mountain
Mount Liebig (1, 274 m - 4, 180 ft) is a mountain in the southern part of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the highest peaks of the MacDonnell Ranges and was named by the explorer Ernest Giles after the German chemist Justus von Liebig.
Nearby settlements include Haasts Bluff. also known as Ikuntji, an Indigenous Australian community. At the 2006 census, the community, including outstations, had a population of 207.
The Haasts Bluff community takes its name from the nearby outcrop, given this name in 1872 by the explorer Ernest Giles, after the New Zealand geologist, Julius von Haast.
The locality is home to Western Arrernte, Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara people.

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 ...

_____________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MT MANAIA BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913) 

Mount Manaia (420m- 1,378ft)

New Zealand (North Island)

 In Mount Manaia- Whangarei Head, oil on canvas, 1890  

The mountain 
Mount Manaia   (420m- 1,378ft) is a dominant landmark approximately 30 kilometres southeast of Whangarei city on the Whangarei Heads peninsula.
The summit offers outstanding views of  Bream Bay and the Hauraki Gulf to the south, Whangarei Harbour to the west and the Poor Knights Islands and Northland coast to the north.
Mt Manaia - along with Mt Lion, Bream Head and the Hen and Chicken Islands, are the scattered remnants of a large, 50 kilometer diameter volcano that erupted with force 20 million years ago during the early miocene period. Its jagged outline is similar to that of its neighbours and other volcanic outcrops in Northland that erupted in a similar period.
Today blanketed by native bush, Manaia's jagged peaks and steep bluffs are protected within a Department of Conservation reserve which features a well-maintained 1½ hour track to the summit.

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

SPRINGBROOK MOUNTAIN / MT MUMJIN BY ALBERT TUCKER

ALBERT TUCKER (1914-1999)

Springbrook Mountain / Mt Mumjin (1,020 m - 3,350 ft) 

Australia (Queensland)

In Springbrook Landscape, c. 1971, watercolor

The mountain
Springbrook Mountain or Mt Mumjin (1,020 m - 3,350 ft) is the highest point of Springbrook plateau in the Gold Coast hinterland of South East Queensland, Australia.  The plateau is covered in subtropical rainforest and crossed by many small creeks. The area has excellent views to the Gold Coast and is known for its cliffs, waterfalls and forest walks, most of which are protected in the Springbrook National Park.
The timbered plateau was settled relatively late with both the area's inaccessibility and timber reserve status acting as deterrents. In 1906, the area ceased to be a timber reserve and was opened for agricultural settlement.  In the same year the first group of settlers, including James Hardy, arrived from northern New South Wales and referred to the new settlement as Springwood. Following the request of postal officials to change the name to avoid confusion with another location in New South Wales, the area became known as Springbrook.  Dairying was encouraged but the settlers found farming difficult and instead cleared for the land for timber.  By the 1930s Springbrook was almost completely cleared of trees.  In 1911, a school opened and by 1947 a community hall had been built.  Tourism has been the major industry since the 1920s, with many guesthouses opening during this period. A decent road up the mountain was built in the mid 1920s with the first car reaching the settlement in June 1926.  The first declaration of a national park on the plateau was Warrie National Park in 1937.[ The post office was closed in 1958. A memorial to the pioneering settlers of the area was built in 1961 to celebrate 50 years since opening of the former Springbrook State School.
Springbrook was originally known as the Numinbah Plateau.  Springwood was the first name chosen for the locality, however it was changed to Springbrook to avoid confusion with mail deliveries to another Springwood located in the Blue Mountains.

Road access to this eastern Scenic Rim mountain is via Mudgeeraba along the Springbrook Road and from Numinbah Valley via Pine Creek Road. The plateau is part of a biodiversity hot spot. It is part of the Scenic Rim Important Birdlife Area.

The painter
Albert Lee Tucker was an Australian artist, and member of the Heide Circle, a group of modernist artists and writers that centred on the art patrons John and Sunday Reed, whose home, "Heide", located in Bulleen, near Heidelberg (outside Melbourne), was a haven for the group.
Tucker's main inspirations include post-impressionists, expressionists and social realists, as well as personal experience. Tucker's work was strongly influenced by the realistic reflections of two important émigré artists, Josl Bergner and Danila Vassilieff, who arrived in Melbourne in the late 1930s about the same time that Tucker began to explore images of the Great Depression.

Tucker also met Sunday and John Reed, members of the Contemporary Art Society, which was set up in 1938 by George Bell, in opposition to the government Australian Academy of Art, which was believed to promote conservative art and not the modernists.
Tucker's first significant works were produced during his involvement in the army.

 In 1940, Tucker was called up for army service and spent most of his time working in Heidelberg Military Hospital drawing patients suffering from wounds and mental illnesses as a result of war. He produced three important works at this stage, Man at Table, a pen and ink illustration of a man whose nose had been sliced off by a shell fragment, The Waste Land, an image of death sitting on a stool watching and waiting, and Floating Figures, of two figures floating down a hall, a third with a demented smile. All of these images illustrated the horror and madness of war, but in a style reflecting his social realists surrealistic and expressionistic style.
In 1942, Tucker was discharged from the war and returned to Melbourne. An impression of Australian soldiers, clutching young women was the catalyst for his series of works known as the Images of Modern Evil, Victory Girls, depicting Melbourne nightlife. Tucker also took to photography, both of his own paintings, and to record the ideas and scenes he used to compose them, and inadvertently created a document of his time.
In early 1947, Tucker traveled to Japan with the Australian army as an art correspondent. He produced a monochrome pen drawing called Hiroshima; it contains no figures, just the aftermath of the atomic bomb blast, with tents and shelters littering the landscape. In 1954 he met Sidney Nolan in Rome, when he produced Apocalyptic Horse and began painting Australia from memory. He was exhibited in the Venice Biennale in 1956 and then spent two years in London painting the Thames Series.
He then moved to New York in 1958 and his subjects switched from the city to outback Australia. Where some works of Sidney Nolan and Russell Drysdale had reached international level, Tucker rejected them as being nationalistic. He depicted the landscape as being a harsh, barren and sterile wasteland. He distorted stereotypes and icons of the Australian bush, including convicts, Burke and Wills and the Kelly Gang. He was influenced by the sheer barrenness and hopelessness that the outback conveyed, and added these icons as pawns to the outback’s deadly game.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LA POINTE DU RAZ / BEG AR RAZ PAINTED BY MAURICE DE VLAMINCK

MAURICE DE VLAMINCK (1876-1958)

La Pointe du Raz / Beg ar Raz (72m - 236 ft)  

France

In La pointe du Raz, Bretagne, 1950, huile sur toile, 54.5 x 65.1 cm, Private collection - Christie's

The site
Pointe du Raz / Beg ar Raz (72m - 236 ft)  is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic from western Brittany, in France. It is the western point of the commune of Plogoff, Finistère, France.
It is named after the Raz de Sein, the dangerous stretch of water between it and the island of Sein (Enez Sun in Breton). It is a dramatic place of crashing waves and strong winds. The word raz was borrowed from Norman by the Bretons and shares the same etymology as the English word race, "strong current of water"; both are from Old Norse rás. It also marks the western end of the 3,200 km E5 European long distance path to Verona in Italy.
The "La Vieille" lighthouse can be clearly seen from the headland.

The painter
Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense colour. Vlaminck was one of the Fauves at the controversial Salon d'Automne exhibition of 1905.
Two of Vlaminck's groundbreaking paintings, Sur le zinc (At the Bar) and L'homme a la pipe (Man Smoking a Pipe) were painted in 1900.

In his landscape paintings, his approach was similar. He ignored the details, with the landscape becoming a mere excuse to express mood through violent colour and brushwork. An example is Sous bois, painted in 1904. The following year, he began to experiment with "deconstruction," turning the physical world into dabs and streaks of colour that convey a sense of motion.  His paintings Le Pont de Chatou (The Chatou Bridge), Les Ramasseurs de pommes de terre (The Potato Pickers), La Seine à Chatou (The River Seine at Chatou) and Le Verger (The Orchard) exemplify this trend.
Vlaminck's compositions show familiarity with the Impressionists, several of whom had painted in the same area in the 1870s and 1880s. After visiting a Van Gogh exhibit, he declared that he "loved Van Gogh that day more than my own father".

 From 1908 his palette grew more monochromatic, and the predominant influence was that of Cézanne. His later work displayed a dark palette, punctuated by heavy strokes of contrasting white paint.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOELWYN MAWR PAINTED BY SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS

SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS (1918-2006)

Moelwyn Mawr (770 m - 2,530 ft)

United Kingdom ( Wales) 

In The Moelwyn in winter, oil on canvas 

The mountain 
Moelwyn Mawr  (770 m - 2,530 ft) is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales and forms part of the Moelwynion. Its summit overlooks the Vale of Ffestiniog and has views in all directions. is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales and forms part of the Moelwynion. Its summit overlooks the Vale of Ffestiniog and has views in all directions.

Slate quarrying was a major industry for many years in the Moelwynion. Moelwyn Mawr's flanks have several major quarries on them. To the west is Croesor Quarry perched high above Cwm Croesor. To the north west is Rhosydd Quarry on the col between Cwm Croesor and Cwm Orthin. Within Cwm Orthin, Conglog and Wrysgan quarries are located on the north slope of the mountain. Within Cwm Ystradau to the east lies Moelwyn Slate Quarry.

In 1990, Moelwyn Mawr was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest of national scientific importance. The glaciated landscape of the mountain provides fine examples of two specific Pleistocene features. On the north-east flank of the mountain is a terrain of patterned ground, consisting of small-scale vegetated stripes. On the west side, a debris tongue formed by a rock glacier extends into Cwm Croesor.

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

ARARAT PAINTED BY MARTIROS SERGEYEVICH SARYAN

MARTIROS SERGEYEVICH SARYAN  (1880-1972)

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

Turkey (since 1921)

In Ararat and Yerevan, oil on canvas, Private collection 

The mountain
There are two mountains in the world called Mont Ararat : one in Turkey, one in United States of America (Pennsylvania). The one we are talking about is Mount Ararat in Turkey, which has a very long and complex political, religious, sacred and mythical history.
Mount Ararat  (5,137 m- 16,854ft)  is a snow-capped and dormant stratovolcano in the eastern extremity of Turkey.  It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey and the Armenian plateau with an elevation of 5,137 m (16,854 ft); and Little Ararat, with an elevation of 3,896 m (12,782 ft). The Ararat massif is about 40 km (25 mi) in diameter and  is part of the range of Armenian Highlands.
Mountains of Ararat  have been perceived as the traditional resting place of Noah's Ark since the 11th century. It is the principal national symbol of Armenia and has been considered a sacred mountain by Armenians. It is featured prominently in Armenian literature and art and is an icon for Armenian irredentism. Along with Noah's Ark, it is depicted on the coat of arms of Armenia.
Mount Ararat forms a near-quadripoint between Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
 Its summit is located some 16 km (10 mi) west of both the Iranian border and the border of the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, and 32 km (20 mi) south of the Armenian border. The Turkish–Armenian–Azerbaijani and Turkish–Iranian–Azerbaijani tripoints are some 8 km apart, separated by a narrow strip of Turkish territory containing the E99 road which enters Nakhchivan at 39.6553°N 44.8034°E.
From the 16th century until 1828 Great Ararat's summit and the northern slopes, along with the eastern slopes of Little Ararat were part of Persia, while the range was part of the Ottoman-Persian border. Following the 1826–28 Russo-Persian War and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Persian controlled territory was ceded to the Russian Empire. Little Ararat became the point where the Turkish, Persian, and Russian imperial frontiers converged...
More about Mount Ararat

The painter
Martiros Saryan ( Մարտիրոս Սարյան) was  the founder of a modern Armenian national school of painting. In 1895, aged 15, he completed the Nakhichevan school and from 1897 to 1904 studied at the Moscow School of Arts, including in the workshops of Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. He was heavily influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. He exhibited his works in various shows. He had works shown at the Blue Rose Exhibit in Moscow.
He first visited Armenia, then part of the Russian Empire, in 190. He composed his first landscapes depicting Armenia  (1902-1903- which were highly praised in the Moscow press.
From 1910 to 1913 he traveled extensively in Turkey, Egypt and Iran. In 1915 he went to Echmiadzin to help refugees who had fled from the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1916 he traveled to Tiflis (now Tbilisi) where he married Lusik Agayan. It was there that he helped organise the Society of Armenian Artists.
After the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 he went with his family to live in Russia. In 1921 they moved to Armenia.  While most of his work reflected the Armenian landscape, he also designed the coat of arms for Armenian SSR and designed the curtain for the first Armenian state theatre.
From 1926–1928 he lived and worked in Paris, but most works from this period were destroyed in a fire on board the boat on which he returned to the Soviet Union. From 1928 until his death, Saryan lived in Soviet Armenia.
In the difficult years of the 1930s, he mainly devoted himself again to landscape painting, as well as portraits. He also was chosen as a deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet and was awarded the Order of Lenin three times and other awards and medals. He was a member of the USSR Art Academy (1974) and Armenian Academy of Sciences (1956).
Saryan died in Yerevan on 5 May 1972.  His former home in Yerevan is now a museum dedicated to his work with hundreds of items on display. He was buried in Yerevan at the Pantheon next to Komitas Vardapet.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MONS RÜMKER PHOTOGRAPHED BY APOLLO 15 MISSION

APOLLO 15 MISSION (July 26, 1971-August 7. 1971) 

Mons Rümker (1,100m -  3,609 ft) 

The Moon 

This picture of the Mons Rümker was taken from the NASA Apollo 15 mission while in lunar orbit. 

The mountain 
Mons Rümker (1,100m -  3,609 ft) is an isolated volcanic formation that is located in the northwest part of the Moon's near side, at selenographic coordinates 40.8° N, 58.1° W and is the planned landing site of the Chang'e 5 mission. The feature forms a large, elevated mound in the northern part of the Oceanus Procellarum. The mound has a diameter of 70 kilometres, and climbs to a maximum elevation of about 1,100 metres above the surrounding plain. It was named after the german astronomer Karl L. C. Rümker (1788-1822). 

Mons Rümker has a concentration of 30 lunar domes—rounded bulges across the top, some of which contain a small craterlet at the peak.  These are wide, circular features with a gentle slope rising in elevation a few hundred meters to the midpoint. Lunar domes are similar to shield volcanoes, and are the result of lava erupting from localized vents followed by relatively slow cooling.
Mons Rümker is surrounded by a scarp that separates it from the adjacent mare. The plateau rises to an altitude of 900 m in the west, 1,100 m in the south and 650 m in the east. The surface of Mons Rümker is relatively uniform, with a strong spectroscopic signature of lunar mare material. The estimated volume of lava extruded to create this feature is 1,800 km3.

The mission
Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the United States' Apollo program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed
"J missions", long stays on the Moon, with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions. It was also the first mission on which the Lunar Roving Vehicle was used.
The mission began on July 26, 1971, and ended on August 7. At the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved.
Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18Ѕ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity (EVA). The mission landed near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus (Marsh of Decay). The crew explored the area using the first lunar rover, which allowed them to travel much farther from the Lunar Module (LM) than had been possible on missions without the rover. They collected 77 kilograms (170 lb) of lunar surface material. At the same time, Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden orbited the Moon, using a Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) in the Service Module (SM) to study the lunar surface and environment in great detail with a panoramic camera, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a mapping camera, a laser altimeter, a mass spectrometer, and a lunar sub-satellite deployed at the end of Apollo 15's stay in lunar orbit (an Apollo program first).
The mission successfully accomplished its objectives. Ironically, this mission was one of very few that had been honored with the issue of a commemorative US stamp, with this first use of a lunar rover happening one decade after the first Mercury astronaut launch.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

EL COTOPAXI (3) BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900) 

Cotopaxi (5, 897 m - 19, 347 ft)

Ecuador

In Cotopaxi volcano, oil on canvas, c.1855, Museum of Fines Arts Boston

About this painting 

Church has painted such a lot of times the Cotopaxi than you must have a second look to  determine  it the one you are looking at is the good one or a new view. 

Painted after Frederic Edwin Church’s first trip to Ecuador in 1853, The Andes of Ecuador combines the scientific and religious concerns of Church’s time in one grand panorama. The infinite botanical detail, the terrifying depths of the abyss, and the overwhelming sense of unlimited space combine to communicate a powerful sense of the sublime.” The painting encourages both distanced and close viewing through a dramatic sweeping vista that contains several small vignettes and seemingly endless details. 

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

The mountain 

Cotopaxi  (5,897 m - 19,347 ft)  is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, 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.

More about Frederic Edwin Church 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

EREBUS SEEN BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859) 

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

Antarctica (Ross Island)

In Mount Erebus- Watercolour from Views of Polar region, Yale Center for British arts, Connectitcut,USA

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.
The mountain was surveyed in December 1912 by a science party from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition who also collected geological samples. Two of the camp sites they used have been recognised for their historic significance:
- Upper “Summit Camp” site (HSM 89) consists of part of a circle of rocks, which were probably used to weight the tent valances.
- Lower “Camp E” site (HSM 90) consists of a slightly elevated area of gravel as well as some aligned rocks, which may have been used to weight the tent valances.
They have been designated Historic Sites or Monuments following a proposal by the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.
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.

The artist 
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith,  was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of  beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of  the Yale Center From British Art. Among them  :

- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors), 

- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82  watercolors),  Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74  watercolors),

- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68watercolors) , Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78)  watercolors),  

- Views of Polar Regions (75  watercolors) (see above) 

- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors), 

But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms.  He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.

As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles. 

He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and TheNatural history of dogs.

Quite a productive fellow ! 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MITRE PEAK/KARAKORAM AND MUZTAGH TOWER BY VITTORIO SELLA

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1943), 

Mitre Peak - Karakoram (6,010 m  - 9,720 ft)  

Pakistan

Muztagh Tower (7,276m - 23, 871ft)

China, Pakistan border 

In Karakoram 1909- Mitre Peak and Mustag  tower, 1909, 

during the Expedition of Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia

The mountain 

1.Mitre Peak (6,010 m - 19,720 ft)  (left in the photo) - not to be confused with Mitre Peak/Rahotu in New Zealand (South Island) - is a mountain in the Karakoram mountain range near Concordia in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. 

Mitre Peak marks the confluence of the branches of the Baltoro Glacier with the Gasherbrum branch arriving from the SE and the Godwin Austin branch arriving from the NE. It sits across from Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain on Earth. 

The first ascent was made by the high mountain guide Ivano Ghirardini alone in June 1980, following a mixed path that follows the corridor on the right side from the Baltoro glacier. The route joins the so-called "moon crescent" ridge that connects the Miter peak to the surrounding peaks at 5,700 meters above sea level. A very steep rocky bastion and a terminal wall lead to the summit which is so narrow that the mountaineer had to sit there. Return is via the same route that may prove dangerous due to the risk of avalanches. 

This ascent has never been reiterated. 

 2. Muztagh Tower (7,276m - 23, 871ft) (bottom-right in the photo)  is a mountain in the Baltoro Muztagh, part of the Karakoram range in Baltistan on the border of the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. It stands between the basins of the Baltoro and Sarpo Laggo glaciers.

The Vittorio Sella's photographs of the Muztagh Tower in 1909 during the Italian Expediiton of the Duke of Abruzzi to K2, inspired the first ascent.

Nearly fifty years after Sella's photo was taken, in 1956, his photograph inspired two expeditions to race for the first ascent. Both teams found their routes less steep than Sella's view had suggested. The British expedition, consisting of John Hartog, Joe Brown, Tom Patey and Ian McNaught-Davis, came from the Chagaran Glacier on the west side of the peak and reached the summit via the Northwest Ridge first on July 6, five days before the French team (Guido Magnone, Robert Paragot, André Contamine, Paul Keller) climbed the mountain from the east. The doctor François Florence waited for the two parties at the camp IV during 42 hours without a radio, when they went, reached the summit and came back to this camp.

The artist 

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 in 1909 ; 

- In Morocco in 1925. 

During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2), 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

K2 PEAK PAINTED BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

The K2 peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft) 

China - Pakistan border

In Himalayas. Rain, 1933, tempera. Nicholas Roerich Museum, NYC

The mountain 

K2 peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft)  also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest. It is located on the China-Pakistan border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.

The name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labeling them K1 and K2.

The policy of the Great Trigonometric Survey was to use local names for mountains wherever possible and K1 was found to be known locally as Masherbrum. K2, however, appeared not to have acquired a local name, possibly due to its remoteness. The mountain is not visible from Askole, the last village to the south, or from the nearest habitation to the north, and is only fleetingly glimpsed from the end of the Baltoro Glacier, beyond which few local people would have ventured. The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ("big") and ri ("mountain") has been suggested as a local name, but evidence for its widespread use is scant. It may have been a compound name invented by Western explorers or simply a bemused reply to the question "What's that called?" It does, however, form the basis for the name Qogir (simplified Chinese: 乔戈里峰; traditional Chinese: 喬戈里峰; pinyin: Qiбogēlǐ Fēng) by which Chinese authorities officially refer to the peak. Other local names have been suggested including Lamba Pahar ("Tall Mountain" in Urdu) and Dapsang, but are not widely used.

More about the K2 peak =>

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.

More about the painter = >

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau