THE SAINTE VICTOIRE BY FRANÇOIS-MARIUS GRANET

FRANÇOIS-MARIUS GRANET (1775-1849)
Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

1. In Sainte-Victoire vue du Mas de Malvallat, watercoulour on paper,  Musée Granet 

2.   In La Ste Victoire vue d'une cour de ferme, watercolour on paper, Musée Granet 

The mountain

Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works  Paul Cézanne did  on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.

The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.

D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m).

The southern side is characterized by the presence of significant high limestone cliffs 500 to 700 m with the white appearance added to the sun gives the appearance of a high muraille. At the foot of the cliffs, there is more massive brush, oak, kermes oak, Aleppo pine (population greatly reduced after the fire of 1989) but also cultures (olive trees).

On the northern side among the many species present, the Crocus is fairly well represented in the hills and the wild iris and daffodil. One can also see various varieties and boxwood shrubs.

The massif rises to the Pic des Mouches (Peak of the Flies) (1011 m) near the eastern end of the chain, and not at the Croix de Provence (946 m) near the west end and visible from Aix. The Pic des Mouches is one of the highest peaks of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, behind the peak Bertagne which reached an altitude of 1042 mètres and which is located on the massif of Sainte-Baume.

Sainte-Victoire, as the range of the Sainte Baume, can be considered a special case among the Alpine ranges for the various stages of the formation of its relief associated geological history as well as that of the old Pyrenean-Provençal chain than that of the Western Alps (which have succeeded it).

Indeed,  from the former Sainte-Victoire mountain, contemporary of the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous, it remains today  only the fold Bimont, said Chaînon des Costes Chaudes, the last vestige resulting from tectonic movements and characteristics of the stacks of  Pyreneo-Provençal phase during the Eocene. Later during the Oligocene, breaking  of the anticlinal fold of Sainte-Victoire, which resulted from the uplift of the first great Alpine reliefs, is causing a surge that help explain the current form of the mountain, which appeared 15 million years BCE.

Sainte-Victoire, whose calcareous sediments date back to the Jurassic, thus consists of both a Pyrenean-Provencal vestige and of an alpine geology. This singularity and this ambivalence help explain why, although a massive western Alps, the problem of this connection remains complexe.

According to a recent study, the Sainte-Victoire is still growing ! The company ME2i  has indeed conducted a satellite survey between 1993 and 2003 providing evidence that during this period the western end of the Sainte-Victoire was uplift of 7 mm per year.

The massif is a ensemble of 6525 ha classified since 1983.

The massive hosts several world-famous dinosaur eggs deposits including the Roques-Hautes / Les Grands-Creux on the town Beaurecueil.

The painter 

François Marius Granet was a french painter born  in Aix-en-Provence. 

 In 1793, Granet followed the volunteers of Aix to the siege of Toulon, where he obtained employment as a decorator in the arsenal. Whilst a lad he had, at Aix, made the acquaintance of the young comte de Forbin, and upon his invitation, Granet in the year 1797 went to Paris. Forbin was one of the pupils of David, and Granet entered the same studio. Later he got possession of a cell in the convent of Capuchins, which, having served for a manufactory of assignats during the Revolution, was afterwards inhabited almost exclusively by artists. 

In 1802, he left Paris for Rome, where he remained until 1819, when he returned to Paris, bringing with him besides various other works one of fourteen repetitions of his celebrated "Chœur des Capucins" executed in 1811. The figures of the monks celebrating mass are taken in this subject as a substantive part of the architectural effect, and this is the case with all Granet's works, even with those in which the figure subject would seem to assert its importance, and its historical or romantic interest. Stella painting a Madonna on his Prison Wall, 1810 (Leuchtenberg collection); Sodoma à l'hôpital, 1815 (Louvre); Basilique basse de St François d'Assise, 1823 (Louvre); Rachat de prisonniers, 1831 (Louvre); Mort de Poussin, 1834 (Villa Demidoff, Florence), are among his principal works; all are marked by the same peculiarities, everything is sacrificed to tone.

In 1819, Louis Philippe decorated Granet, and afterwards named him Chevalier de l'Ordre St Michel, and Conservateur des tableaux de Versailles (1826). He became a member of the institute in 1830; but in spite of these honours, and the ties which bound him to M. de Forbin, then director of the Louvre, Granet constantly returned to Rome. After 1848, he retired to Aix  immediately lost his wife, and died himself on 21 November 1849. 

He bequeathed the greater part of his fortune to his native town and all his collections (including the very fine portrait by Ingres from 1811 ) to the Museum of Aix en Provence, which was renamed the Musée Granet in 1949, the centenary of his death.

MONTAGNE SAINTE VICTOIRE PEINTE PAR ANDRÉ DERAIN

 

ANDRÉ DERAIN (1880-1954)
Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)
France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur)

In "Les Cyprés " 1907, Huile sur toile, 24 x 33 cm. Collection Privée (Suisse)

La montagne
La  montagne Sainte-Victoire (1, 011m ) en provençal Mont Venturi selon la norme classique ou Mount Ventùriselon la norme mistralienne, est un massif calcaire  dans la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Située à l'est d'Aix-en-Provence, elle a connu une notoriété internationale en partie grâce aux 87 œuvres du peintre Paul Cézanne dont elle est le sujet. Elle accueille de nombreux randonneurs, grimpeurs et amoureux de la nature, et elle est un élément majeur du paysage aixois.
Le massif de la Sainte-Victoire s'étend sur 18 kilomètres de long et sur 5 kilomètres de large, suivant une stricte orientation ouest-est. Il se situe principalement dans le département des Bouches-du-Rhône et en partie dans celui du Var, et, avec ses abords, sur les communes de Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet, Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues et Rians. Les D 10 et D 17 (Route Cézanne) sont les principales routes qui permettent de longer le massif. Sur le versant septentrional, la D10 franchit le col de Claps (530 m) et le col des Portes (631 m). Sur le versant méridional, la D 17 chemine sur le plateau du Cengle et franchit le collet Blanc du Subéroque (505 m).  Le massif culmine au pic des Mouches (1 011 m pour l'IGN), près de l'extrémité est de la chaîne, et non pas à la Croix de Provence (946 m pour l'IGN) proche de l'extrémité ouest et visible d'Aix. Le pic des Mouches est l'un des plus hauts sommets du département des Bouches-du-Rhône, après le pic de Bertagne qui atteint l'altitude de 1 042 mètres et qui se situe sur le massif de la Sainte-Baume. 6 525 ha du massif de la Sainte-Victoire sont classés depuis 1983.

L'artiste
André Derain est un peintre français, l'un des fondateurs du fauvisme. Il est également peintre de décors et costumes de ballets et de théâtre, graveur, illustrateur, sculpteur et écrivain. Salué comme le pionnier d'un nouvel art, le fauvisme, avant la guerre de 1914, il s'oriente après 1918 vers un réalisme au classicisme renouvelé où s'exprime son goût du théâtre et des lettres qui en fait l’une des figures majeures de l'entre-deux-guerres. Mis en cause à la Libération comme collaborateur, il est blâmé et apparaît ensuite comme le survivant d'un ancien monde pour « qui la violence a donné l'illusion de la force »En 1906-1907, il est bouleversé par la découverte des arts « primitifs » à Londres et commence avec Vlaminck à collectionner ce que l'on appelle, alors, l’« art nègre ». Il achète un masque Fang. En étroite relation avec Matisse, il poursuit sa réflexion sur les liens entre décoration et expression. Il s'intéresse aux arts décoratifs : céramique, bas-reliefs en bois, sculpture qu'il pratique sur pierre. Il réalise de grands panneaux sur le thème de l'âge d'or, de la danse ou des baigneuses. Après 1906, l'influence de Paul Gauguin décroit sur sa peinture, sa palette change. Puis l'année suivante, il déménage à Montmartre pour se rapprocher de ses amis Pablo Picasso, Braque, Apollinaire, Kees van Dongen et Max Jacob… Il fréquente le Bateau-Lavoir, est influencé par Picasso. Avant la Première Guerre mondiale, Derain pratique un art pictural d'avant-garde, post-impressionniste et fauve, fait de couleurs pures, franches et juxtaposées. Par la suite, son œuvre réaliste se concentre sur des sujets et thèmes classiques qui font écho aux œuvres des musées, dans une volonté de prolongement ou de retour à une tradition classique. Ce mouvement, également appelé par Jean Cocteau le « retour à l'ordre », caractérise l'art néo-classique figuratif des années 1920 aux années 1940.

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2024 - 13e année de publication -  Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

LA MONTAGNE SAINTE VICTOIRE PEINTE PAR PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
Montagne Sainte Victoire / Mont Venturi (1011m)
France (Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur) 

 In Le Village de Vauvenargues, 29–30 Avril 1959, Collection privée

La montagne
La montagne Sainte-Victoire, en provençal Mont Venturi est un massif calcaire du sud de la France, dans la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Située à l'est d'Aix-en-Provence, elle a connu une notoriété internationale en partie grâce aux 87 œuvres du peintre Paul Cézanne dont elle est le sujet. Elle accueille de nombreux randonneurs, grimpeurs et amoureux de la nature, et elle est un élément majeur du paysage aixois. Le massif de la Sainte-Victoire s'étend sur 18 kilomètres de long et sur 5 kilomètres de large, suivant une stricte orientation ouest-est. Il se situe principalement dans le département des Bouches-du-Rhône et en partie dans celui du Var, et, avec ses abords, sur les communes de Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet, Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues et Rians. Les D 10 et D 17 (Route Cézanne) sont les principales routes qui permettent de longer le massif. Sur le versant septentrional, la D10 franchit le col de Claps (530 m) et le col des Portes (631 m). Sur le versant méridional, la D 17 chemine sur le plateau du Cengle et franchit le collet Blanc du Subéroque (505 m). Le massif culmine au pic des Mouches (1 011 m pour l'IGN), près de l'extrémité est de la chaîne, et non pas à la Croix de Provence (946 m pour l'IGN) proche de l'extrémité ouest et visible d'Aix. Le pic des Mouches est l'un des plus hauts sommets du département des Bouches-du-Rhône, après le pic de Bertagne qui atteint l'altitude de 1 042 mètres et qui se situe sur le massif de la Sainte-Baume.

Le peintre
Pablo Ruiz Picasso,  est un peintre, dessinateur, sculpteur et graveur espagnol ayant passé l'essentiel de sa vie en France. Artiste utilisant tous les supports pour son travail, il est considéré comme l'un des fondateurs du cubisme avec Georges Braque et un compagnon d'art du surréalisme. Il est l'un des plus importants artistes du xxe siècle, tant par ses apports techniques et formels que par ses prises de positions politiques. Il a produit près de 50 000 œuvres dont 1 885 tableaux, 1 228 sculptures, 2 880 céramiques, 7 089 dessins, 342 tapisseries, 150 carnets de croquis et 30 000 estampes (gravures, lithographies, etc.) Picasso vécut à Vauvenargues dans le château qu'il y avait acquis, entre 1958 et 1961.

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2024 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

 

 

THE SAINTE-VICTOIRE BY BERNARD BUFFET

BERNARD BUFFET (1928-1999)

The Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)

France (Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur)

In La montagne Sainte Victoire, oil on canvas, 1958.

The mountain
Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works  Paul Cézanne did  on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.
The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.
D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m).
The southern side is characterized by the presence of significant high limestone cliffs 500 to 700 m with the white appearance added to the sun gives the appearance of a high muraille. At the foot of the cliffs, there is more massive brush, oak, kermes oak, Aleppo pine (population greatly reduced after the fire of 1989) but also cultures (olive trees).
The massif rises to the Pic des Mouches (Peak of the Flies) (1,011 m) near the eastern end of the chain, and not at the Croix de Provence (946 m) near the west end and visible from Aix. The Pic des Mouches is one of the highest peaks of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, behind the peak Bertagne which reached an altitude of 1042 mètres and which is located on the massif of Sainte-Baume.
Sainte-Victoire, as the range of the Sainte Baume, can be considered a special case among the Alpine ranges for the various stages of the formation of its relief associated geological history as well as that of the old Pyrenean-Provençal chain than that of the Western Alps (which have succeeded it).
Indeed,  from the former Sainte-Victoire mountain, contemporary of the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous, it remains today  only the fold Bimont, said Chaînon des Costes Chaudes, the last vestige resulting from tectonic movements and characteristics of the stacks of  Pyreneo-Provençal phase during the Eocene. Later during the Oligocene, breaking  of the anticlinal fold of Sainte-Victoire, which resulted from the uplift of the first great Alpine reliefs, is causing a surge that help explain the current form of the mountain, which appeared 15 million years BCE.
Sainte-Victoire, whose calcareous sediments date back to the Jurassic, thus consists of both a Pyrenean-Provencal vestige and of an alpine geology. This singularity and this ambivalence help explain why, although a massive western Alps, the problem of this connection remains complexe.
According to a recent study, the Sainte-Victoire is still growing ! The company ME2i  has indeed conducted a satellite survey between 1993 and 2003 providing evidence that during this period the western end of the Sainte-Victoire was uplift of 7 mm per year.
The massif is a ensemble of 6525 ha classified since 1983.
The massive hosts several world-famous dinosaur eggs deposits including the Roques-Hautes / Les Grands-Creux on the town Beaurecueil.

The painter
Bernard Buffet was a French painter of Expressionism and a member of the anti-abstract art group L'homme Témoin (the Witness-Man).
Buffet was born in Paris, France, and studied art  at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of the Fine Arts). He worked in the studio of the painter Eugène Narbonne.
Sustained by the picture-dealer Maurice Garnier, Buffet produced religious pieces, landscapes, portraits and still-lifes. In 1946, he had his first painting shown, a self-portrait, at the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans at the Galerie Beaux-Arts. He had at least one major exhibition every year.
In 1955, he was awarded the first prize by the magazine Connaissance des Arts, which named the ten best post-war artists. In 1958, at the age of 30, the first retrospective of his work was held at the Galerie Charpentier.
Pierre Bergé was Buffet's live-in lover until Bergé left Buffet for Yves Saint-Laurent.
On 12 December 1958, Buffet married the writer and actress Annabel Schwob. His daughter Virginie was born in 1962 and in 1063 another daughter Danielle. His son Nicolas, was born in 1973, the same year that he was named "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur".
On 23 November 1973, the Bernard Buffet Museum was founded by Kiichiro Okano, in Surugadaira, Japan. At the request of the French postal administration in 1978, he designed a stamp depicting the Institut et le Pont des Arts – on this occasion the Post Museum arranged a retrospective of his works.
Buffet created more than 8,000 paintings and many prints as well.
Buffet committed suicide at his home in Tourtour, southern France, on 4 October 1999. He was suffering from Parkinson's disease and was no longer able to work. Police said that Buffet died around 4 p.m after putting his head in a plastic bag attached around his neck with tape.

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE BY PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)

The Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

In Montagne Sainte Victoire for the 10th anniversary of the Victory of 8 May 1945,

  Ink on paper, 1955. Private collection 

The mountain

Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works  Paul Cézanne did on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.

The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.

D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m).

The southern side is characterized by the presence of significant high limestone cliffs 500 to 700 m with the white appearance added to the sun gives the appearance of a high muraille. At the foot of the cliffs, there is more massive brush, oak, kermes oak, Aleppo pine (population greatly reduced after the fire of 1989) but also cultures (olive trees).

On the northern side among the many species present, the Crocus is fairly well represented in the hills and the wild iris and daffodil. One can also see various varieties and boxwood shrubs.

The massif rises to the Pic des Mouches (Peak of the Flies) (1,011 m) near the eastern end of the chain, and not at the Croix de Provence (946 m) near the west end and visible from Aix. The Pic des Mouches is one of the highest peaks of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, behind the peak Bertagne which reached an altitude of 1042 mètres and which is located on the massif of Sainte-Baume...

- More about Sainte Victoire

The painter 

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian airforces at the behest of the Spanish nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the slightly older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.
Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are The Blue Period (1901–1904), The Rose Period (1904–1906), The African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period.
 Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.
Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs
Source:
- Museo Picasso Malaga 

MONTAGNE SAINTE-VICTOIRE ( 2) SKETCHED BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
The Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)
France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur)

 In  La Sainte-Victoire (2), Fusain, 29, 7 x 42 cm,  2008

About this drawing
Jean Baptiste Née made several charcoal drawings of the Sainte Victoire of which a first one has already been published in this blog. 

 
The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012. Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind. He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.). He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky". Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France. Exhibited in Galerie Camera
Obscura in Paris. A book was recently published about his work "Le monde nu" Éditions Hartpon.
Contact @jeanbaptiste.nee.
Jean Basptiste Née website

The mountain
Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft) also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works Paul Cézanne did on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.
The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.
D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m).
The southern side is characterized by the presence of significant high limestone cliffs 500 to 700 m with the white appearance added to the sun gives the appearance of a high muraille. At the foot of the cliffs, there is more massive brush, oak, kermes oak, Aleppo pine (population greatly reduced after the fire of 1989) but also cultures (olive trees).
On the northern side among the many species present, the Crocus is fairly well represented in the hills and the wild iris and daffodil. One can also see various varieties and boxwood shrubs.
The massif rises to the Pic des Mouches (Peak of the Flies) (1011 m) near the eastern end of the chain, and not at the Croix de Provence (946 m) near the west end and visible from Aix. The Pic des Mouches is one of the highest peaks of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, behind the peak Bertagne which reached an altitude of 1042 mètres and which is located on the massif of Sainte-Baume.
Sainte-Victoire, as the range of the Sainte Baume, can be considered a special case among the Alpine ranges for the various stages of the formation of its relief associated geological history as well as that of the old Pyrenean-Provençal chain than that of the Western Alps (which have succeeded it).
Indeed, from the former Sainte-Victoire mountain, contemporary of the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous, it remains today only the fold Bimont, said Chaînon des Costes Chaudes, the last vestige resulting from tectonic movements and characteristics of the stacks of Pyreneo-Provençal phase during the Eocene. Later during the Oligocene, breaking of the anticlinal fold of Sainte-Victoire, which resulted from the uplift of the first great Alpine reliefs, is causing a surge that help explain the current form of the mountain, which appeared 15 million years BCE.
Sainte-Victoire, whose calcareous sediments date back to the Jurassic, thus consists of both a Pyrenean-Provencal vestige and of an alpine geology. This singularity and this ambivalence help explain why, although a massive western Alps, the problem of this connection remains complexe.
According to a recent study, the Sainte-Victoire is still growing ! The company ME2i has indeed conducted a satellite survey between 1993 and 2003 providing evidence that during this period the western end of the Sainte-Victoire was uplift of 7 mm per year.
The massif is a ensemble of 6525 ha classified since 1983.
The massive hosts several world-famous dinosaur eggs deposits including the Roques-Hautes / Les Grands-Creux on the town Beaurecueil.
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE PAINTED BY ROGER FRY

ROGER FRY (1866–1934)

 Mount of Sainte-Victoire (1, 011 m - 3, 316ft)

France (Provence)

In La montagne Sainte-Victoire, huile sur toile, 1930

The mountain

Mont Sainte-Victoire our Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works Paul Cézanne did on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape. The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.

D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m)...

- More about Mount of Sainte Victoire 

The Painter 
Roger Eliot Fry was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. He was the first figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain, and emphasised the formal properties of paintings over the "associated ideas" conjured in the viewer by their representational content. He was described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin ... In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry". The taste Fry influenced was primarily that of the Anglophone world, and his success lay largely in alerting an educated public to a compelling version of recent artistic developments of the Parisian avant-garde.
As a painter Fry was experimental (his work included a few abstracts), but his best pictures were straightforward naturalistic portraits, although he did not pretend to be a professional portrait - painter. In his art he explored his own sensations and gradually his own personal visions and attitudes asserted themselves. His work was considered to give pleasure, 'communicating the delight of unexpected beauty and which tempers the spectator's sense to a keener consciousness of its presence'. Fry did not consider himself a great artist, 'only a serious artist with some sensibility and taste'. 

MONTAGNE SAINTE VICTOIRE BY JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE

 

JEAN-BAPTISTE NÉE (b.1986)
The Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)
France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur)

 In  La  Sainte Victoire  Fusain, 29,  x 42cm,  2008.

The artist
Jean-Baptiste Née, born in 1986. is a french painter, scenographer and visual artist, graduated from Arts-Décoratifs of Paris in 2012.  Jean-Baptiste Née works in the mountains and high mountains, always in situ, in direct confrontation with the movements of the earth and water and wind.  He gives a growing place for the action of the elements on the work in progress (rain, snow, frost, etc.).  He established his "large workshop" in the Swiss Alps or in the Vercors massif - especially in winter -, as well as during long hikes in the Italian Alps. In the winter of 2018, he worked in the massifs of Wudangshan and Lushan, in China, and became interested in the Taoist notion of "Sky".  Since 2016, Jean-Baptiste Née exhibits regularly in galleries in France and Switzerland. His workshop is in Montreuil, France. Exhibited  in Galerie Camera Obscura in Paris. A book was recently published about his work "Le monde nu" Éditions Hartpon. Contact @jeanbaptiste.nee. His new website

The mountain
Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft) also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works Paul Cézanne did on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.
The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians.
D 10 and D 17 (Route Cézanne) are the main roads to skirt the mountains. On the northern side, the D10 crosses the Col de Claps (530 m) and the Col des Portes (631 m). On the southern side, the D 17 walks on the Plateau de Cengle and crossed the Collet blanc de Subéroque (505 m).
The southern side is characterized by the presence of significant high limestone cliffs 500 to 700 m with the white appearance added to the sun gives the appearance of a high muraille. At the foot of the cliffs, there is more massive brush, oak, kermes oak, Aleppo pine (population greatly reduced after the fire of 1989) but also cultures (olive trees).
On the northern side among the many species present, the Crocus is fairly well represented in the hills and the wild iris and daffodil. One can also see various varieties and boxwood shrubs.
The massif rises to the Pic des Mouches (Peak of the Flies) (1011 m) near the eastern end of the chain, and not at the Croix de Provence (946 m) near the west end and visible from Aix. The Pic des Mouches is one of the highest peaks of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, behind the peak Bertagne which reached an altitude of 1042 mètres and which is located on the massif of Sainte-Baume.
Sainte-Victoire, as the range of the Sainte Baume, can be considered a special case among the Alpine ranges for the various stages of the formation of its relief associated geological history as well as that of the old Pyrenean-Provençal chain than that of the Western Alps (which have succeeded it).
Indeed, from the former Sainte-Victoire mountain, contemporary of the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous, it remains today only the fold Bimont, said Chaînon des Costes Chaudes, the last vestige resulting from tectonic movements and characteristics of the stacks of Pyreneo-Provençal phase during the Eocene. Later during the Oligocene, breaking of the anticlinal fold of Sainte-Victoire, which resulted from the uplift of the first great Alpine reliefs, is causing a surge that help explain the current form of the mountain, which appeared 15 million years BCE.
Sainte-Victoire, whose calcareous sediments date back to the Jurassic, thus consists of both a Pyrenean-Provencal vestige and of an alpine geology. This singularity and this ambivalence help explain why, although a massive western Alps, the problem of this connection remains complexe.
According to a recent study, the Sainte-Victoire is still growing ! The company ME2i has indeed conducted a satellite survey between 1993 and 2003 providing evidence that during this period the western end of the Sainte-Victoire was uplift of 7 mm per year.
The massif is a ensemble of 6525 ha classified since 1983.
The massive hosts several world-famous dinosaur eggs deposits including the Roques-Hautes / Les Grands-Creux on the town Beaurecueil.

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LES PETITES DALLES PAINTED BY CAMILLE PISSARO

CAMILLE PISSARO  (1830-1903) 

Les Petites Dalles (30 to 50 m - 98 to164 ft)
France 

In Les falaises des Petites Dalles, oil on canvas, 1883, Private collection USA 

The painting 

A lot of impressionist painters choose those cliffs as a item. The most famous was Claude Monet who made at least 10 paintings of those cliffs.  

The mountain 
Les Petites Dalles (30 to 50m - 98 to 164ft) (the Small Slabs) are cliffs located in a hamlet between Sassetot-le-Mauconduit and Saint-Martin-aux-Buneaux, in Haute-Normandie,  France.
Seaside resort south of Dieppe in Normandy, on the coast of the Channel and the country of Caux, the Petites Dalles cliffs are famous mainly because they inspired the impressionist painters like Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot. it is also famous for its numerous seaside villas built at the end of the nineteenth century and preserved (Les Catelets, Les Lampottes, Les Mouettes...)
The old name for Les Petites Dalles appears in the Latinized form Daletis in a charter of 1252.  It is the diminutive of Dalis which appears in the same charter.  Dalis became Les Grandes-Dalles and Daletis, Les Petites Dalles.
The place became definitely up to date in 187,5 when  the Empress of Austria,  Elisabeth, known as Sissi, spent the months of August and September at the castle of Sassetot-le-Mauconduit and regularly bathes on the beach of  Les Petites Dalles. The painter Paul Valantin realizes a painting of the scene. On August 25, 2016, a landslide over a hundred meters of the cliff felt down. Nearly 50,000 m3 of rocks collapsed on the beach in  Saint-Martin-aux-Buneaux at the place known as Les Petites Dalles, according to the Seine-Maritime Fire and Rescue Service.

The Painter
 Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.
In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the "pivotal" figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality". Cézanne said "he was a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord," and he was also one of Gauguin's masters. Renoir referred to his work as "revolutionary", through his artistic portrayals of the "common man", as Pissarro insisted on painting individuals in natural settings without "artifice or grandeur".
Pissarro is the only artist to have shown his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886. He "acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists" but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, including Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE (4) BY PAUL CEZANNE

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)
The Montagne Sainte Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

In La Tranchée avec la montagne Sainte-Victoire, ca. 1870, 

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen / Die Pinakotheken, Munchen

The mountain

Mont Sainte-Victoire (1,011 m-3,316ft)  also called Mont Venturi is a limestone massif in the South of France, in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Located east of Aix-en-Provence, it has experienced international fame, due to the more than 80 works  Paul Cézanne did  on it. It hosts many hikers, climbers and nature lovers, and is a major element of Aix landscape.

The range of the Sainte-Victoire is 18 kilometers long and 5 kilometers from large, following a strict east-west orientation. It is located on the Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, and in the towns of Puyloubier, Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon, Rousset, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, Beaurecueil, Le Tholonet Vauvenargues, Saint-Marc-Jaumegarde, Pourrières, Artigues and Rians....

Full wanderingvertexes entry 

The Painter  

The mount Sainte-Victoire (1011 m) appears to have been the subject of a true love story with  the  painter (Paul Cezanne).  He painted  this subject more than 80 times, in oil paintings, watercolors and drawings!...

Full wanderingvertexes entry 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

LE MOINE OU ROCHER DU CAPUCIN PEINT PAR GEORGE BRAQUE

GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963)
Le Moine ou Rocher du Capucin (155m)
France (Bouches du Rhône)

In La Ciotat - La Calanque de Figuerolles, huile sur toile,1907

Le relief
Appelé aussi La Tête de Chien, ce rocher très reconnaissable par sa taille et sa forme au bord de la Méditerrannée dans la commune de La Ciotat, surplombant la plage de la Calanqe de Figuerolles,site classé du Parc Naturel des Calanques. La matière caractéristique qui le compose, appelée "Poudingue" est faite de galets agglomérés les uns sur les autres et ce jusqu'au plus haut des falaises. Son voisin Le Bec de l'Aigle  fait face à l'île Verte et surplombe le très beau parc du Mugel.  En période estivale, l'accès est conditionné aux horaires d'ouverture du parc du Mugel et aux conditions générales d'accès aux massifs forestiers du secteur du Cap Canaille.

Le Peintre
Georges Braque, est un peintre, sculpteur et graveur français. D'abord engagé dans le sillage des Fauves, influencé par Henri Matisse, André Derain et Othon Friesz, il aboutit, à l'été 1907 aux paysages de l'Estaque avec des maisons en forme de cubes que Matisse qualifie de « cubistes », particulièrement typées dans le tableau Maisons à l'Estaque. C'est en étudiant méthodiquement, dès 1906, les lignes de contour de Paul Cézanne, que Braque a abouti progressivement à des compositions qui utilisent de légères interruptions dans les lignes, comme dans Nature morte aux pichets. Puis avec une série de nus comme le Nu debout, et Le Grand Nu, il s'oriente, après 1908, vers une rupture avec la vision classique, l'éclatement des volumes, une période communément appelée cubiste, qui dure de 1911 jusqu'en 1914. Il utilise alors des formes géométriques principalement pour des natures mortes, introduit les lettres au pochoir dans ses tableaux, invente des papiers collés. En véritable « penseur » du cubisme, il élabore des lois de la perspective et de la couleur. Il invente aussi les sculptures en papier en 1912, toutes disparues, dont il ne subsiste qu'une photographie d'un contre-relief. Mobilisé pour la Grande Guerre où il est grièvement blessé, le peintre abandonne les formes géométriques pour des natures mortes où les objets sont dans des plans recomposés. Pendant la période suivante qui va jusqu'aux années 1930, il produit des paysages, des figures humaines et, malgré la diversité des sujets, son œuvre est « d'une remarquable cohérence. Braque à la fois précurseur et dépositaire de la tradition classique est le peintre français par excellence ». Le Cahier de Georges Braque, 1917-1947, publié en 1948, résume sa position. La Seconde Guerre mondiale lui a inspiré ses œuvres les plus graves : Le Chaudron et La Table de cuisine. La paix revenue et la fin de sa maladie lui ont inspiré les œuvres plus approfondies, tels les Ateliers, qu'il élabore souvent pendant plusieurs années, poursuivant six ébauches à la fois ainsi qu'en témoigne Jean Paulhan. Ses tableaux les plus connus sont aussi les plus poétiques : la série des Oiseaux, dont deux exemplaires ornent le plafond de la salle Henri-II du musée du Louvre, depuis 1953. Il a aussi créé des sculptures, des vitraux, des dessins de bijoux, mais à partir de 1959, atteint d'un cancer, il ralentit son rythme de travail. Son dernier grand tableau est La Sarcleuse. Deux ans avant sa mort, en 1961, une rétrospective de ses œuvres intitulée L'Atelier de Braque a lieu au musée du Louvre, Braque devient ainsi le premier peintre à être exposé dans ce lieu de son vivant. Homme discret, peu porté sur les relations publiques, Braque était un intellectuel féru de musique et de poésie, ami notamment d'Erik Satie, de René Char, d'Alberto Giacometti. Il s'est éteint le 31 août 1963 à Paris. Des obsèques nationales ont été organisées en son honneur, au cours desquelles André Malraux a prononcé un discours. 

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2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Gravir les montagnes en peinture...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau 

 

MONT COUDON PAINTED BY OTHON FRIESZ

OTHON FRIESZ (1879 -1949) 

Mont Coudon  (702 m - 2, 303 ft) 

France (Var) 

The mountain 

Mont Coudon (702 m - 2, 303ft) is one of the three main mountains of a range called Monts Toulonnais in the Var region in the south of France, near the city harbour of Toulon and La Valette-du-Var.  The Monts Toulonnais are the general appellation of the numerous mountains around Toulon. The highest is Mount Caume (804 m-2,638ft), the least high is the massif of Cape Sicié (358 m) -1,174ft). The Monts toulonnais are also composed of the Baou de Quatre Oures, the Gros-Cerveau (The Big Brain), Mount Faron, which is the best known, and finally Mount Coudon. 

The summit of Mont Coudon is banned from access because it houses at its summit the Fort Girardon, a very important military base of the "Mediterranean" Navy. The Alps are visible for many days in the year, especially on strong Mistral wind days during which the weather is clear.  In November and only during one and three days in the year, it is possible to see the Corsican peaks by atmospheric reverberation. The panorama is hidden to the west by Mount Faron and Mount Caume.

The Coudon represents the end of the range of the Monts Toulonnais, which begin in the vicinity of Bandol to finish in a peak on the town of La Valette-du-Var. It is of calcareous constitution. 

The writer George Sand ascended  Mount Coudon on May 21, 1861, and mentions it in his diary, Voyage dit du Midi, as well as in the work Tamaris. The ascent is 6.1 km long and has a vertical drop of 438 meters for an average slope of 7.2%.

The painter 

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz who later called himself Othon Friesz, and used to sign his paintings E. Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement.  While he was at the Lycée, he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy. He and Dufy studied at the Le Havre School of Fine Arts in 1895-96 and then went to Paris together for further study. In Paris, Friesz met Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault. Like them, he rebelled against the academic teaching of Bonnat and became a member of the Fauves, exhibiting with them in 1907. The following year, Friesz returned to Normandy and to a much more traditional style of painting, since he had discovered that his personal goals in painting were firmly rooted in the past. He opened his own studio in 1912 and taught until 1914 at which time he joined the army for the duration of the war. He resumed living in Paris in 1919 and remained there, except for brief trips to Toulon and the Jura Mountains, until his death in 1949. During the last thirty years of his life, he painted in a style very far from that of his earlier colleagues and his contemporaries. Having abandoned the lively arabesques and brilliant colors of his Fauve years, Friesz returned to the more sober palette he had learned in Le Havre from his professor Charles Lhuillier and to an early admiration for Poussin, Chardin, and Camille Corot. He painted in a manner that respected Paul Cézanne's ideas of logical composition, simple tonality, solidity of volume, and distinct separation of planes. A faint baroque flavor adds vigor to his  landscapes, still lifes, and figure paintings.

THE COL DE MONTGENEVRE BY NICOLAS DE STAEL

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)

Col de Montgenèvre  (1, 850m - 6,070ft)

France (Jura)

In Briançon, oil on canvas,  1953, Private collection

The mountain
The Col de Montgenèvre (1, 850m) is a pass of the French Alps located between the Cerces range (Chaberton range) and the Queyras range. It connects the town of Briançon with Cesana Torinese in Italy but is entirely on the French side of the border, located 2.4 km.
According to  the roman historian Titus Livius, the pass of Montgenèvre would have been crossed by the troops of Hannibal during his passage of the Alps following the future way of the Alps. In Roman antiquity, the summit of the Montgenèvre pass marks the starting point of the Via Domitia (Domitian road), a Roman road built on the initiative of the consul Cnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus from 121 BC. J.-C. and inaugurated 3 years later; this route then connected Italy to Hispania (Spain) through the south of Gaule (France) freshly conquered.
The Montgenèvre pass has been crossed 10 times by the Tour de France. It has been ranked alternatively 1st or 2nd category.

The Painter 

Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. Nicolas de Staël was born Nikolai Vladimirovich Staël von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн) in Saint Petersbourg (Russia), into the family of a Baron Vladimir Staël von Holstein, the last Commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. De Staël's family was forced to emigrate to Poland in 1919 because of the Russian Revolution ; both his father and stepmother died in Poland and the orphaned Nicolas de Staël was sent with his older sister Marina to Brussels to live with a Russian family (1922).
De Staël's painting career spans roughly 15 years (from 1940) and produced more than a thousand paintings. His work shows the influence of Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Chaim Soutine, as well as of the Dutch masters Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hercules Seghers. During the 1940s and beginning in representation, de Staël moved further and further toward abstraction. Evolving his own highly distinctive and abstract style, which bears comparison with the near-contemporary American Abstract Expressionist movement, and French Tachisme, but which he developed independently of them. Typically his paintings contained block-like slabs of colour, emerging as if struggling against one another across the surface of the image. According to de Staël himself, he turned to his "abstracting" because he "found it awkward to paint an object as a likeness because of the awkwardness I felt when faced ! with the infinite multitude of coexisting objects in any single object".

De Staël's work was quickly recognized within the post-war art world, and he became one of the most influential artists of the 1950s. However, he moved away from abstraction in his later paintings, seeking a more "French" lyrical style, returning to representation (seascapes, footballers, jazz musicians, seagulls) at the end of his life.  His most well-known late paintings of beaches and landscapes are dominated by the sky and effects of light. 

Much of de Staël's late work—in particular his thinned and diluted oil on canvas abstract landscapes of the mid-1950s—predicts Color field painting and Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. Nicolas de Staël's bold and intensely vivid color in his last paintings predict the direction of much of contemporary painting that came after him including Pop Art of the 1960s.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

DEDO DE DEUS (2) PAINTED BY ELISEU VISCONTI

 

ELISEU VISCONTI (1866-1944)
Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft)
Brazil

About this mainting
Eliseu Visconti painted a lot of times,the Dedo De Deus mountain in the Serra de Orgaos, in any season and in all possible light, at any time of day. It is THE  repetitive motif in his work, a bit like the Montagne Sainte-Victoire for Paul Cézanne or  the volcano Chimborazo for Frederic Edwin Church or Mount Everest for Nicholas Roerich.

The mountain
Dedo de Deus (The Finger of God) (1,682m - 5,551ft) is a peck whose outline resembles a hand pointing the index finger to the sky. It is one of the several geological monuments of Serra dos Órgãos which is located in Serra do Mar, between the cities of Petrópolis, Guapimirim and Teresópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The mountaineering in Brazil is closely linked to the achievement of the Dedo de deus. The peak is a state symbol Rio de Janeiro, appearing on its flag and coat of arms. As for the coat of arms of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the first section, occupying the upper half, is blue, representing the sky and symbolizing justice, truth and loyalty, with the silhouette of the Serra dos Órgãos, highlighting the Dedo de Deus. The symbol was created by the 1892 State Constitution and made official under the government of José Tomás da Porciúncula, with small differences over time. In 1912, José Guimarães Teixeira, Raul Carneiro and the brothers Américo, Alexandre and Acácio de Oliveira, all from Teresópolis, were the first to step on top of the rock formation.


The artist
Eliseu Visconti, born Eliseo d'Angelo Visconti was an Italian-born Brazilian painter, cartoonist, and teacher. He is considered one of the very few impressionist painters of Brazil. He is considered the initiator of the art nouveau in Brazil.
Thanks to a prize received in 1892, Visconti travelled to Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux Arts the following year. He also took classes at the Académie Julian and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, where he was a pupil of art nouveau master Eugène Grasset. He was accepted at the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts and at the Salon of the Société of des Artistes Français. As one of the Brazilian representatives to the Exposition Universelle 1900 he exhibited the paintings Gioventú and Oréadas, for which he received a silver medal. Back in Brazil, Visconti exhibited in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and obtained the first place in a contest for the drawing of postal stamps for the Brazilian Casa da Moeda. He traveled again to Europe, where he exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1905 the portrait of the artist Nicolina Vaz de Assis now at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. In this same year, he was invited to paint the stage curtain for the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro which he completed in his studio in Paris.
Decorative schemes executed for the National Library or Biblioteca Nacional in (Rio de Janeiro) date from this period as does another gold medal he received at the International Exhibition of Saint-Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition), in 1904, for the painting Recompensa de São Sebastião (see external links). The museum of Santiago of the Chile acquired his Sonho Místico (Mystical Dream) in 1912. In 1913, Visconti returned to Europe in order to paint large scale panels for the "foyer" of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. His plans to return were interrupted by the First World War so he stayed in France until 1920. The resulting paintings for the "foyer" were sent to Brazil during the war, in 1915. In 1922 his triptych "Lar" gained him the Medal of Honor in a large exhibition created in Rio de Janeiro to commemorate the first centennial of Brazilian Independence, the Exposição do Centenário. The following year Visconti painted the mural decoration of Rio de Janeiro's municipal council hall. In 1924, he painted the panel depicting the signature of the first Republican Constitution, for the old federal court, also in Rio de Janeiro.
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2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

YAKE DAKE BY SOTARO YASUI

SOTARO YASUI (1888-1955)   

Mount Yake-daké or Yake  (2, 455m - 8,054 ft) 

Japan 

In Mount Yakedke, 1941, watercolor,  Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura

Mount Yake (2, 455m - 8,054 ft) or Yake-daké (焼岳),  literally "Burning mountain" is an active volcano in the Hida Mountains, lying between Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains.
Mount Yake is the most active of all the volcanoes in the Hida Mountains. Its two main peaks are the northern and southern peaks, but visitors can only ascend to the northern peak, as the southern peak is currently a restricted area. A crater lake lies between the two peaks.
Because the lava flowing from Mount Yake has a high viscosity, it is easily able to build a lava dome.
The heat from the volcano produces many onsen in the surrounding area.
In 1911, 22 minor eruptions were recorded.
In 1915, during the Taishō period, however, there was a major eruption. The flow of the lava blocked the Azusa River, which caused the river to form a lake that was named Lake Taishō.  The Azusa River is again flowing today, but the lake still remains.
In 1962, there was an eruption that killed two people staying at a small hut near the mouth of the volcano.
In 1995, a tunnel was being constructed on the Nagano Prefecture side of the mountain, through Mount Akandana, which was thought to be part of Mount Yake. At 2:25pm on February 11, the workers encountered volcanic gases, which were quickly followed by a phreatic eruption on Mount Yake, leading to the death of four people. Later explorations have shown that Mount Akandana is an independent volcano.
There is still an active fumarole near the mountain's peak.

The painter
Sōtarō Yasui (安井 曾太郎 was a Japanese painter, noted for development of yōga (Western-style) portraiture in early twentieth-century Japanese painting.
Yasui was born to a merchant class household in Kyoto, but dropped out of commercial high school against his family's wishes to pursue a career in the arts. He studied oil painting under Asai Chū at the Shōgōin Yōga Kenkyujō and Kansai Bijutsu-in (Kansai Fine Art Academy) together with Ryuzaburo Umehara.
In 1907, at the age of nineteen he moved to Paris, France to study at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens.  During this seven years, from 1907 to 1914, he was strongly influenced by the realistic styles of Jean-François Millet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and, in particular, Paul Cézanne. Forced to return to Japan with the outbreak of World War I, in 1915, he made his debut at the Nikakai (Second Division Society) Exhibition, where he displayed forty-four paintings he had made in Paris. For the next ten years, Yasui suffered from recurring health problems and did not participate in exhibitions, while he attempted to perfect his style, which incorporates clear outlines and vibrant colors in portraits and landscapes, combining western realism with the softer touches of traditional nihonga techniques. In 1930, he displayed these techniques in "A Portrait of a Woman" to wide critical acclaim, and was nominated for membership in the prestigious Imperial Fine Arts Academy in 1935.
From 1936, he cooperated with Ikuma Arishima to establish the Issui-kai, a rival organization to the Nikakai. In the postwar period, many of his works were selected as cover art for the literary magazine Bungeishunjū. From 1944, he was a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1952, he received the Order of Culture from the Japanese government.
He died in 1955 of acute pneumonia. His grave is at Shokaku temple in Kyoto.

MONTE DEL FORNO PAINTED BY GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI

GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI (1868-1933)

Monte del Forno (3,214m -10,544 ft )

Italy - Switzerland border 

In Lake and mount  del Forno, watercolour,  Private collection  

The mountain
Monte del Forno (3,214m -10,544 ft )  not to be confused with  Monte Forno (Austrian, Slovenian Italian border)  is a mountain in the Bregaglia Range (Alps), located on the border between Italy and Switzerland. On its western side it overlooks the Forno Glacier and Lake.

The painter 
Giovanni Giacometti was a Swiss painter, the father of the famous painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti, and of Diego Giacometti, the furniture designer as well as the father of the architect Bruno Giacometti ! In 1886, he studied painting at the School of Decorative Arts in Munich, where he met Cuno Amiet the following year. Both decide to pursue their studies in Paris, in October stood at the Académie Julian, where Giacometti remains until 1891.
In 1893, shortly after his return to Switzerland, to Bergell, he became friends with Giovanni Segantini, his eldest ten years, which has great influence on his work by opening it to the beauty of the mountain scenery and the rules of divisionism. After his sudden death in 1899, Giacometti met Ferdinand Hodler, who teaches him to create a rigorous and ornamental composition by appropriate use of shapes and colors.
He sees regularly Cuno Amiet, who after a year spent in Pont-Aven, shared his experience with him. In 1900 he exhibited in the Swiss Pavillon of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. From 1905, Giacometti works again in a great complicity with Amiet and begins to break free from the influence of Segantini. In 1906, held an exhibition of his work at Kunstlerhaus Zurich. In 1907 he went to Paris with Amiet to the Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne. They copy all the works of Van Gogh. In 1908, he exhibited with the French Fauves at the Richter Gallery in Dresden.
In 1909, the Tannhauser Gallery presents his works in Munich. He meets Alexi von Jawlensky, and in 1911 participates in the Berlin Secession. In 1912, Giacometti has a solo show at the Kunsthaus Zurich presents two works in the Sonderbund of Cologne. In 1918 after Hodler' s death, he began to be involved into the Swiss political world paying an important part as a committed artist, following int that way friend Amiet.

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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

CIMA DI ROSSO PAINTED BY GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI

GIOVANNI GIACOMETTI (1868-1933)

Cima di Rosso (( 3,366 m (11,043 ft)

Italy - Switzerland border

In Maloja mit Monte Forno und Cima di Rosso,  oil on canvas, 1918, Private collection 

The mountain
The Cima di Rosso is a mountain in the Bregaglia Range of the Alps, located on the border between Italy and Switzerland. It lies between the valleys of Bregaglia (in Graubünden) and Malenco (in Lombardy). On the western side of the mountain is the Forno Glacier.

The painter
Giovanni Giacometti was a Swiss painter, the father of the famous painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti, and of Diego Giacometti, the furniture designer as well as the father of the architect Bruno Giacometti ! In 1886, he studied painting at the School of Decorative Arts in Munich, where he met Cuno Amiet the following year. Both decide to pursue their studies in Paris, in October stood at the Académie Julian, where Giacometti remains until 1891.
In 1893, shortly after his return to Switzerland, to Bergell, he became friends with Giovanni Segantini, his eldest ten years, which has great influence on his work by opening it to the beauty of the mountain scenery and the rules of divisionism. After his sudden death in 1899, Giacometti met Ferdinand Hodler, who teaches him to create a rigorous and ornamental composition by appropriate use of shapes and colors.
He sees regularly Cuno Amiet, who after a year spent in Pont-Aven, shared his experience with him. In 1900 he exhibited in the Swiss Pavillon of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. From 1905, Giacometti works again in a great complicity with Amiet and begins to break free from the influence of Segantini. In 1906, held an exhibition of his work at Kunstlerhaus Zurich. In 1907 he went to Paris with Amiet to the Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne. They copy all the works of Van Gogh. In 1908, he exhibited with the French Fauves at the Richter Gallery in Dresden.
In 1909, the Tannhauser Gallery presents his works in Munich. He meets Alexi von Jawlensky, and in 1911 participates in the Berlin Secession. In 1912, Giacometti has a solo show at the Kunsthaus Zurich presents two works in the Sonderbund of Cologne. In 1918 after Hodler' s death, he began to be involved into the Swiss political world paying an important part as a committed artist, following int that way friend Amiet.

______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SINAÏ / JABAL MUSA BY EL GRECO

EL GRECO  (1540-1614) 

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

Egypt

 

1. In Mount Sinaï, oil and tempera on panel,3 7cm x 23, 8cm , 1568, The Modena Triptych (back panels)
Galleria Estense, Modena, Italy 

2. In Mount Sinaï  oil and tempera on panel, 41 x 47,5 cm., c. 1570-72, 

 Historical Museum of Crete, Iraklion

About the painting

The first painting is the central back panel of the  Modena Triptych painted is 1568 triptych (three panel painting) by the artist El Greco, who was also known as Doménikos Theotokópoulos. This portable altarpiece is painted on both sides and has an Italian Renaissance frame. The front depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds, a Christian knight being crowned by Christ in glory, and the Baptism of Jesus. The back panels show the Annunciation to Mary, Mount Sinai, and Adam and Eve. The back panel shows pilgrims on the way to the Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt as if on their way to Heaven.

The second painting was probably made for the antiquarian Fulvio Orsini, librarian to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, in whose palace the artist lived from 1570 to 1572. It shows the peaks of Mount Sinai, a place sacred to Judaism and Christianity, of special significance for Eastern Orthodoxy, and revered by Muslims. At the centre is Mount Horeb, where Moses received the tablets of the Ten Commandments from God. On the left is Mount Epistene. The peak on the right is St. Catherine's Mount, where the early Christian Martyr Catherine had been buried. The small citadel at the foot of Mount Horeb is the monastery that to this day bears her name.
The St. Catherine's Monastery is venerated as the spiritual home of Byzantine Orthodoxy and it was a great centre of pilgrimage. In the painting, on the left are three Western pilgrims, while on the right is a group of Eastern pilgrims with camels.
The view of the holy site is based on engravings of Mount Sinai which could be found in travel books. El Greco painted a similar view on the reverse of the Modena Triptych.

The painter 

Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a famous Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, normally signing his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), often adding the word Κρής Krēs, Cretan.

El Greco was born in the Kingdom of Candia, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto.

 In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.
El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.  He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

El Greco painted many of his paintings on fine canvas and employed a viscous oil medium. He painted with the usual pigments of his period such as azurite, lead-tin-yellow, vermilion, madder lake, ochres and red lead, but he seldom used the expensive natural ultramarine.
El Greco regarded color as the most important and the most ungovernable element of painting, and declared that color had primacy over form. Francisco Pacheco, a painter and theoretician who visited El Greco in 1611, wrote that the painter liked "the colors crude and unmixed in great blots as a boastful display of his dexterity" and that "he believed in constant repainting and retouching in order to make the broad masses tell flat as in nature".
In his mature works El Greco demonstrated a characteristic tendency to dramatize rather than to describe.] The strong spiritual emotion transfers from painting directly to the audience. According to Pacheco, El Greco's perturbed, violent and at times seemingly careless-in-execution art was due to a studied effort to acquire a freedom of style.  El Greco's preference for exceptionally tall and slender figures and elongated compositions, which served both his expressive purposes and aesthetic principles, led him to disregard the laws of nature and elongate his compositions to ever greater extents, particularly when they were destined for altarpieces.  The anatomy of the human body becomes even more otherworldly in El Greco's mature works; for The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception El Greco asked to lengthen the altarpiece itself by another 1.5 feet (0.46 m) "because in this way the form will be perfect and not reduced, which is the worst thing that can happen to a figure'". A significant innovation of El Greco's mature works is the interweaving between form and space; a reciprocal relationship is developed between the two which completely unifies the painting surface. This interweaving would re-emerge three centuries later in the works of Cézanne and Picasso.

The mountain
Mount Sinaï (2,285 m - 7,496 ft) 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.

__________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau