LES FALAISES SOUBEYRANES PEINTES PAR GEORGES BRAQUE

 

GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963)
Falaises Soubeyranes (394m)
France

In Montagnes à la Ciotat, 1907, Centre Georges Pompidou

Le relief
Les Falaises Soubeyranes (394m) (du provençal sobeiranas, « souveraines ») se situent sur le littoral méditerranéen des Bouches-du-Rhône, entre Cassis et La Ciotat. Elles sont intégrées dans le parc national des Calanques.
Elles sont formées par le tombant à la mer, sur un peu plus de 4 kilomètres, du plateau de Soubeyran ou massif de la Canaille. Au nord, la façade s'avançant vers l'ouest constitue le Cap Canaille (altitude maximum 363 mètres sur la commune de Cassis), l'extrémité sud étant matérialisée par le sémaphore du Bec de l'Aigle, à 313 mètres d'altitude.
Le point le plus élevé des falaises, à 394 mètres, est situé sur la commune de La Ciotat, au sud-ouest du Bau Rous (328 mètres), sommet isolé en retrait de la ligne de crête. Il constitue ainsi la plus haute falaise maritime de France.
Au nord des Falaises Soubeyranes proprement dites, au-delà du Pas de la Colle (littéralement col de la colline), qui s'abaisse à 214 mètres, d'autres falaises rocheuses prolongent ce relief au-dessus du vallon de Cassis : le Baou de la Saoupe (342 mètres) et la Couronne de Charlemagne (329 mètres). Au sud, la ligne de crête s'abaisse en s'éloignant du bord de mer, mais le relief de la côte reste abrupt, notamment autour de la calanque de Figuerolles, et sur la presqu'île du Bec de l'Aigle. Sculptée par l'érosion éolienne, la falaise est constituée de calcaire, de grès et de poudingue, cette grande variété de couches de roches et la présence de fossiles font de l'endroit un haut-lieu de la minéralogie.

L'artiste
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. Cette simplification est censée être la marque du cubisme, dont l'origine reste controversée
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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2024 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Gravir les montagnes en peinture
Un blog de 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. 

 ________________________________________

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

 

THE FALAISES D'ETRETAT PAINTED BY GEORGES BRAQUE

 

GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963)
The Falaises d'Etretat (70 to 90 m - 230 to 300 ft)
France (Normandie)

 In Les Falaises d'Etretat, 1930, oil on canvas

The cliffs 

The Falaise d'Etretat (Etretat Chalk Complex), as it is known, consists of a complex stratigraphy of Turonian and Coniacian chalks. Some of the cliffs are as high as 90 metres (300 ft).  Etretat is best known for its chalk cliffs, including three natural arches and a pointed formation called L'Aiguille (the Needle), which rises 70 m- 230 ft above the sea.  L'arche et L'aiguille  (The Ark and the Needle) above.  An underground river, then marine erosion formed a natural arch and a estimated 55 meter to 70 meters  high needle, relic piece of the cliff. Maurice Leblanc describes it in these terms in his novel The Hollow Needle (1909) : "An enormous roach, more than eighty meters high, colossal obelisk, plumb on its granite base"  At his time, the site already attracted many tourists among them "lupinophiles" admirers of Arsene Lupine: American students came for the key to the cave, where the "gentleman burglar" had found the treasure of kings of France. 

The Painter
Georges Braque (1882-1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most important contributions to the history of art were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque's work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and  notoriety of Picasso. Braque believed that an artist experienced beauty "… in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty [he] interpret[s] [his] subjective impression".   He described "objects shattered into fragments... [as] a way of getting closest to the object...Fragmentation helped me to establish space and movement in space”. He adopted a monochromatic and neutral color palette in the belief that such a palette would emphasize the subject matter.  Although Braque began his career painting landscapes, during 1908 he, alongside Picasso, discovered the advantages of painting still lifes instead. Braque explained that he “... began to concentrate on still lifes, because in the still-life you have a tactile, I might almost say a manual space... This answered to the hankering I have always had to touch things and not merely see them... In tactile space you measure the distance separating you from the object, whereas in visual space you measure the distance separating things from each other. This is what led me, long ago, from landscape to still-life”  A still life was also more accessible, in relation to perspective, than landscape, and permitted the artist to see the multiple perspectives of the object. Braque's early interest in still lifes revived during the 1930s.
During the period between the wars, Braque exhibited a freer, more relaxed style of Cubism, intensifying his color use and a looser rendering of objects. However, he still remained committed to the cubist method of simultaneous perspective and fragmentation. In contrast to Picasso, who continuously reinvented his style of painting, producing both representational and cubist images, and incorporating surrealist ideas into his work, Braque continued in the Cubist style, producing luminous, other-worldly still life and figure compositions. By the time of his death in 1963, he was regarded as one of the elder statesmen of the School of Paris, and of modern art.

LE GRAND CAPELET (MERCANTOUR) PEINT PAR NICOLAS DE STAËL

 

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)
Le Grand Capelet (2.935m)
France (Alpes Maritimes)

In "Paysage, Antibes", Huile sur toile 1955, MuMa, Le Havre

 
La montagne
Le Grand Capelet (2 935 mètres) est un sommet du massif du Mercantour-Argentera situé sur la ligne de partage des eaux, entre les vallées de la Gordolasque et de la Roya. Il est situé à la frontière des territoires des communes de Belvédère et de Tende, dans le département des Alpes-Maritimes, en France et nettement visible depuis la Riviera et notamment depuis la villle d'Antibes.  Il se situe à l'est du mont Bégo. Au nord, à proximité immédiate, se trouve la cime de Muffié. D'un point de vue géologique, ce sommet est constitué de schistes, à l'exception des arêtes nord, qui sont formées d'anatexites. Ce sommet fait partie du parc national du Mercantour. La première ascension a été effectuée par J. Proust, en 1885, par le versant sud-est4. La première ascension hivernale a été réalisée par Victor de Cessole, Variot, M. Fassi et J. Plent, le 27 février 1908, par l'arête est du versant est4. L'itinéraire démarre du refuge des Merveilles et suit d'abord la direction du Pas de l'Arpette, puis bifurque vers le sommet nord du Caïre des Conques, avant de redescendre vers le Pas des Conques. On gravit ensuite la pente d'éboulis jusqu'au sommet du Grand Capelet.

Le Peintre
Nicolas de Staël ; baron Nikolaï Vladimirovitch Staël von Holstein de son nom complet (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн), est un peintre français originaire de Russie, issu d'une branche cadette de la famille Staël von Holstein. La carrière de Nicolas de Staël s'étale sur quinze ans, de 1940 à sa mort. Artiste prolifique, il réalise au cours de sa carrière 1120 tableaux aux influences diverses — Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Braque, Soutine et les Fauves, mais aussi les maîtres néerlandais Rembrandt, Vermeer et Seghers. Sa peinture est en constante évolution. Des couleurs sombres de ses débuts (Porte sans porte, 1946 ou Ressentiment, 1947), elle aboutit à l'exaltation de la couleur comme dans le Grand Nu orange (1953). Ses toiles se caractérisent par d'épaisses couches de peinture superposées et un important jeu de matières, passant des empâtements au couteau (Compositions, 1945-1949) à une peinture plus fluide (Agrigente, 1954, Chemin de fer au bord de la mer, soleil couchant, 1955). Refusant les étiquettes et les courants, tout comme Georges Braque qu'il admire, il travaille avec acharnement, détruisant autant d’œuvres qu'il en réalise.  Nicolas de Staël meurt à 41 ans en se jetant de la terrasse de la maison où il avait son atelier à Antibes. Cette maison fut classée monument historique en mars 2014. Il est enterré au cimetière de Montrouge. Par son style évolutif, qu'il a lui-même qualifié d'« évolution continue », il reste une énigme pour les historiens d'art qui le classent aussi bien dans la catégorie de l'École de Paris, que dans les abstraits ayant inspiré les jeunes peintres à partir des années 1970, ou encore dans la catégorie de l'art informel. Il a maintes fois créé la surprise notamment avec la série Les Footballeurs, entraînant derrière lui des artistes d'un nouveau mouvement d'abstraction et les artistes du néo-formalisme new-yorkais, ou de l'expressionnisme abstrait de l'École de New York, parmi lesquels se trouve notamment Joan Mitchell.

_________________________________________

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

LE MOURRE NÈGRE PEINT PAR NICOLAS DE STAĒL

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955),
Le Mourre Nègre (1,125m)
France (Provence)

In Landscape-Ménerbes 1953-54, Huile sur toile, Musée Fabre Montpellier 

 

A propos de cette composition
Titrée " Landscape-Ménerbes" cette composition est une évocation des paysages du Luberon visibles autour et à  partir de Ménerbes, où Nicolas de Staël posséda une maison. On a donc supposé qu'il s'agissait d'une évocation des divers reliefs du Luberon visibles alentour dont le trait noir du Mourre Nègre, dans le lointain, barrerait le centre du tableau. Staël comme beaucoup d'autres peintres  et pas seulement modernes, ne désigna jamais les montagnes qu'il peignit. 

La montagne
Le Mourre Nègre (1,125m) est le point culminant du massif du Luberon. Ce sommet arrondi est aujourd'hui coiffé d'une antenne hertzienne, ce qui le signale d'assez loin.Mourre et nègre viennent tous deux du provençal, le premier signifie « museau » et est souvent utilisé pour désigner des sommets de forme arrondie. Nègre désigne la couleur « noire ». Il est situé dans le Grand Luberon, partie principale du massif tant en taille qu'en longueur et largeur.à cheval sur les communes d'Auribeau, de Cabrières-d'Aigues et de Castellet-en-Luberon. A partir de Ménerbes, il ne peut être visible que dans le lointain, ce qui semble être le cas dans ce tableau. Ouverts ou semi-ouverts (restriction en période de sècheresse) à la circulation routière, le « chemin des crêtes » et le « chemin des cavaliers » parcourent les sommets du Grand Luberon dont le Mourre Nègre. On y accède par Lourmarin, Cucuron, Cabrières-d'Aigues et Vitrolles-en-Luberon côté Sud Luberon ainsi que par Auribeau côté Nord Luberon joignant par la même occasion à la frontière départementale la route départementale de Vaucluse 33 qui devient 31 dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Plusieurs autres chemins permettent la découverte du Luberon. Certains sont réservés aux marcheurscomme les chemins de grande randonnée GR 4, 6, 9, 92 et 97 , d'autres aux VTTistes ou cavaliers.

 Le peintre
Nicolas de Staël (prononcé [stal) baron Nikolaï Vladimirovitch Staël von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн), est un peintre français originaire de Russie, issu d'une branche cadette de la famille Staël von Holstein. La carrière de Nicolas de Staël s'étale sur quinze ans, de 1940 à sa mort. Artiste prolifique, il réalise au cours de sa carrière 1120 tableaux aux influences diverses — Cézanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Braque, Soutine et les fauves, mais aussi les maîtres néerlandais Rembrandt, Vermeer et Seghers. Sa peinture est en constante évolution. Des couleurs sombres de ses débuts (Porte sans porte, 1946 ou Ressentiment, 1947), elle aboutit à l'exaltation de la couleur comme dans le Grand Nu orange (1953). Ses toiles se caractérisent par d'épaisses couches de peinture superposées et un important jeu de matières, passant des empâtements au couteau (Compositions, 1945-1949) à une peinture plus fluide (Agrigente, 1954, Chemin de fer au bord de la mer, soleil couchant, 1955). Refusant les étiquettes et les courants, tout comme Georges Braque qu'il admire, il travaille avec acharnement, détruisant autant d’œuvres qu'il en réalise.  Nicolas de Staël meurt à 41 ans en se jetant de la terrasse de la maison où il avait son atelier à Antibes. Cette maison fut classée monument historique en mars 2014. Il est enterré au cimetière de Montrouge. Par son style évolutif, qu'il a lui-même qualifié d'« évolution continue », il reste une énigme pour les historiens d'art qui le classent aussi bien dans la catégorie de l'École de Paris, que dans les abstraits ayant inspiré les jeunes peintres à partir des années 1970, ou encore dans la catégorie de l'art informel. Il a maintes fois créé la surprise notamment avec la série Les Footballeurs, entraînant derrière lui des artistes d'un nouveau mouvement d'abstraction et les artistes du néo-formalisme new-yorkais, ou de l'expressionnisme abstrait de l'École de New York, parmi lesquels se trouve notamment Joan Mitchell.

______________________________________

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

LA MONTAGNE SAINTE VICTOIRE PEINTE PAR NICOLAS DE STAËL

 

 

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955),
Montagne Sainte Victoire  (1, 011m )
France Provence)

 In ciel de Vaucluse,  huile sur toile, 16 x 24 cm,  1953, Collection privée  

A propos de cette toile
Titré "Ciel de Vaucluse" on a supposé qu'il s'agissait d'une évocation de la Montagne Sainte-Victoire, hommage à Cézanne que Stael admirait beaucoup,  bien que cette montagne ne se trouve pas dans le Vaucluse mais dans les Bouches du Rhône.  La logique voudrait qu'il s 'agisse du Mont Ventoux, mais la silhouette de montagne évoquée ici rappelle définitiveent plus la Sainte Victoire que le Ventoux ! 

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 large10, 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 mètres13 et qui se situe sur le massif de la Sainte-Baume. 6 525 ha du massif de la Sainte-Victoire sont classés depuis 1983.

Le Peintre
Nicolas de Staël (prononcé [stal) baron Nikolaï Vladimirovitch Staël von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн), est un peintre français originaire de Russie, issu d'une branche cadette de la famille Staël von Holstein. La carrière de Nicolas de Staël s'étale sur quinze ans, de 1940 à sa mort. Artiste prolifique, il réalise au cours de sa carrière 1120 tableaux aux influences diverses — Cézanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Braque, Soutine et les fauves, mais aussi les maîtres néerlandais Rembrandt, Vermeer et Seghers. Sa peinture est en constante évolution. Des couleurs sombres de ses débuts (Porte sans porte, 1946 ou Ressentiment, 1947), elle aboutit à l'exaltation de la couleur comme dans le Grand Nu orange (1953). Ses toiles se caractérisent par d'épaisses couches de peinture superposées et un important jeu de matières, passant des empâtements au couteau (Compositions, 1945-1949) à une peinture plus fluide (Agrigente, 1954, Chemin de fer au bord de la mer, soleil couchant, 1955). Refusant les étiquettes et les courants, tout comme Georges Braque qu'il admire, il travaille avec acharnement, détruisant autant d’œuvres qu'il en réalise.  Nicolas de Staël meurt à 41 ans en se jetant de la terrasse de la maison où il avait son atelier à Antibes. Cette maison fut classée monument historique en mars 2014. Il est enterré au cimetière de Montrouge. Par son style évolutif, qu'il a lui-même qualifié d'« évolution continue », il reste une énigme pour les historiens d'art qui le classent aussi bien dans la catégorie de l'École de Paris, que dans les abstraits ayant inspiré les jeunes peintres à partir des années 1970, ou encore dans la catégorie de l'art informel. Il a maintes fois créé la surprise notamment avec la série Les Footballeurs, entraînant derrière lui des artistes d'un nouveau mouvement d'abstraction et les artistes du néo-formalisme new-yorkais, ou de l'expressionnisme abstrait de l'École de New York, parmi lesquels se trouve notamment Joan Mitchell.

_________________________________________

2023 - Wandering Vertexes ....
Errant au-dessus des Sommets Silencieux...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau 

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 

THE MONTAGNE SAINTE VICTOIRE PAINTED BY PAUL CEZANNE

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906) 

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

France (Provences-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)

In  Sainte-Victoire vue à travers l’allée des marronniers du Jas de Bouffan,  oil on canvas, 1885

 Minneapolis Museum of Fine Arts 

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 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. 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 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 1,042 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, 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.
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
The mount Sainte-Victoire appears to have been the subject of a true love story with the painter (Paul Cézanne). He painted this subject more than 80 times, in oil paintings, watercolors and drawings !
Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other. But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s) he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors. IN the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view from Les Lauves, between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.
A true love story…

_____________________________________________
2019- Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

LE PILON DU ROI - MASSIF DE L'ÉTOILE PAINTED BY PAUL CÉZANNE

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)
The Pilon du Roi - Massif de l'Etoile (710 m - 2,200 ft)
France 

                     La Chaîne de l'Etoile avec le Pilon du Roi, 1885–1886,  Barnes Foundation


The mountain
The Massif de l'Etoile (Range of the Star) is a small mountain range located north of Marseille. Covering an area of ​​10,000 hectares, it culminates at 779 meters at Grand-Puech. Its other highest points are: to the west, the summit of Grande-Étoile (590 metres) and l'Étoile (652 metres, the highest point in the municipality of Marseilles), to the east, besides the Tête du Grand-Puech, the Mont Julien (647 meters), while the center of the massif is dominated by the Pilon du Roi (710 meters) whose name is a deformation of the Provençal Pieloun dóu Roure, or the “peak of the oak”.
With the Garlaban massif, it forms a chain of mountains in coastal limestone Lower Provence in the south of Bouches-du-Rhône. They constitute a vast natural space of approximately 20,000 hectares which emerge at the heart of an urban complex of more than one million inhabitants with the agglomerations of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Aubagne and Gardanne.
The massif crosses 18 communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône.
On the northern edge of the Marseille agglomeration, this massif offers a beautiful image of the non-coastal hills of limestone Basse-Provence with typical flora, including endemic and rare species, including one from Appendix II of the plant protection system. (Arenaria provincialis), a typical vegetation of coppice, scrubland, lawns and rock habitats belonging to the Meso-Mediterranean level with even, thanks to a clear shade, an outline of a supra-Mediterranean level (coppice - high oak forest pubescent holly and pine forests of Scots pine) and a Mediterranean fauna whose current studies show for the moment typicality and originality.


The Painter
If mount Sainte-Victoire appears to have been the subject of a true love story with the painter Paul Cezanne, it is not the only one mountain he painted.
Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other. But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s) he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors. In the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view from Les Lauves, between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.

_______________________________
2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by 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.

 ______________________________________

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

 

 

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE (3) BY PAUL CEZANNE

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

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

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

 In La Sainte-Victoire vue de la colline des Lauves, 1902-1906,  watercolour, 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.

 The 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.

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 Painter  

The mount Sainte-Victoire 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!

Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other.  But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History  says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.

Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.

The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.

It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s)  he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors.  In the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view  from Les Lauves,  between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.

_______________________________
2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

SAINTE-VICTOIRE BY NICOLAS DE STAËL

NICOLAS DE STAËL (1914-1955)

The mount Sainte-Victoire  (1, 011m - 3, 316ft) 

France (Provence-Alpes-Côte -d'Azur)

 In La montagne Sainte-Victoire (Paysage de Sicile), en hommage à Cézanne,1954,  oil on canvas

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)...

- More about Sainte Victoire 

 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 Stael von Holstein (Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн) in Saint Petersbourg (Russia), into the family of a Baron Vladimir Stael 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.

 Source : 

- Applicat Prazan

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

LA TETE D'AUGUSTE PAINTED BY PAUL CEZANNE

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

La Tête d'Auguste (278m
 - 912ft)
France (Bouche du Rhône)


In Au fond du ravin, L’Estaque, 1882 Huile sur toile, 73 x 54 cm, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

 

The Hill
The Tête d'Auguste (278m - ) is the highest point of the Chaîne de l'Estaque or the Nerthe chain, a massif of white limestone hills around 28 kilometers long which extends from L'Estaque to Martigues. The Estaque chain is part of the Pyrenean-Provençal chain, a former massif which stretched continuously before the Oligocene, from the Pyrenees to the Estaque massif, in place of the current Gulf of Lion. Nowadays, it forms a sort of isthmus about 8 kilometers wide between the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Etang de Berre to the north.
The coastline of the Estaque range forms the Côte Bleue with its steep shores cut into deep creeks. The railway line from Miramas to Estaque runs along the coast clinging to the side of the massif. The Estaque range is also home to several gray limestone quarries, two of which are exploited for the manufacture of lime, the others for the general and aggregates and other quarry products (Lafarge).



The painter

The mount Sainte-Victoire appears to have been the subject of a true love story with the painter (Paul Cézanne). He painted this subject more than 80 times, in oil paintings, watercolors and drawings ! but he diddn't painted only the Sainte Victoire... others landscape and mountains of Provence were in his mind too... 
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion. 
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York. 
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene.


 
__________________________________________
2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE MOUNT SAINTE-VICTOIRE PAINTED BY PAUL CÉZANNE

 PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)

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

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

 In Plaine près de la Montagne Sainte-Victoire, c. 1882-85   oil on canvas, 58 x 72 cm. Musée Pushkin, Moscou

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.
The 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.
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 painter
The mount Sainte-Victoire 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!
Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other. But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s) he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors. In the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view from Les Lauves, between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.

_______________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT SAINTE VICTOIRE BY PAUL CEZANNE

 

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)
Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1, 011m - 2, 216 ft)
France (Provences-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)

In Le Mont Sainte-Victoire, c. 1897. watercolor  on paper, Prvate 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 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. 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 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 1,042 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, 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.
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
The mount Sainte-Victoire appears to have been the subject of a true love story with the painter (Paul Cézanne). He painted this subject more than 80 times, in oil paintings, watercolors and drawings !
Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other. But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s) he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors. IN the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view from Les Lauves, between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.
A true love story…
________________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE SAINTE VICTOIRE BY PAUL CÉZANNE

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906) 

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

France (Provences-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) 

In La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, c. 1900. watercolor and graphite on wove paper,
Barnes Foundation

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 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.  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 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 1,042 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, 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.

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  

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

Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other.  But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History  says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.

Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.

The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.

It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne.In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s)  he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors.  IN the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view  from Les Lauves,  between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.

A true love story…

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

SAINTE-VICTOIRE BY PAUL CEZANNE

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

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'azur) 

1. In La montagne Sainte-Victoire vue depuis Les Lauves, 1902-04, oil on canvas,  

Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA,  The George W. Elkins Collection

2. In La montagne Sainte Victoire vue depuis Les Lauves, (1904-1906),  oil on canvas, 

 Kunstmuseum  Zurich, Suisse

3.  In La montagne Sainte-Victoire vue depuis Les Lauves, (1902-1906), watercolor, 

Coll. Oskar Reinhardt Winterthur, Switzerland.

4.  In  La montagne Sainte-Victoire vue depuis la route du Tholonet (1896-1898), oil on canvas, Hermitage Museum, Saint Peterbourg 

5. In La montagne Sainte-Victoire, 1885, oil on canvas, Private Collection   

6. In La montagne Sainte-Victoire vue depuis Bellevue,1882-1885), oil on canvas, The MET, USA. 

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  
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!
Aix-en Provence (France) painter Paul Cezanne still remains closely linked to his hometown. His studio in Les Lauves remains a place to visit, as if the painter was coming back from one second to the other.  But the eternal bond is undoubtedly the series of paintings he did of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A hobby, a passion, a thread in the painter's work that took place in the latter part of his life, between 1882 and 1906 when he died in Aix. History  says that the painter had contracted a nasty pneumonia during a working session on the mountain. This is what can be called 'die on stage'.
Cézanne had a considerable influence on the art of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. Acknowledged master of his time, he attended during stays in Paris between 1862 and 1882, the Impressionist band: Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir (who also ended his life in the Provencal brightness), Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and others. He participated in the Impressionist adventure while keeping his personality: it is the time of the shock of the en plein air, easels in the grass, looking for natural light and emotion.
The influence of the Aix painter is recognized in the history of art since it would be the cause of the Cubist movement embodied in 1906 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first historically so called Cubist painting ' Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' would, a true artistic shock shown by Picasso in 1907 (one year after the death of Cézanne) is today one of the masterpieces of the MoMA in New York.
It is the search of volumes around which leads to the appearance of geometry in landscapes or still lifes of Cézanne. In 20 years, Cézanne pushes his style to express the emotion of the landscape, suggesting the wind, involving movement just like if we can breathe the air of the scene. In his first paintings pf the Sainte Victoire,(in the 1880’s)  he expresses the giant aspect of the mountain that dominates the area with his characteristic e way of painting at the time, with a juxtaposition of linear brushstrokes and a range of soft, natural colors.  IN the last paintings of the Sainte Victoire, view  from Les Lauves,  between 1904 and 1906, he shows shots less accurate brushes allowing the shape of the mountain emerge from the canvas like an apparition. That is the whole intention of the artist, show nature as it is without fail to convey emotion.
A true love story…