KANGCHENJUNGA (2) PAINTED BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

 

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947),

Kangchenjunga (8, 538m - 28,169 ft)

India, Népal

In Kangchenjunga at sunset  1944, tempera on canvas, Private collection

The mountain
Kangchenjunga (8,586 m - 28,169 ft) is the third highest mountain in the world. It lies partly in Nepal and partly in Sikkim, India. Kangchenjunga is the second highest mountain of the Himalayas after Mount Everest. Three of the five peaks – Main, Central and South – are on the border between North Sikkim and Nepal. Two peaks are in the Taplejung District, Nepal.
Kangchenjunga Main is the highest mountain in India, and the easternmost of the mountains higher than 8,000 m (26,000 ft).
Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest., known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest.
It is listed int the Eight Thousanders and as Seven Third Summits
Kangchenjunga is the official spelling adopted by Douglas Freshfield, A. M. Kellas, and the Royal Geographical Society that gives the best indication of the Tibetan pronunciation. Freshfield referred to the spelling used by the Indian Government since the late 19th century. There are a number of alternative spellings including Kangchendzцnga, Khangchendzonga, and Kanchenjunga.
Local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal to the devout when the world is in peril; the treasures comprise salt, gold, turquoise and precious stones, sacred scriptures, invincible armor or ammunition, grain and medicine. Kangchenjunga's name in the Limbu language is Senjelungma or Seseylungma, and is believed to be an abode of the omnipotent goddess Yuma Sammang.
It rises in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies about 128 km (80 mi) east of Mount Everest.
Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that
Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition. They stopped short of the summit as per the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition...

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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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LUSHAN / 庐山 BY WU GUANZHONG / 吴冠中

WU GUANZHONG / 吴冠中 (1919- 2010)

Lushan / 庐山 or Mount Lu (1,474m- 4,834ft)

China

In Lushan Songshi, ink on paper, 1987

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山)  ( (1,474m- 4,834ft) is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. Mount Lushan is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism, where the most eminent masters taught, blend effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic approach to nature found in Chinese culture.
The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbors Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (1,474m- 4,834ft) and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.
Lushan was a summer resort for Western missionaries in China. Absalom Sydenstricker, the father of Pearl Buck was one of the first five missionaries to acquire property in the Kuling Estate on the mountain.
More about Mount Lu  

The painter 
Wu Guanzhong / 吴冠中  was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting.  He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters. Wu's artworks had both Western and Eastern influences, such as the Western style of Fauvism and the Eastern style of Chinese calligraphy. Wu had painted various aspects of China, including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many of its landscapes and waterscapes in a style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s. He was also a writer on contemporary Chinese art. Most of Wu’s early works were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. It is difficult to track down works from his early days. Wu had an exhibit in 1942 when he was in school and it was hosted by the Sha Ping Youth Palace.
Wu Guanzhong has had solo exhibitions in major art galleries and museums around the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, Korea, France, England and the USA. His paintings were exhibited at the British Museum in 199;, being the first living Chinese artist to have an exhibition there. One of his paintings, Seascape at Beidaihe (1977), was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an exhibition of paintings from the collection of art dealer Robert H. Ellsworth. His work may also be seen in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
In 2008, Wu donated 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). This donation is the largest Wu Guanzhong donation to a public museum.
In 2010, Wu donated works to the Hong Kong Art Museum.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 (2) BY HIROSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 博

 

HIROSHI YOSHIDA / 吉田 博 (1876-1950)
Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)
Japan

In Fuji San from Yamanaka, Woodblock, 1937, Private Collection Japan

The mountain
Mount Fuji ( 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft) or Fujiyama (富士山) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan. 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.


Hiroshi Yoshida (not to be confused with Toshi Yoshida) was born in 1876. He began his artistic training with his adoptive father in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. Around the age of twenty, he left Kurume to study with Soritsu Tamura in Kyoto, subsequently moving to Tokyo and the tutelage of Shotaro Koyama. Yoshida studied Western-style painting, winning many exhibition prizes and making several trips to the United States, Europe and North Africa selling his watercolors and oil paintings. In 1902, he played a leading role in the organization of the Meiji Fine Arts Society into the Pacific Painting Association. His work was featured in the exhibitions of the state-sponsored Bunten and Teiten. While highly successful as an oil painter and watercolor artist, Yoshida turned to printmaking upon learning of the Western world’s infatuation with ukiyo-e.
Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Yoshida embarked on a tour of the United States and Europe, painting and selling his work. When he returned to Japan in 1925, he started his own workshop, specializing in landscapes inspired both by his native country and his travels abroad. Yoshida often worked through the entire process himself: designing the print, carving his own blocks, and printing his work. His career was temporarily interrupted by his sojourn as a war correspondent in Manchuria during the Pacific War. Although he designed his last print in 1946, Yoshida continued to paint with oils and watercolors up until his death in 1950.
Yoshida was widely traveled and knowledgeable of Western aesthetics, yet maintained an allegiance to traditional Japanese techniques and traditions. Attracted by the calmer moments of nature, his prints breathe coolness, invite meditation, and set a soft, peaceful mood. All of his lifetime prints are signed “Hiroshi Yoshida” in pencil and marked with a jizuri (self-printed) seal outside of the margin. Within the image, most prints are signed “Yoshida” with brush and ink beside a red “Hiroshi” seal.


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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

GUNUNG BATOK PAINTED BY SUDJONO ABDULLAH

SUDJONO ABDULLAH (1911-1993)

Gunung Batok (2,440 m - 8,010 ft)

Indonesia (Java) 

In  Beternak Bebek (Raising ducks), oil on canvas, 1950, Private collection Indonesia 

About the painting
This painting shows a rare view of the volcano's complex around  Gunung Bromo on the ancient caldeira of the Tengger volcano of 10 km diameter.  Bromo have emerged from this ancient caldeira and also the Batok  in front of this view. The highest mountain in back is the Semeru volcano still active at 3,676 m altitude the highest mount of Java.

The volcano
Gunung Batok  (2,440 m - 8,010 ft) is a cinder cone located in East Java, Indonesia. This volcano is located between four regencies: Probolinggo Regency, Pasuruan Regency, Lumajang Regency, and Malang Regency. The location of Mount Batok is west from Mount Bromo. This mountain is one of the inactive volcanoes located within the Tengger caldera.
In Javanese, Batok means "coconut shell". The Tenggerese people believe that Mount Batok was formed from a coconut shell which was kicked by Resi Bima, a powerful giant, after failing to fulfill the conditions proposed by Rara Anteng to marry her.

The painter
Raden Soedjono Abdullah was born in Yogyakarta, the son of Abdullah Suriosubroto, a famous landscape painter and was also the brother of Basoeki Abdullah. He used to help his father cleaning the pallet from which he found his way to be a painter. He finished his school from HIS Indonesian Dutch School and worked as a poster artist for the Rex Theater in Yogyakarta. During the Japanese colonization in Indonesia, Sudjono went to Parangtritis, Parangkusumo where he continued to paint. During the 1970s, Soedjono moved to Kertosono in East Java, where he lived up to his death.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TAAL VOLCANO PAINTED BY FERNANDO AMORSOLO

FERNANDO AMORSOLO (1882-1972)

Taal Volcano (311 m -1,020 ft) 

Philippines (Luzon)

 In Returning fischermen, oil on canvas, 1950, Private collection

The volcano
Taal Volcano  (311 m -1,020 ft)  is a large 15 x 20 km lake filled complex volcano located on Luzon island in the Philippines, in the province of Batangas. Taal is the second most active volcano in the Philippines, with 34 recorded historical eruptions, all of which were concentrated on Volcano Island, near the middle of Taal Lake. The lake partially fills Taal Caldera, which was formed by prehistoric eruptions between 140,000 and 5,380 BP.  Viewed from the Tagaytay Ridge in Cavite, Taal Volcano and Lake presents one of the most picturesque and attractive views in the Philippines. It is located about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the capital of the country, the city of Manila.
The volcano has had several violent eruptions in the past, causing loss of life on the island and the populated areas surrounding the lake, with the death toll estimated at about 6,000. Because of its proximity to populated areas and its eruptive history, the volcano was designated a Decade Volcano, worthy of close study to prevent future natural disasters.
All volcanoes of the Philippines are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
A sudden eruption occurred on January 12,, 2020 quickly escalating into Alert Level 4.  Ashfalls and volcanic thunderstorms were reported, and forced evacuations were made. Dangers of possible volcanic tsunami were also warned. The volcano produced volcanic lightning above its crater with ash clouds. The eruption progressed into magmatic eruption characterized by lava fountain with thunder and lightning.

The painter
Fernando Cueto Amorsolo was one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines.Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light...
- More about Fernando Amorsolo

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TARANAKI / MOUNT EGMONT BY CHARLES DECIMUS BARRAUD

 

CHARLES DECIMUS BARRAUD (1822-1897)

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

New Zealand (North Island)

In Mount Egmont Taranaki,  watercolour, 1870, Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand

The mountain
Taranaki or Mount Egmont (2,518 m - 8,261 ft) is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand Geographic Board. The mountain is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak or Panitahi in Māori (1,966 me - 6,450 ft), on the south side.
 For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki by Māori. The Māori word tara means mountain peak, and naki is thought to come from ngaki, meaning "shining", a reference to the snow-clad winter nature of the upper slopes. It was also named Pukehaupapa and Pukeonaki by Iwi who live in the region in ancient times.
According to Māori mythology, Taranaki once resided in the middle of the North Island, with all the other New Zealand volcanoes. The beautiful Pihanga was coveted by all the mountains, and a great battle broke out between them. Tongariro eventually won the day, inflicted great wounds on the side of Taranaki, and causing him to flee. Taranaki headed westwards, following Te Toka a Rahotu and forming the deep gorges of the Whanganui River, paused for a while, creating the depression that formed the Te Ngaere swamp, then heading north. Further progress was blocked by the Pouakai ranges, and as the sun came up Taranaki became petrified in his current location. When Taranaki conceals himself with rainclouds, he is said to be crying for his lost love, and during spectacular sunsets, he is said to be displaying himself to her. In turn, Tongariro's eruptions are said to be a warning to Taranaki not to return....

The artist
Charles Decimus Barraud was born in Camberwell, London, England. he wanted to become a doctor, but his father, a clerk in the Custom House,  died when Charles was only 11 years old and his family could not afford the expensive training. He had to content himself with qualifying as a chemist and druggist.
Long Biography 

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT TARAWERA / PINK TERRACES PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHARLES SPENCER

 

CHARLES SPENCER (1854-1933)

Mount Tarawera / Pink and White Terraces  (1, 111m - 3,645ft) 

 New Zealand

 In Pink Terraces- c.1900, black and white phototgraphs hand colored, 

Museum of New Zealand / Te Papa Tongarewa

The volcano and the terraces
On 10 June 1886, Mount Tarawera  (1, 111m - 3,645ft) erupted. The eruption spread from west of Wahanga dome, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the north, down to Lake Rotomahana. The volcano belched out hot mud, red hot boulders, and immense clouds of black ash from a 17 kilometres (11 mi) rift that crossed the mountain, passed through the lake, and extended beyond into the Waimangu valley.
After the eruption, a crater over 100 metres (330 ft) in depth encompassed the former site of the terraces.  After some years this filled with water to form a new Lake Rotomahana, 30–40 metres (98–131 ft) higher, ten times larger and deeper than the old lake.  This  explosive basaltic eruption  killed an estimated 120 people.
Alfred Patchet Warbrick, a boat builder at Te Wairoa, witnessed the eruption of Mount Tarawera from Maunga Makatiti to the north of Lake Tarawera. Warbrick soon had whaleboats on Lake Tarawera investigating the new landscape; he in time became the chief guide to the post-eruption attractions. Warbrick never accepted that the Pink and White Terraces had been destroyed

The photographer
When Tarawera erupted only a few weeks later, Geological Survey director James Hector and assistant geologist James Park disembarked at Tauranga on 12 June, en route to the Rotorua lakes district to report on the disturbance. He immediately engaged Charles Spencer who was already a famous photograph in new Zealand, to accompany the party and record the effects of the eruption.
By the time Spencer returned to Tauranga a week later he had accumulated an initial set of plates which he developed and printed. He then returned to Te Wairoa on 8 July and took several more views during a brief spell of decent weather. At the end of the month he made a third visit, accompanying Percy Smith’s surveying party for almost a week, and taking a number of views between the Ruawahia Dome on Tarawera and the craters to the south-west near Rotomahana.
Although no definitive lists exist, it is likely that Spencer produced several dozen views of the Rotorua hot lakes district before and after the eruption, and as a result his are some of the better known images, in collections throughout the world.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT WELLINGTON / KUNANYI (2) BY WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT

 

WILLIAM CHARLES PIGUENIT (1836-1914)
Mount Wellington - Kunanyi (1, 269m - 4, 163ft)
Australia (Tasmania)

In Mount Wellington and Eucalyptii at sunset , 1880, oil on canvas

The mountain
Mount Wellington (1,269m - 4,163ft) also known as Unghbanyahletta or Poorawetter or Kunanyi in Aboriginal langage, is located in the southeast coastal region of Tasmania, Australia. The Palawa, the surviving descendants of the original indigenous Tasmanians, tend to prefer the latter name. In 2013, a Tasmanian dual naming policy was announced and "Kunanyi - Mount Wellington" was named as one of the inaugural dual named geographic features.
The mountain is the summit of the Wellington Range on whose foothills is built much of the city of Hobart. Mount Wellington is frequently covered by snow, sometimes even in summer, and the lower slopes are thickly forested, but criss-crossed by many walking tracks and a few fire trails. There is also a sealed narrow road to the summit, about 22 kilometres (14 mi) from Hobart central business district. An enclosed lookout near the summit provides spectacular views of the city below and to the east, the Derwent estuary, and also glimpses of the World Heritage Area nearly 100 kilometres (62 mi) west. From Hobart, the most distinctive feature of Mount Wellington is the cliff of dolerite columns known as the Organ Pipes.
The first recorded European in the area Abel Tasman probably did not see the mountain in 1642, as his ship was quite a distance out to sea as he sailed up the South East coast of the island - coming closer in near present-day North and Marion Bays. No other Europeans visited Tasmania until the late eighteenth century, when several visited southern Tasmania (then referred to as Van Diemens Land) including Frenchman Marion du Fresne (1772), Englishmen Tobias Furneaux (1773), James Cook (1777) and William Bligh (1788 and 1792), and Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1792–93).
In February 1836, Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town and climbed Mount Wellington. In his book "The Voyage of the Beagle", Darwin described the mountain thus;
"... In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed a noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one which must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour of the night. The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is 3,100 feet [940 m] above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view; to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline: to the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with clearness before us. ..."

The painter
William Charles Piguenit also known as W.C. Piguenit or Bill Piguenit was an Australian landscape painter, amateur photographer, draughtsman and explorer, born in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. The family can be traced back to Pons, in the province of Saintonge, France, from which, as Huguenots, they escaped after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 to settle in Bristol, Somerset. William Charles attended Cambridge House Academy in Hobart; a school report of 18 December 1849 praises his 'mapping, particularly that of Van Diemen’s Land’. In September 1850, as an assistant draughtsman, he joined the Tasmanian Lands and Survey Department where much of his time was spent preparing maps of Tasmania.
When Piguenit exhibited at Melbourne in 1870, showing a watercolour sketch of Mount Wellington from the Huon Road, the Daily Telegraph of 20 July called him 'a young artist who gives promise of better things’. His love for the Tasmanian landscape and his improved artistic ability led to his being invited to accompany James R. Scott’s expedition to Arthur Plains and Port Davey in March 1871 as official artist. The results of the trip formed the basis for later illustrations in the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and in R.M. Johnston’s Systematic Account of the Geology of Tasmania.
Having won another silver medal from the academy in 1875 for Mount Olympus, Lake St Clair, Tasmania (see above), Piguenit sent five of his Grose Valley oil landscapes to the academy’s 1876 exhibition and was awarded a certificate of merit for one, though the Sydney Mail critic was tepid in his praise: 'It would be enough to say that they are all very nicely painted and that all have about the same colour and tone’.
Regarded as the leading Australian-born landscape painter in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Piguenit was a founding committee member of the Art Society of New South Wales (elected Vice President in 1886) and regularly showed work in its exhibitions. He was represented in many major exhibitions, such as the 1880 Melbourne International, and he received many awards, including silver medals in 1874 and 1875 from the NSW Academy of Art, two second prizes at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition and gold medals from the 1883 Calcutta International and the 1888 Queensland Art Society and Tasmanian Juvenile Industries exhibitions. He was hung in the Paris Salon in 1893 and at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1894 (Scene on the Upper Nepean River, now AGNSW). A Tasmanian view near Prince of Wales Bay was presented by the Government House Literary Society to their founder and patron, Lady Hamilton, on her departure in 1892.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT YORK BY AUGUSTUS EARLE

  

AUGUSTUS EARLE  (1793-1838)

Mount York (1,061 m -3,481 ft)

Australia  (New South Wales)

  In View at the summit of Mount York,  engraving, 1826, Private collection Asutralia

The mountain
Mount York (1,061 m -3,481 ft) a mountain in the western region of the Explorer Range, part of the Blue Mountains Range that is a spur off the Great Dividing Range, is located approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) west of Sydney, just outside Mount Victoria in New South Wales, Australia. Mount York is a projection of the Blue Mountains dissected plateau, creating a promontory of the western escarpment with a minor rise at its summit. Lockley Promontory and Mount York Promontory both jut northwest from the western escarpment, and begin at Mount Victoria, a small mountain village.  Mount York is mainly forested in Eucalypt growth, mostly open canopied. Several small creeks that flow into the Coxs River system run down its side.
Mount York was the point where Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth viewed the Hartley Valley and the 'west' for the first time during their successful crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, although some Europeans had already reached the valley before them.

The artist
Augustus Earle was a London-born travel artist...
- Augustus Earle (short biography)
- Augustus Earle (complete biography)

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MACDONNELL RANGES (2) PAINTED BY ALBERT NAMATJIRA

 

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959)

Mount Zeil ot Urlatherrke (1,531 m - 5,023 ft)

Australia

In MacDonnell Range, watercolour, 1957, Private collection Australia 

The mountain
Mount Zeil (1,531m - 5,023ft) Urlatherrke in aboriginal naming, is a mountain situated in the western MacDonnell Ranges in Australia's Northern Territory, often poainted by Albert Namatjira. It is the highest peak in the Northern Territory, and the highest peak on the Australian mainland west of the Great Dividing Range. The others peaks of MacDonnell Ranges are : Mount Liebig (1,524m - 5,000 ft), Mount Edward (1,423m - 4,669 ft), Mount Giles (1,389m - 4,557 ft) and Mount Sonder (1,380m - 4,530 ft).
It is believed that Mount Zeil was named during or following Ernest Giles' 1872 expedition, probably after Count Zeil, who had recently distinguished himself with geographic explorations in Spitzbergen; a footnote in Giles' published journal implies that the naming was instigated by his benefactor, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller.
The MacDonnell Ranges, a mountain range and an interim Australian bioregion, is located in the Northern Territory, comprising 3,929,444 hectares (9,709,870 acres). The range is a 644 km (400 mi) long series of mountains located in the centre of Australia, and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs. The mountain range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of aboriginal significance. The ranges were named after Sir Richard MacDonnell (the Governor of South Australia at the time) by John McDouall Stuart, whose 1860 expedition reached them in April of that year. The Horn Expedition investigated the ranges as part of the scientific expedition into central Australia. Other explorers of the range included David Lindsay and John Ross.The headwaters of the Todd, Finke and Sandover rivers form in the MacDonnell Ranges. The range is crossed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and the Stuart Highway. Part of the Central Ranges xeric scrub ecoregion of dry scrubby grassland the ranges are home to a large number of endemic species including the Centralian Tree Frog. This is mostly due to the micro climates that are found around the cold rock pools.
The MacDonnell Ranges were often depicted in the paintings of Albert Namatjira.

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.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT BOGONG PAINTED BY EUGENE VON GUERARD

  

EUGENE VON GUERARD (1811-1901)
Mount Bogong (1,986 m - 6 515ft)
Australia (Victoria)

In Spring in the valley of the Mitta Mitta with the Bogong Ranges in the distance, 1863, oil on canvas 43.5 × 69.3 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

The mountain
Mount Bogong (1,986 m- ) is the highest point in the state of Victoria in Australia, in the Victorian Alps south of the Australian Cordillera. The first ascent was made in 1854 by a botanist, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller. His name is of aboriginal origin and means "the fat guy".
In winter the summit serves as a ski resort but the snow periods are limited.
The foot of the mountain is covered with thick forests of Eucalyptus delegatensis up to an altitude of 1,300 meters. from 1,300 meters to 1,800 meters, of Eucalyptus pauciflora wood and over alpine meadows.
The Bogong is also the name of a butterfly that reproduces in the region and whose larva was consumed by the aborigines.

The painter
Johann Joseph Eugene von Guerard was an Austrian-born artist, active in Australia from 1852 to 1882. Known for his finely detailed landscapes in the tradition of the Düsseldorf school of painting, he is represented in Australia's major public galleries, and is referred to in the country as Eugene von Guerard. In 1852 von Guerard arrived in Victoria, Australia, determined to try his luck on the Victorian goldfields. As a gold-digger he was not very successful, but he did produce a large number of intimate studies of goldfields life, quite different from the deliberately awe-inspiring landscapes for which he was later to become famous. Realizing that there were opportunities for an artist in Australia, he abandoned the diggings and was soon undertaking commissions recording the dwellings and properties of wealthy pastoralists.
By the early 1860s, von Guerard was recognized as the foremost landscape artist in the colonies, touring Southeast Australia and New Zealand in pursuit of the sublime and the picturesque. He is most known for the wilderness paintings produced during this time, which are remarkable for their shadowy lighting and fastidious detail. Indeed, his View of Tower Hill in south-western Victoria was used as a botanical template over a century later when the land, which had been laid waste and polluted by agriculture, was systematically reclaimed, forested with native flora and made a state park. The scientific accuracy of such work has led to a reassessment of von Guerard's approach to wilderness painting, and some historians believe it likely that the landscapist was strongly influenced by the environmental theories of the leading scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Others attribute his 'truthful representation' of nature to the criterion for figure and landscape painting set by the Düsseldorf Academy.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT EREBUS (2) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

 

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

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

Antarctica

 In  Mt Erebus - Aug. 17. 1911 - Noon.' on the mount,  Watercolour on paper, 13.1 x 21.1cm, 

Private collection (via Christie's)

About this watercolour
'The Summit of Mount Erebus' taken in August 1911, facing p.150.
Very similkar to  Mount Erebus 1911, watercolour,  Museum- Royal Geographical Society,
Notes :
"Thursday, August 17. - The weather has been extremely kind to us of late; we haven't a single grumble against it. Th temperature hovers pretty constantly at about -35°, there is very little wind and the sky is clear and bright. In such weather one sees well for more than three hours before and after noon, the landscape unfolds itself, and the sky colours are always delicate and beautiful. At noon today there was bright sunlight on the tops of the Western Peaks and on the summit and steam of Erebus -- of late the vapour cloud of Erebus has been exceptionally heavy and fantastic in form."

About Mount Erebus 

About the artist  


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2020 - Wandering Vertexes.
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT TACOMA / MOUNT RAINIER BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859)

Mount Tacoma / Mont Rainier (4,392 m -14,411 ft)

United States of America (Washington)

In Mount Rainier from the South Part of Admiralty Inlet, Watercolor and graphite from Views of Polar region, Yale Center for British arts, Connectitcut USA.

The mountain
Mount Rainier, Mount Tacoma, or Mount Tahoma (4,392 m-14,411 ft) is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a large active stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) south-southeast of Seattle. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
Mount Rainier was first known by the Native Americans as Talol, or Tacoma or Tahoma.
The current name was given by George Vancouver, who named it in honor of his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. The map of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 refers to it as "Mt. Regniere". Mount Rainier is ranked third of the 128 ultra-prominent mountain peaks of the United States.
With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq mi (93 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft (300 m) in diameter, with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters, with nearly 2 mi (3.2 km) of passages. The Carbon, Puyallup, Mowich, Nisqually, and Cowlitz Rivers begin at eponymous glaciers of Mount Rainier. The sources of the White River are Winthrop, Emmons, and Fryingpan Glaciers. The White, Carbon, and Mowich join the Puyallup River, which discharges into Commencement Bay at Tacoma; the Nisqually empties into Puget Sound east of Lacey; and the Cowlitz joins the Columbia River between Kelso and Longview.

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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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT CAUBVICK/ MONT D'IBERVILLE PAINTED BY ARTHUR P. COLEMAN

 

 

ARTHUR P. COLEMAN (1852-1939)

Mount Caubvick / Mont D'Iberville (1,652 m -5,420 ft) 

Canada (Labrador /Quebec border) 

In Mountains South of Nakvak, Labrador; oil on canvas, 1910, Private collection

The mountain 
Mount Caubvick / Mont D'Iberville (1,652 m -5,420 ft)  is a mountain located in Canada on the border between Labrador and Quebec in the Selamiut Range of the Torngat Mountains. Mount Caubvick is the highest point in mainland Canada east of the Rockies. The mountain contains a massive peak that rises sharply from nearby sea level. Craggy ridges, steep cirques and glaciers are prominent features of the peak.
The alp was named Mont d'Iberville by the Quebec government in 1971. It remained nameless on the Labrador side for several years; it became known unofficially as L1, L for Labrador and 1 for highest. In 1981, at the suggestion of Dr. Peter Neary, the provincial government named the mountain after Caubvick, one of the five Inuit who accompanied George Cartwright to England in 1772.
Mount Caubvick also hosts the highest point in both the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, although the summit itself lies about 10 metres (33 ft) northeast of the Quebec provincial border and is entirely within Labrador.

The painter
Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian a geologist, professor, minerals prospector, artist, Rockies explorer, backwoods canoeist, world traveller, scientist, popular lecturer, museum administrator, memoirist and... one of Canada’s most beloved scientist.
Arthur Coleman is a fine example of that rare bird, a polished amateur artist whose drawings and paintings stand comfortably beside those of many professionals. He was active during the time when sketching and painting was ceding to photography the task of recording the visible world. Although he was also a photographer, painting was, for him, both a poetic and a descriptive pursuit, a way of wrapping an artistic expression around a phenomenon he was interested in or moved by. Thus motivated, Coleman's paintings give much joy and command a good deal of respect. The more surprising, perhaps given that he used to introduced himself more as a geologist than a painter.
Coleman travelled throughout the United States for professional conferences as well as geological field work. He visited many of the major American mountain ranges including: the American Cordillera Mountains (Washington, Oregon and California); the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California and Nevada); Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho); and the Appalachian Mountains (eastern United States). Pleistocene glaciation had extended in Northern Europe as far south as Berlin and London and covered an area of two million square miles. Coleman also visited such countries as India, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Bolivia, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay. In his final years he made two expeditions to the Andes in Colombia, to mountains in Southern Mexico and to two mountains in Central America. He achieved the first ascent of Castle Mountain in 1884, and in 1907, he was the first white man to attempt to climb Mount Robson. He made a total of eight exploratory trips to the Canadian Rockies, wholly four of them looking for the mythical giants of Hooker and Brown.
"Mount Coleman" and "Coleman Glacier" in Banff National Park are named in his honor.
He was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1936.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT MANSFIELD (2) BY SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD

 

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft)
United States of America (Vermont) - Canada border

In A Sketch of Mansfield Mountain, 1858,  Private collection 

About the painting 
One can be amused by the similarities betwee the painting above and the one painted by an other fmous Husdon  River School painter, Jerome B. Thompson,  made the same year, at the same season and at exactly the same place. One can suspects Sanford R.Gifford is depiected in the Jerome B. Thompson 's painting and  Jerome B. Thompson in the Sanford R. Gifford 's one ! 

The mountain
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft) is the highest mountain in Vermont. The summit is located within the town of Underhill in Chittenden County; the ridgeline, including some secondary peaks, extends into the town of Stowe in Lamoille County, and the mountain's flanks also reach into the town of Cambridge. When viewed from the east or west, this mountain has the appearance of a (quite elongated) human profile, with distinct forehead, nose, lips, chin, and Adam's apple. These features are most distinct when viewed from the east; unlike most human faces, the chin is the highest point
Mount Mansfield is one of three spots in Vermont where true alpine tundra survives from the Ice Ages. A few acres exist on Camel's Hump and Mount Abraham nearby and to the south, but Mount Mansfield's summit still holds about 200 acres (81 ha). In 1980, Mount Mansfield Natural Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
Located in Mount Mansfield State Forest, the mountain is used for various recreational and commercial purposes. "The Nose" is home to transmitter towers for a number of regional radio and TV stations. [There are many hiking trails, including the Long Trail, which traverses the main ridgeline. In addition, the east flank of the mountain is used by the Stowe Mountain Resort for winter skiing. A popular tourist activity is to take the toll road (about 4 miles (6.4 km), steep, mostly unpaved, with several hairpin turns) from the Stowe Base Lodge to "The Nose" and hike along the ridge to "The Chin."

The painter
Sanford Robinson Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York and spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, the son of an iron foundry owner. He attended Brown University 1842-44, before leaving to study art in New York City in 1845. He studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the direction of the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John Rubens Smith. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical college and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. By 1847 he was sufficiently skilled at painting to exhibit his first landscape at the National Academy and was elected an associate in 1851, an academician in 1854. Thereafter Gifford devoted himself to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the early Hudson River School.
More about the painter  

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT OF HOLY CROSS PAINTED BY THOMAS MORAN

 

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Mount of the Holy Cross (4,270 m - 14, 011 ft)
 United States of America  (Colorado)

In  Mountain of  the Holy Cross, oil on canvas, 1875, Museum of the American West, Los Angeles.

The mountain 
Mount of the Holy Cross  (4,270 m - 14, 011 ft) is a high and prominent mountain summit in the northern Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. It was named for the distinctive cross-shaped snowfield on its northeast face. Under USDA Forest Service administration, the mountain was proclaimed "Holy Cross National Monument" by Herbert Hoover on May 11, 1929. The monument was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.  In 1950, it was returned to the Forest Service and lost its National Monument status. This mountain has been the subject of painters, photographers and even a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Cross of Snow. The first publicly available photograph was published in National Geographic magazine. It is still much photographed but it is not as well known today as it was in the past.
Nearby features include Bowl of Tears Lake, directly under the east face of the peak, Tuhare Lakes, in a cirque that lies south of a significant subpeak, and several other lakes. Notable locations within 35 mi (56 km) include the Dotsero volcano (near Interstate 70),  abd the famous resort of Vail and  Aspen.  The first recorded ascent of Holy Cross was in 1873, by F. V. Hayden and photographer W. H. Jackson during one of Hayden's geographical surveys. However, the peak may well have been ascended previously by miners or American Indians.

The painter
Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.
Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.
Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection with The Three Tetons painted in 1895.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT BAKER / KULSHAN PAINTED BY JONAS LIE

 

JONAS LIE  (1880-1940)

Mount Baker / Kulshan ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft

United States of America

In Mount Baker, 1925, oil on canvas, Courtesy Saranac Lake Free Library

The mountain
Mount Baker ((3,286 m - 10,781 ft), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount Saint Helens. About 30 miles (48 km)[due east of the city of Bellingham, Whatcom County, Mount Baker is the youngest volcano in the Mount Baker volcanic field. While volcanism has persisted here for some 1.5 million years, the current glaciated cone is likely no more than 140,000 years old, and possibly no older than 80–90,000 years. Older volcanic edifices have mostly eroded away due to glaciation.
After Mount Rainier, Mount Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker, 0.43 cu mi (1.79 km3) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. It is also one of the snowiest places in the world; in 1999, Mount Baker Ski Area, located 9 mi (14.5 km) to the northeast, set the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season—1,140 in (29 m; 95 ft).
Mt. Baker is the third-highest mountain in Washington and the fifth-highest in the Cascade Range, if Little Tahoma Peak, a subpeak of Mount Rainier, and Shastina, a subpeak of Mount Shasta, are not counted.[Located in the Mount Baker Wilderness, it is visible from much of Greater Victoria, Nanaimo, and Greater Vancouver in British Columbia, and to the south, from Seattle (and on clear days Tacoma) in Washington.
Indigenous peoples have known the mountain for thousands of years, but the first written record of the mountain is from Spanish explorer Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, who mapped it in 1790 as Gran Montaña del Carmelo, "Great Mount Carmel". The explorer George Vancouver renamed the mountain for 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker of HMS Discovery, who saw it on April 30, 1792.

The painter
Jonas Lie was a Norwegian-born American painter. He is best known for colorful paintings of coastlines of New England and city scenes of New York City.
Between 1901 and the memorial exhibition in 1940 his work was shown all over America. In 1905 Lie exhibited 34 pictures in the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Between 1905 and 1938 Lie had 57 one-man shows, each including from 12 to 45 paintings. He participated in important annual and biennial exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington as well as most of the world fairs. While living in Panama in 1913, he painted scenes of the construction of Panama Canal which were later donated to U.S. Military Academy at West Point in memory of the West Pointer who, as chief engineer, was most potent in channeling the isthmus, General George W. Goethals. In 1932, Jonas Lie was awarded the Knight of Order of St. Olav by the King of Norway.
Jonas Lie often depicted the sea, channels, and ships with dramatic perspective and powerful use of color. He became known for colorful impressionistic scenes of harbors & coves, painted during the many summers he spent on the coasts of New England & Canada. Throughout his prolific career he painted brilliantly colored images of the rocky coves and harbors that identify the region's dramatic shoreline.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TABLE MOUNTAIN / HOERIKWAGGO BY NITA SPILHAUS

 

 NITA SPILHAUS (1878-1967) 

Table mountain / Hoerikwaggo (1,085 m - 3,558 ft)  

South Africa

In Table Mountain from Rondebosch, watercolor, Private collection

The mountain
Table Mountain (1,085 m - 3,558 ft)  also called Hoerikwaggo is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa and forming part of the Table Mountain National Park. The main feature of Table Mountain is the level plateau approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) from side to side, edged by impressive cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town. This broad sweep of mountainous heights, together with Signal Hill, forms the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl and Table Bay harbour. The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level, about 19 metres (62 ft) higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau.
The cliffs of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"), which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by Antуnio de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503.
The flat top of the mountain is often covered by orographic clouds, formed when a south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain's slopes into colder air, where the moisture condenses to form the so-called "table cloth" of cloud. Legend attributes this phenomenon to a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks. When the table cloth is seen, it symbolizes the contest.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles. The range continues southwards to Cape Point. Table Mountain is featured in the Flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top.

The painter
Nita Spilhaus born Pauline Augusta Wilhelmina Spilhaus was a Portuguese-born South African painter, working in oil, watercolour and pastel. She is best known for her landscapes, paintings and etchings of trees, her portrayals of the Cape mountains, and depictions of the Malay Quarter.
Nita was raised by her grandfather in Lübeck, and her first training in drawing and etching took place at the Lübeck School of Art, then in Munich, where she attended a private art school run by Friedrich Fehr, the Dachau art colony just outside Munich under Adolf Hölzel, and copper engraving under Heinrich Wolff.
She moved to South Africa in 1907 because of the death of her grandfather in 1906, joining her brother Karl, and the family of her uncle Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus.
She joined the 'South African Society of Artists' soon after her arrival. The Cape Times acknowledged her talent as a graphic artist by publishing a modest booklet of 12 etchings portraying scenes in and around Cape Town.
Working from a studio in Keerom Street in Cape Town she gradually became a leading member of Cape Town's art community. When Hugo Naudé visited Munich in 1913 she took over his art classes in Worcester.
Her oil paintings were Impressionist in style, her landscapes rich in atmosphere, while her flower studies are notable for their vivid colours. She had a particular affinity with trees and her striking images of the Stone Pines around Cape Town are a recurring theme in her work.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

TAZOUDA / TONDOUTE BY JACQUES MAJORELLE

  

JACQUES MAJORELLE (1886-1962)

Tazouda / Tondoute (1,539m - 5,049 ft)  

 Morocco

In Les terrasses de Tazouda,  1949, gouache on paper,  60 x 90cm, Private collection

 The site
The site of Tazouda / Tondoute (1,539m - 5,049 ft) is  nowasays  remarkable because it is the place where was discovered in 2002, a completely unknown dinosaur, the Atlasaurus. These are, the scientists said, "the oldest known cranial remains of a sauropod" and are believed to be around 180 million years old, or the Middle Jurassic.
Named “Tazoudasaurus naïmi”, from the name of the village of Tazouda where it was discovered, this dinosaur of about 9 meters long could well be “the ancestor” of the North American sauropods “only 140 million years old years. " Evidence for a major brachiosaurus fossil dates back to 1998, with the gendarmerie discovering trafficking in bones originally discovered by a peasant on a rocky slope above his village. Scented, Moroccan scientists come to study the field and quickly realize that they have fallen on a vein of dinosaur bones. The Moroccan authorities then decided to call on foreign scientists. Under the name of “Dinoatlas”, a research agreement is signed between Moroccan and foreign researchers for a program which will last at least four years.

The painter
Jacques Majorelle son of the celebrated Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis Majorelle, was a French painter. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in 1901 and later at the Académie Julian in Paris with Schommer and Royer. Majorelle became a noted Orientalist painter, but is most remembered for constructing the villa and gardens that now carry his name, Les Jardins Majorelle in Marrakech.
In around 1917 he travelled to Morocco to recover from heart problems and after short period spent in Casablanca, he visited Marrakech, where he fell in love with the vibrant colours and quality of light he found there. Initially, he used Marrakech as a base for trips to Spain, Italy and other parts of North Africa, including Egypt. Eventually, however, he settled in Marrakech permanently.
He drew inspiration for his paintings from his trips and from Marrakesch itself. His paintings include many street scenes, souks and kasbahs as well as portraits of local inhabitants. He opened a handicrafts workshop in Marrakech and also designed posters to promote travel to Morocco. His work was profoundly affected by his voyages around the Mediterannean and North Africa. He introduced a more coloured vision, bathed in light where the drawing disappears and the image emerges from large spots of colour laid flat. It seemed as if he had discoved the sun in these countries. His style exhibited more freedom and spontaneity.
During his lifetime, many of Majorelle's paintings were sold to private buyers and remain in private collections. Some of his early works can be found in Museums around his birthplace such as the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy. Examples of his later work can be seen in the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakesch, the French Consulate of Marrakech and in the Villa at the Majorelle Gardens.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SINAÏ / JABAL MUSA BY EDWARD LEAR

 

 EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888)

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

In Arabs Approaching Mount Sinai, pencil and watercolor, 1849, (17.8 x 36.8 cm.)

Private collection (Christie's London)

The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496ft) or Jabal Mūsā or Gabal Mūsā (in arab : "Moses' Mountain" or "Mount Moses"), also known as Mount Horeb or Jebel Musa (a similarly named mountain in Morocco), is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus (and other books of the Bible) and the Quran. According to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Mount Sinai is a moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Katherine in the Sinai region. It is next to Mount Katherine (2,629 m - 8,625 ft), the highest peak in Egypt.
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths.
There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.
The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is still used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

The painter
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
Lear was already drawing "for bread and cheese" by the time he was aged 16.
In 1842, Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments. Of particular interest in Lear was the Abruzzo, which he visited in 1843, through the Marsica (Celano, Avezzano, Alba Fucens, Trasacco) and the plateau of Cinque Miglia (Castel di Sangro and Alfedena), by an old sheep track of the shepherds.
Among his travels, he visited Greece and Egypt during 1848-49, and toured India and Ceylon during 1873–75. While travelling he produced large quantities of coloured wash drawings in a distinctive style, which he converted later in his studio into oil and watercolour paintings, as well as prints for his books. His landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour. Between 1878 and 1883 Lear spent his summers on Monte Generoso, a mountain on the border between the Swiss canton of Ticino and the Italian region of Lombardy. His watercolor Mount Olympus dated 1849 in in the MET in New York City. His oil painting The Plains of Lombardy from Monte Generoso is in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford (UK).

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE ROTWAND BY EDWARD H. COMPTON

 EDWARD H. COMPTON  (1861-1960)

Rotwand (1,884 m - 6,181 ft) 

Germany (Bavaria)

The mountain 
The Rotwand ("Red Wall")  (1,884 m - 6,181 ft) is a high peak in the Mangfall Mountains in Bavaria, the highest summit in the Spitzingsee region and one of the most popular of Munich's local mountains. The summit may be reached in an easy hike from the lake of Spitzingsee on various routes. The summit can be attained even more easily from the nearby mountain station on the Taubenstein and, as a result, can often become rather overcrowded on summer's days.
In winter the Rotwand is frequently climbed by skiers. The classic Rotwand-Reib’n runs from the Spitzingsee to the Rotwand, then over the Kümpflscharte arête (1,695 m) to the Auerspitz summit (1,811 m), continuing via the alpine pasture of Großtiefentalalm (1,500 m), the Miesing saddle (1,704 m; with detours to the Hochmiesing), Kleintiefentalalm and Taubensteinhaus and back to the Spitzingsee. This tour is also possible with snowshoes.
The "problem bear", JJ1 (also known as Bruno), was believed to be the first wild bear on German soil for 170 years. He was declared a threat to humans and killed on 26 June 2006 around 4.50 am in the Rotwand area after he had been seen at the Rotwandhaus.

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

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

OSOBITA AND TATRAS MOUNTAINS BY STEFAN FILIPKIEWICZ

 

STEFAN FILIPKIEWICZ (1879-1944) 

Mount Osobita  (1,687m - 5,535ft)

Slovakia - Poland border 

In Tatra Mountains in Winter, 1910,  oil on canvas

  The painter
Stefan Filipkiewicz pronounced was a Polish painter and designer, notable for his landscapes inspired by the Young Poland movement. He was a leading representative of the Polish art nouveau style of painting.
His landscapes of the Tatra Mountains and the region of Podhale were first exhibited in Kraków in 1899 at the Palace of Art run by the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Art. Between 1900 and 1908 Filipkiewicz studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Józef Mehoffer, Leon Wyczółkowski, Jan Stanisławski and Józef Pankiewicz.
In 1908, Filipkiewicz joined the Society of Polish Artists. He became the contributing artist to the legendary Zielony Balonik art-and-literary cabaret. In 1929, Filipkiewicz was awarded the Golden Medal of the Universal Exhibition in Poznań. Four years later, he was also awarded by the Polish Academy of Skills for his works. During the 1939 Invasion of Poland he fled to Hungary, where he became an active member of several underground organizations. Arrested by the Gestapo, he was sent to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp where he was murdered.

The mountain

Osobitá  (1,687m- 5,535ft)  as its name tells ("the lonely one") is a lonely top in the northern part of the Western Slovak Tatra Mountains, about 17 km from Zakopane (Poland). It is not very high, but very distinct and far from the main Tatra ridge. Osobitá constitutes a distinct geomorphological unit which represents just by itself 12% of the surface of the Slovak Western Tatras. This moutain was mentioned as early as 1615 when Polish highlanders described the Polish Tatras (wider during this time) as extending "From Osobita to Hawran".

There are the three distinct but close tops with heights of 1,617, 1,521 and 1,587 m (the last two are separated by the pass "sedlo pod Osobitou". There many caves in this karst zone, not all yet been investigated. In 1997, the most famous are Bezdenna and Okolik. Here also, as in many other places in the Tatra Mountains, was a mining activity for iron. Now, from these times remain only few tunnels reaching dozens of meters deep. 

In the past, the mountain was an important pastoral center, with five wide meadows. In the seventeenth century it could host up to 1500 head of sheep and cows. Later it decreased. 

Osobitá separates 3 valleys: Zuberska Dolina, Blatna Dolina and Oravicka Sucha Dolina. No other summit of the Orava region is as clearly visible, and very early the mountain attracted a lot of visitors. The first recorded visit was made by Titus Chałubiński in 1870, the first recorded winter one by Mariusz Zaruski with companions in 1906. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was even a mountain hut at Mala Osobitá (1,583 m). Since 1989, the top is no longer available for tourists, since this one is included in the nature reserve (458 hectares).  There are two ways to reach Osobitá, from Slovakia and from Poland. Both are very easy and without difficulty, but the first one is as short as the second is very long.

Nowadays, it is impossible the reach the real top of Osobitá, which is located in the Natura 2000 zone, in order to protect fragile fauna such as eagles. Hence, strictly forbidden as mentionned previously. Including with a guide, or holding an UIAA licence !

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau