MOUNT LU / 庐山 BY JING HAO / 荆浩

 

JING HAO  / 荆浩 (c. 880–940) 

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

China

 In Mount Lu (c. 920-40),  hanging scroll, ink on silk, 185.8 x 106.8 cm. 

National Palace Museum, Taipei.

About this work
The piece most frequently held as a template of his style is Mount Lu (above), an ink painting on silk scroll which gives a rather fantastical rendering of one of Jiangxi's natural landmarks. The work is a tight, vertical composition, employing Jing's newly developed cun fa technique to compress the landscape into layers of jutting rock-pillars between chasms of mist. The enclosed space of the composition enhances the monumental characteristics of the mountain, which fills some 90% of the scroll. Humans and buildings, though drawn with remarkable realism in a manner that contrasts sharply against the atmospheric landscape surrounding, are reduced to an almost unnoticeable scale, clustered at the foot of the mountain at the very bottom of the scroll, further conveying the intimidating grandeur of the natural world over the transient activities of man. Scholars have noted, however, that the mist in Mount Lu plays only a minimal role compared with that seen in some of Jing's other works, being employed much more conservatively than is common for the artist—a fact which has led to some speculation among art historians that this particular work may represent a “reminiscence” during a later period in the artist's life. Aside from Mount Lu, only one other major surviving work bearing the signature of Jing Hao has survived into the present.

The artist
Jing Hao / 荆浩 (c. 880–940) began his artistic career during the later years of the Tang Dynasty. Initially he was influenced by the emphasis on monumental landscapes of Tang painters. Their goal to express the grandeur and harmony of nature was exemplified by the established masters such as Wang Wei. Following the collapse of the Tang, Northern China descended into a period of political chaos—the Five Dynasties—in which five separate ruling lines established themselves and were destroyed by factional infighting in rapid succession. An aversion to the turmoil of his era led Jing Hao to retire to seclusion in the northern Taihang Mountains. Here he spent the greater portion of his life in the pursuit of artistic development. Taihang is an isolated region of dense cloud forests punctuated by jagged peaks. These unique geographical characteristics made the region particularly suited to Jing's developing interest in ink wash techniques. Jing was one of the earliest Chinese artists to employ ink washes (yongmo) to simulate depth and atmospheric perspective. Building on the approach initially pioneered by Tang painters such as Xiang Rong, Jing wrote that the principal aim of the yongmo technique was to “distinguish higher and lower [parts of objects] with a gradation in ink tones, and represent clearly shallowness and depth, making them appear natural as if they had not been done with a brush.” Of Xiang himself, Jing wrote that the earlier artist had “attained the secret of mysterious truth only through the use of ink wash”, but criticized Xiang for his lack of definition, lamenting that Xiang had “no bone in his brushwork”. Jing departed from such an approach by employing in his landscapes a mixture of atmospheric ink washes and bold brush strokes to accurately transcribe the Shanxi landscapes in which he worked. This technique, called cun fa, would characterize all of his major works as well as those of other artists who would study his work in later years.

The mountain
Mount Lu or Lushan (庐山) 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.
More about Lushan / Mount Lu

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LES COURTES PAINTED BY JACQUES FOURCY

JACQUES FOURCY 1906-1990)

Les Courtes (3 ,856 m-12, 650ft)

France (Auvergne Rhône-Alpes)

In Les Courtes vues des Petites Aiguilles Rouges du Dolent, Chamonix  huile sur toile, 1947

The mountain
Les Courtes (3 ,856 m-12, 650ft) meaning in french  The Short ones, are  a series of summits on the French side of the Mont-Blanc massif. They are located on the link which, from the Aiguille de Triolet to the Aiguille Verte, separates the Talèfre glacier to the south and the Argentière glacier to the north. Between Les Droites and the Ravanel and Mummery needles, they appear as a long ridge with several summits from the Col des Droites  (3,733 m- 12 247ft)) in the northwest to the Col des Cristaux  (3,601 m- 11,814 ft ) in the southeast :
- the Tour des Courtes (3,816 m- 12,519 ft), with the pass of the Tour des Courtes (3,720 m) where the normal route passes
- West Shoulder (3,841 m- 12,601 ft )
- Les Courtes  (3 ,856 m -12, 650 ft)
- Chenavier needle (3,799 m - 12,463 ft)
- Aiguille Croulante  (Falling Needle) (3,765 m - 12,352 ft)
- Aiguille Qui Remue (Moving Needle) (3,724 m -12, 217ft )
The northeast face, the crossing of Les  Courtes (followed by the Ravanel and Mummery needles), the north-northeast northeast spur, and the north face are respectively no 29, no 38, no 76 and no 94 among the 100  most beautifull races of the Mont-Blanc massif by Gaston Rébuffat.

The painter
Jacques Fourcy was a French painter, member of the Société des peintres de montagnes.
Born in Paris,  he studied engineering at Ecole Centrale Paris and then joined the railways firm Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de  Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM), then the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer. A prisoner of war for five years, he was repatriated as a result of the loss of one eye; he later receives the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945.
His training seems to be that of an self taught one. He began to paint very early, especially watercolors at first. He paints in his spare time and after his retirement. He joined the Société des peintres de montagnes in 1925 and exhibited at the Salon of French artists from 1926. Well known for his particularly lively and colorful watercolors, he also devoted himself, especially after the Second World War, to the oil painting most often done on panels (Isorel). He especially painted the high mountains; his works represent in particular the great peaks of the Chamonix Valley and Oisans but also the summits of the Swiss Alps. The Museum of Chamonix exhibits several of his works.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE ROTHENBACHKOPF BY GEORG OSTERWALD

 

GEORG OSTERWALD (1803-1884) 

The Rothenbachkopf (1,315 m - 4,314 ft)

France (Alsace) 

In Vue du Rothenbach, watercolour, 1873. Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg

The mountain
The Rothenbachkopf (1,315 m - 4,314 ft) is a mountain in the High Vosges in France. Only a few metres to the west of the summit runs the Route des Crêtes heading south from the Col de la Schlucht. Several Vosges Clubhiking trails run over the top. A few kilometres north of the Rothenbachkopfs the border between Alsace and Lorraine turns and heads southwest.
The summit ridge is used as a cross-country ski course for the crossing of the Vosges mountains. Great care is recommended in winter because of the cornices, the possible fog and the violent and icy winds that can occur. On 28 December 1965, two inexperienced young German hikers, became lost in the fog and cold and died on the Rothenbachkopf.

The painter
Georg Osterwald was a German teacher, professor, landscape,  architecture and portrait painter,  draftsman, illustrator , etcher and lithographer.
After attending high school Rinteln, his hometown (until 1819), Georg Osterwald was initially a technical draftsman at the Oberbergamt Bonn. He studied painting at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität there , later also with Friedrich von Gärtner in Munich. He was also a drawing teacher at the local construction school.
From 1825 to 1828 he taught drawing at the Fellini Institute in Hofwil near Bern (Switzerland), from 1830 to 1832 in Paris .
In 1835 and 1836 he was, together with Johann Hermann Detmold, editor of the Hannoversche Kunstblätter , which the Kunstverein Hannover published for exhibitions.
Georg Osterwald can be traced in Hanover until 1843, where he worked as a painter.
Later Osterwald was temporarily in Dresden , then in Cologne , where he was appointed professor by King Wilhelm of Prussia in 1864.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE MONT BLANC (2) BY GABRIEL LOPPÉ

GABRIEL LOPPÉ (1825-1913)

The Mont Blanc (4,808.13 m - 15,776.7 ft)

 France, Italy border

In Sur le col du Géant – Soleil levant sur le Mont Blanc,  oil on canvas, 51 x 35.5cm,   1890,   Courtesy William Mitchell Gallery, London

The painter 

Toussaint Gabriel Loppé was a French painter, photographer and mountaineer. He became the first foreigner to be made a member of the Alpine Club in London. His father was a captain in the French Engineers and Loppé's childhood was spent in many different towns in south-eastern France. Aged twenty-one Loppé climbed a small mountain in the Languedoc and found a group of painters sketching on the summit. He had found his calling and subsequently went off to Geneva where he met the reputed leading Swiss landscapist, Alexandre Calame (1810 -1864). Loppé took up mountaineering in Grindelwald in the 1850s and made friends easily with the many English climbers in France and Switzerland. Although he was frequently labelled as a pupil of Calame and his rival François Diday, Loppé was almost an entirely self-taught artist. He became the first painter to work at higher altitudes during climbing expeditions earning the right to be considered the founder of the peintres-alpinistes school, which became established in the Savoie at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Notable followers of Loppé include, Charles Henri Contencin (1875-1955) and Jacques Fourcy (1906-1990). Together with the first ascent of Mt Mallet in Chamonix’s Grandes Jorasses range, Loppé made over 40 ascents of Mont Blanc during his climbing career, which lasted until the late 1890s.  He frequently made oil sketches from alpine summits, including a panorama of the view from the summit of Mont Blanc.

His paintings became celebrated for their atmosphere and spontaneity and he soon found himself taking part in many exhibitions in London and in Paris.

By 1896 Loppé had spent over fifty seasons climbing and painting in Chamonix. As the valley’s unrivalled ‘Court painter’ his work was in constant demand with the majority of his pictures going to English climbers and summer tourists.

In his later years, Loppé became fascinated with photography and was quite an innovator in this field too. His long exposure photograph of the Eiffel Tower struck by lightning, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris remains one of his iconic images. 

The mountain 

Mont Blanc (in French) 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 rises 4,808.73 m (15,777 ft) above sea level and 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 mountain lies in a range called the Graian Alps, between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France. The Mont Blanc massif is popular for mountaineering, hiking, skiing, and snowboarding.

The three towns and their communes which surround Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley, Italy, and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France.  A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain range from Courmayeur to Chamonix, through the Col du Géant. Constructed beginning in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6 km (7¼ mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two countries and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.

Since the French Revolution, the issue of the ownership of the summit has been debated.

More about The Mont Blanc 

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

VESUVIUS PAINTED BY ALBERT MARQUET

 

ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)

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

Italy

 In La baie de  Naples et le Vésuve, 1909, Oil on canvas, 62x 80 cm  

Ermitage Museum, Sankt-Petersburg, Russia

The mountain
Mount Vesuvius (1,281 meters- 4,203 ft at present) is one of those legendary and mythic mountains the Earth paid regularly tribute. Monte Vesuvio in Italian modern langage or Mons Vesuvius in antique Latin langage is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples (Italy) about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore.
It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure.
Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman antique cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements. That eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing. At least 1,000 people died in the eruption. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.
More about Vesuvius ...


The painter
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
Marquet subsequently painted in a more naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, but also several portraits and, between 1910 and 1914, several female nude paintings.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and with Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples (see above) and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water. During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.
Marquet was particularly revered by the American painters Leland Bell and his wife Louisa Matthiasdottir. He was also revered by Bell's contemporaries Al Kresch and Gabriel Laderman. Since both Bell and Laderman were teachers in several American art schools, they have had an influence on younger American figurative artists and their appreciation of Marquet.
Matisse said ; "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MØNS KLINT & SOMMERSPIET BY FREDERIK SØDRING

 

   FREDERIK SØDRING  (1809–1862)

Sommerspiret  (120 m-393 ft)

Denmark

In Part of Mons Klint with the Sommerspiret, 1830,  Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum

The cliff
Sommerspiret (120 m - 393 ft) is one of the chalk cliffs forming Møns Klint, a 6 km stretch of cliffs along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The highest cliff is Dronningestolen (128 m- 420 ft). The area around Møns Klint consists of woodlands, pastures, ponds and steep hills, including Aborrebjerg which, with a height of 143 m - 469ft), is one of the highest points in Denmark. The cliffs and adjacent park are now protected as a nature reserve. Møns Klint receives around 250,000 visitors a year. There are clearly marked paths for walkers, riders and cyclists. The path along the cliff tops leads to steps down to the shore in several locations.
On 29 May 2007, close to the cliff tops, the GeoCenter Møns Klint was opened by Queen Margrethe. The geological museum with interactive computer displays and a variety of attractions for children traces the geological prehistory of Denmark and the formation of the chalk cliffs. The museum was designed by PLH Architects, the winners of an international design competition.
Møns Klint has been a most popular subject for landscape painters, especially during the Danish Golden Age when the national romanticism movement encouraged artists to take renewed interest in the Danish countryside.

The painter
Sødring was born in Aalborg, Denmark. He spent some time living in Norway with his parents before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen beginning in 1825. There he initially studied under Jens Peter Møller, but his greatest influence was from the romantic art of Johan Christian Dahl. Between 1829 and 1831 Sødring travelled to Norway and Germany, taking time to study in Munich. He traveled to Norway and Southern Sweden between 1832-36 and returned during 1847. He was awarded the Fund ad Usus Publicos 1836-38. He travelled to Germany (mainly Munich) 1836-38) and to Paris in 1843.He continued to work, sending several paintings back to Denmark. These travels influenced Sødring's later works. Upon his return, he continued to paint, exhibiting landscapes from the Rhine, Southern Germany, and Tyrol. In 1832, he was painted by Christen Købke; the portrait is now part of the Hirschsprung Collection.[
He exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition 1828-36, 1838-40, 1842-47, 1858. Sødring's other exhibition included at the Salon in Paris and University of Copenhagen both in 1843.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

SNAEFELL PAINTED BY ASGRIMUR JONSSON

 

ASGRIMUR JONSSON (1876-1958)
Snæfell or Snæfellsjökull (1,446 m - 4,744 ft)
Iceland

The mountain
Snæfell or Snæfellsjökull (1,446 m - 4,744 ft) (meaning snow-fell glacier) is a 700,000-year-old glacier-capped stratovolcano in western Iceland. The name of the mountain is actually Snæfell, but it is normally called "Snæfellsjökull" to distinguish it from two other mountains with this name. It is situated on the most western part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. Sometimes it may be seen from the city of Reykjavík over Faxa Bay, at a distance of 120 km.
The mountain is one of the most famous sites of Iceland, primarily due to the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne, in which the protagonists find the entrance to a passage leading to the center of the earth on Snæfellsjökull. The mountain is included in the Snæfellsjökull National Park (Icelandic: Þjóðgarðurinn Snæfellsjökull).
In August 2012 the summit was ice-free for the first time in recorded history.

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

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

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