EIGER, MÖNCH & JUNGRAU PEINTS PAR FERDINAND HODLER

 

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)

La Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

Le  Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

L'Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Suisse

In  L’Eiger, le Mönch et la Jungfrau vus de Beatenberg aus, 1910, 1910, collection privée

Les montagnes
Le Mönch (4 107 m) (Le Moine) est une montagne des Alpes bernoises, en Suisse. Le Mönch se situe à la frontière entre les cantons du Valais et de Berne et fait partie d'une crête montagneuse entre la Jungfrau et le Jungfraujoch à l'ouest et l'Eiger à l'est. Le versant nord du Mönch forme un mur en escalier au-dessus de la vallée de Lauterbrunnen. Le tunnel ferroviaire de la Jungfrau passe juste sous le sommet, à une altitude d'environ 3 300 mètres (10 830 pieds). Le sommet a été escaladé pour la première fois il y a 159 ans en 1857 le 15 août, par Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann et Sigismund Porges.

L'Eiger (3 970 m) est situé dans les Alpes bernoises, surplombant Grindelwald et Lauterbrunnen dans l'Oberland bernois, juste au nord du bassin versant principal et à la frontière avec le Valais. C'est le sommet le plus à l'est d'une crête qui s'étend à travers le Mönch jusqu'à la Jungfrau à (4 158 m-13 642 ft), constituant l'un des sites les plus emblématiques des Alpes suisses. La caractéristique la plus remarquable de l'Eiger est sa face nord de roche et de glace de 1 800 mètres de haut - 5 900 pieds, appelée Eigerwand ou Nordwand, qui est la plus grande face nord des Alpes. Cette immense face domine la station de Kleine Scheidegg à sa base, sur le col homonyme reliant les deux vallées.
La première ascension de l'Eiger a été réalisée par les guides suisses Christian Almer et Peter Bohren et l'Irlandais Charles Barrington, qui ont escaladé le flanc ouest le 11 août 1858.

 

La Jungfrau (4'158 m ) ("La Vierge" en allemand) est l'un des principaux sommets des Alpes bernoises, situé entre le canton nord de Berne et le canton sud du Valais, à mi-chemin entre Interlaken et Fiesch. Avec l'Eiger et le Mönch, la Jungfrau forme un mur massif surplombant l'Oberland bernois et le plateau suisse, l'un des sites les plus distinctifs des Alpes suisses. C'est l'un des sommets les plus représentés par les artistes avec le Cervin et le Mont Blanc. Le sommet a été atteint pour la première fois le 3 août 1811 par les frères Meyer d'Aarau et deux chasseurs de chamois du Valais. L'ascension fait suite à une longue expédition sur les glaciers et les hauts cols des Alpes bernoises. Ce n'est qu'en 1865 qu'une route plus directe côté nord est ouverte. La construction du chemin de fer de la Jungfrau au début du XXe siècle, qui relie Kleine Scheidegg au Jungfraujoch, la selle entre le Mönch et la Jungfrau, a fait de la région l'un des endroits les plus visités des Alpes. Avec le glacier d'Aletsch au sud, la Jungfrau fait partie de la région Jungfrau-Aletsch, qui a été déclarée site du patrimoine mondial en 2001.

Le peintre
Ferdinand Hodler était l'un des peintres suisses les plus connus du XIXe siècle. Ses premières œuvres étaient des portraits, des paysages et des peintures de genre dans un style réaliste. Plus tard, il adopta une forme personnelle de symbolisme qu'il appela Parallélisme.
Au cours de la dernière décennie du 19e siècle, son travail a évolué pour combiner les influences de plusieurs genres, dont le symbolisme et l'Art nouveau. En 1890, il achève Night, une œuvre qui marque le tournant de Hodler vers l'imagerie symboliste. Il représente plusieurs gisants, tous détendus dans le sommeil, à l'exception d'un homme agité qui est menacé par une silhouette enveloppée de noir, que Hodler a conçue comme un symbole de mort. Hodler a développé un style qu'il a appelé «parallélisme» qui mettait l'accent sur la symétrie et le rythme qui, selon lui, formaient la base de la société humaine. Dans des peintures telles que The Chosen One , des groupements de personnages sont disposés symétriquement dans des poses évoquant un rituel ou une danse.
Hodler a peint un certain nombre de peintures historiques à grande échelle, souvent avec des thèmes patriotiques. En 1897, il accepte une commande pour peindre une série de grandes fresques pour la salle d'armes du Schweizerisches Landesmuseum de Zurich. Les compositions qu'il a proposées, y compris La bataille de Marignan qui dépeignait une bataille perdue par les Suisses, étaient controversées pour leur imagerie et leur style, et Hodler n'a été autorisé à exécuter les fresques qu'en 1900.
L'œuvre de Hodler dans sa phase finale prend un aspect expressionniste avec des figures fortement colorées et géométriques. Les paysages sont réduits à l'essentiel, constitués parfois d'un coin de terre déchiqueté entre l'eau et le ciel. 

 

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

LE MÖNCH PEINT PAR FERDINAND HÖDLER

 

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)
Mönch (4 107 m)
Suisse

La montagne
Le Mönch (4 107 m) (Le Moine) est une montagne des Alpes bernoises, en Suisse. Le Mönch se situe à la frontière entre les cantons du Valais et de Berne et fait partie d'une crête montagneuse entre la Jungfrau et le Jungfraujoch à l'ouest et l'Eiger à l'est. Il se trouve à l'ouest du Mönchsjoch, un col à 3 650 mètres (11 980 pieds), du refuge du Mönchsjoch, et au nord du Jungfraufirn et de l'Ewigschneefäld, deux affluents du Grand glacier d'Aletsch. Le côté nord du Mönch forme un mur en gradins au-dessus de la vallée de Lauterbrunnen. Le tunnel ferroviaire de la Jungfrau passe juste sous le sommet, à une altitude d'environ 3 300 mètres (10 830 pieds). Le sommet a été gravi pour la première fois il y a 159 ans, le 15 août 1857, par Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann et Sigismund Porges.

Le peintre 
Ferdinand Hodler est un peintre suisse considéré comme le peintre  qui a le plus marqué la fin du 19e et le début du 20e siècle. Ami de Klimt et de Jawlensky, admiré par Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin et Kandinsky, Hodler est l’un des principaux moteurs de la modernité dans l’Europe de la Belle Époque. Son œuvre, puissante, navigue entre réalisme, symbolisme et expressionnisme. Au cours de sa carrière, il aura touché à tous les genres, privilégiant le portrait, le paysage, la peinture historique et monumentale et les compositions de figures. Hodler était surtout réputé en Suisse dans les années 1900-1910 pour ses peintures à caractère patriotique. En novembre 1900, la Poste suisse choisit sur concours son Berger de Fribourg qui sera utilisé jusqu'en 1936. En 1909, la Banque nationale suisse lui commande deux vignettes monétaires, qui deviendront le billet de 50 (« Le Bûcheron ») et de 100 francs (« Le Faucheur »), mis en circulation en 1911.  L'Institut Ferdinand Hodler, sis à Genève et Delémont (Suisse) a été fondé dans le but de réunir les ressources et les compétences utiles à l'étude et à la valorisation de l'œuvre du peintre. La création de cette institution s'est faite progressivement, à la suite du décès de l'historien de l'art Jura Brüschweiler (1927-2013), l'un des plus importants spécialistes du peintre, à qui il a consacré sa vie de chercheur et de collectionneur. L'Institut Ferdinand Hodler mène un vaste programme de recherche et de publication consacré au peintre.

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2024 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture...

JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

1. In  L’Eiger, le Mönch et la Jungfrau au-dessus d'une mer de brumes, 1908, oil on canvas
2. In Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in Moonlight 1908, oil on canvas
3.  In L’Eiger, le Mönch et la Jungfrau au clair de lune, 1908, oil on canvas

The mountains

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft). The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

The Eiger (3,970m- 13,020 ft)  is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau at (4,158 m-13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. 

The north face, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition with Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vцrg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek. The Eiger has been highly-publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions.   In 1973 : first all female ascent of the face by Wanda Rutkiewicz, Danuta Gellner-Wach and Stefania Egierszdorff. All Polish.

In June 2006, François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger

Since 1935, at least sixty-four climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall). Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mцnch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres.

The Eiger is mentioned in records dating back to the 13th century, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mцnch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed", but more commonly to the German eigen, meaning "own".

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

Climbing 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, having reached the summit for the first time.

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most of the accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau railway can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km. The final section of the climb is accomplished along one of the longest and sharpest arêtes of frozen snow to be found in the Alps, beyond which the eye plunges abruptly down a precipice 3,000 ft. in height into the depths of the Rottal, on the west of the Jungfrau. With perfect steadiness and first-rate guides there is no danger, unless too early in the season, or soon after a heavy fall of fresh snow. When it is necessary to cut steps all the way in hard frozen névé, the work is very laborious, and 3 hours may be consumed in ascending the 725 ft that separate the Sattel from the summit. Some rocks jut out close to the top, but the actual peak consists of a nearly level ridge of frozen snow falling away on either side like a house-top with an excessively steep roof. The view, on one side, commands the icy plains of the Aletsch Glacier, and the highest alpine peaks far and near; on the other overlooks populous valleys that lie at a depth of 2 miles below the spectator's feet.

The painter 
Ferdinand Hodler was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the 19th century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called Parallelism.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death. Hodler developed a style he called "Parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One, groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggestive of ritual or dance.

Hodler painted number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes. In 1897 he accepted a commission to paint a series of large frescoes for the Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich. The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.

Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky.

THE JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER SEEN BY EMIL NOLDE

EMIL NOLDE  (1867-1956)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

In Jungfrau, Mönch et Eiger, 1910

The mountains 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.
- More about the Jungfrau 

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft). The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

The Eiger (3,970 m- 13,020 ft) is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau, constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.
- More about the Eiger 


The painter 
Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke (The Bridge) of Dresden in 1906, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.
Nolde's intense preoccupation with the subject of flowers reflects his continuing interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.
From the early 1920s,  Nolde was a supporter of the Nazi party, having become a member of its Danish section. He expressed anti-semitic, negative opinions about Jewish artists, and considered "Expressionism to be a distinctively Germanic style". This view was shared by some other members of the Nazi party, notably Joseph Goebbels and Fritz Hippler.
However Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as "degenerate art", and the Nazi regime officially condemned Nolde's work. Until that time he had been held in great prestige in Germany. A total of 1,052 of his works were removed from museums, more than those of any other artist.  Some were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937, despite his protests, including (later) a personal appeal to Nazi gauleiter Baldur von Schirach in Vienna. He was not allowed to paint—even in private—after 1941. Nevertheless, during this period he created hundreds of watercolors, which he hid. He called them the "Unpainted Pictures".
In 1942 Nolde wrote: "There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every color holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colors are colors, tones tones...and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed."
After World War II, Nolde was once again honored, receiving the German Order of Merit, He died in Seebüll (now part of Neukirchen). The Schiefler Catalogue raisonné of his prints describes 231 etchings, 197 woodcuts, 83 lithographs, and 4 hectographs.

About this work 
The postcards series date from  pre-expressionist phase of Nolde’s career (though he was around 30 when he created them). After hiking in the Swiss Alps, Nolde did a painting, Mountain Giants, presenting the mountains in human form. Nolde wrote : “The picture went to the annual exhibition in Munich in 1896. [Ferdinand] Hodler’s picture “Night”  which established his fame, was also there. But my “Mountain Giants" was soon returned, rejected… In those days there was a general and stormy derision and ridicule about each of Hodler’s pictures. ‘And his colors are as ugly as can be possible!’ What help was my contradiction and my firm conviction that his sinuous, pushing, wry bodies are part of the character of the mountain folk, just as the firs on the mountain slopes are gnarled and grown oddly.” From then, he painted practically every Swiss Alps Summit in human form: the Cervin / Matterhorn, the Zugspitze, the Waxenstein, the Eiger, the Monch, the Jungfrau, the Grand Saint- Gothard, Piz Bernina, the Morteratch, the Ortler, the Finsteraarhorn... they will be posted one by one in this blog.

THE JUNGFRAU, MÖNCH AND EIGER PAINTED BY AUGUST MACKE

AUGUST MACKE (1887-1914)  

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

 The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)

The Eiger (3,970 m -13,020 ft)

Switzerland

 In Garten am Thuner See, oin on canvas  

The mountains 
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the  Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

The Mönch  (4,107 m - 13,474 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland.  The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mцnchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mцnchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefдld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mцnch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The peak was first climbed 159 years ago in 1857 on August 15, ascended by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.


The Eiger (3,970 m- 13,020 ft) is located in the  Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mцnch to the Jungfrau, constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000m -10,000 ft above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its 1,800-metre-high - 5,900 ft north face of rock and ice, named Eigerwand or Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps. This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the homonymous pass connecting the two valleys.

The painter 
August Macke was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art: he saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe. Like a true artist of his time, Macke knew how to integrate into his painting the elements of the avant-garde which most interested him.

LE MÕNCH VU DE WENGEN PEINT PAR OTTO ERNST

OTTO ERNST (1884-1967)
The Mönch (4,107 m - 13,474 ft)
Suisse

 In Le Monk vu de Wengen, 1920, affiche, 102 x 62,5 cm, réalisée  pour l'Office de Tourisme de Wengen. Imprimée chez A. Trüb & Cie., Aarau

La montagne
Le Mönch (4 107 m - 13 474ft) - Le Moine en français- est une montagne des Alpes bernoises, en Suisse. Le Mönch se situe à la frontière entre les cantons du Valais et de Berne et fait partie d'une crête montagneuse entre la Jungfrau et le Jungfraujoch à l'ouest et l'Eiger à l'est. Il se trouve à l'ouest du Mönchsjoch, un col à 3 650 mètres (11 980 pieds), du refuge du Mönchsjoch, et au nord du Jungfraufirn et de l'Ewigschneefäld, deux affluents du Grand glacier d'Aletsch. Le côté nord du Mönch forme un mur en gradins au-dessus de la vallée de Lauterbrunnen. Le tunnel ferroviaire de la Jungfrau passe juste sous le sommet, à une altitude d'environ 3 300 mètres (10 830 pieds). Le sommet a été gravi pour la première fois il y a 159 ans, le 15 août 1857, par Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann et Sigismond Porges.

L'artiste
Otto Ernst fit son apprentissage de graphiste, en 1905 lors d'un rapide séjour d'études d'un semestre à Florence puis en 1906 et 1907 dans - plusieurs académies à Paris-. En 1910, il se rendit de nouveau à Paris, devint l'élève d'Eugène Grasset à l'académie de la Grande Chaumière, où il rencontra Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, et participa au fauvisme et aux débuts du cubisme. A partir de 1918, il vécut à Oberentfelden jpuis à Aarau, occupant pendant presque 40 ans, un emploi de graphiste chez l'imprimeur Trüb & Co spécialisé dans les affiches publicitaires hôtelières et dans la production d'étiquettes illustrées de bagages (cf. ci-dessous). Dès 1945, il entreprit comme artiste indépendant plusieurs voyages en Europe et au Maroc. Son œuvre comprend des paysages à l'huile et à l'aquarelle, de même que des natures mortes (surtout des fleurs), quelques portraits et de nombreuses affiches, généralement en style figuratif. Nombre de ses œuvres se trouvent au Musée cantonal des beaux-arts à Aarau (Aargauer Kunsthaus).

L'imprimeur
L'histoire du célèbre l'affichiste et imprimeur suisse August Trüb & Cie commence en 1859, avec la création de son imprimerie dans la ville d'Aarau. En 1880, la direction de l'entreprise passa à Jakob Müller qui, en 1884, s'associa avec August Trüb. La demande se  développa suffisamment rapidement pour engager un graphiste permanent. Dès le début de son activité, l'imprimeur cibla l'industrie manufacturière en fournissant des emballages en papier, des étiquettes, des prospectus, des factures illustrées, etc. En 1890, l'entreprise exploitait 8 presses à imprimer et employait 60 ouvriers. Ses propriétaires souhaitaint développer leur activité, ils rachètèrent une petite imprimerie à Lausanne. Les étiquettes de bagages Trüb les plus anciennes que l'on puisse trouver aujourd'hui datent du début des années 1890 et portent la mention « Müller & Cie, Aarau » ou « Müller & Cie, Lausanne »August Trüb décèda en 1922 après avoir dirigé l'entreprise pendant 18 ans. Ses fils la mènèrent à son apogée. Aujourd'hui, on peut identifier au moins trois styles récurrents, dont celui d'un certain C. Valerio qui travailla uniquement pour la maison Trüb et sa légendaire production d'étiquettes de bagages et surtout celui de d'Otto Ernst qui  travailla pour Trüb & Cie pendant près de 40 ans au cours desquels il a conçu une centaine d'affiches. Il a pris sa retraite en 1950. Sous le nom de Trüb AG, l'imprimerie existe encore aujourd'hui à Aarau, spécialisée dans l'impression de sécurité (comme les cartes de crédit, etc.) et constitue un exemple de la manière dont, grâce à la qualité, à la flexibilité et à l'adaptation, une ancienne entreprise peut survivre à l'épreuve du temps.

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

JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY CHARLES WARREN EATON

CHARLES WARREN EATON (1857-1937) 

Jungfrau (4,158m- 13, 642ft)

Switzerland

In Jungfrau in 1890, Oil on canvas, The Cooley Gallery, Connecticut

The mountain 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m-13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german)  is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened.

The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

Climbing 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, having reached the summit for the first time.

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most of the accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau railway can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km. The final section of the climb is accomplished along one of the longest and sharpest arêtes of frozen snow to be found in the Alps, beyond which the eye plunges abruptly down a precipice 3,000 ft. in height into the depths of the Rottal, on the west of the Jungfrau. With perfect steadiness and first-rate guides there is no danger, unless too early in the season, or soon after a heavy fall of fresh snow. When it is necessary to cut steps all the way in hard frozen névé, the work is very laborious, and 3 hours may be consumed in ascending the 725 ft that separate the Sattel from the summit. Some rocks jut out close to the top, but the actual peak consists of a nearly level ridge of frozen snow falling away on either side like a house-top with an excessively steep roof. The view, on one side, commands the icy plains of the Aletsch Glacier, and the highest alpine peaks far and near; on the other overlooks populous valleys that lie at a depth of 2 miles below the spectator's feet.

Source: 

- Official Website of Interalken and Jungfrau.

The painter 
Charles Warren Eaton was an American artist best known for his tonalist landscapes. He earned the nickname "the pine tree painter" for his numerous depictions of Eastern White Pine trees. Eaton was born in Albany, New York to a family of limited means. He starting working at age nine, and worked at a dry goods store in Albany into his early adulthood. When Eaton was twenty-two, a friend's amateur painting sparked his interest in art. He moved to New York City in 1879 to work during the day and attend classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League at night. He also used his time off to practice sketching.
Eaton's entrance into the art world coincided with a profound change in the prevailing artistic style in America. In the late 1870s the highly realistic and detailed Hudson River School manner, which had dominated the American art scene for over forty years, was giving way to a much looser, moodier style that younger artists were bringing home from Europe. This new style, which would later come to be known as tonalism, emphasized low-key colors and tended to depict intimate settings rather than scenes of grandeur. Eaton adopted this new style in New York and became friends with two other tonalist artists, Leonard Ochtman and Ben Foster.
Eaton reached his maturity as an artist in the 1890s and 1900s with two distinctive landscape subjects. The first subject, tonalist in style, was a landscape typically containing pasture, trees and sometimes a small patch of water or stone fence. The overall mood in these paintings is one of intimacy. The second subject, more stately in manner, was a landscape with a grouping of tall pine trees, often backlit with the glow of a setting sun. He developed this second subject into some of his largest works, and was so successful with them he became known. Eaton almost never included human or animal figures in his landscapes.
Eaton worked primarily in oil and watercolor. He was a founding member of the American Watercolor Society. He exhibited at the well-known Macbeth Gallery in New York for over thirty years, in Paris via the famous dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, and at important international expositions. He also served on numerous exhibition juries. For reasons that are unclear but possibly political in nature, Eaton never gained full membership to the National Academy (though he was elected into the Academy as an Associate Academician in 1901) nor to the Society for American Artists.
Despite his success with tonalism, Eaton gradually discarded the shadowy tonalist style and began painting with brighter colors, especially after 1910. Never a true impressionist, Eaton painted in a loosely realist style. Many works from his later career depicted European scenes, where Eaton traveled regularly as an adult. He particularly favored the countryside around Bruges as well as Lake Como in Italy, which he painted with a particularly bright palette.
By the 1920s Eaton's output and creativity had faded. The Great Depression demolished the art market, and Eaton's sales dried up. He moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey in the 1880s, and lived a quiet retirement with his sister and niece before his death in 1937. He was buried at Bloomfield Cemetery. His works, like many artists of his generation, were nearly forgotten for decades until a resurgence of interest in the late twentieth century.

THE JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY GIORGIO AVANTI

 

 

GIORGIO AVANTI (c.1946)

Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft) 

Switzerland

 

In Jungfrau 2019, oil on acrylic on canvas, 100 x 120 cm. Courtesy John Mitchell Gallery, London

The artist
A recognized Swiss author, poet and painter, Peter Studer uses ‘Giorgio Avanti’ as a pseudonym. He lives and works from a studio in Walchwil on the eastern shore of Lake Zug, in the heart of Switzerland.
Avanti’s use of intense colour has earned him the epithet as the colourist of the Alps and a lengthy article published about his life and work that came out in the October and November 2020 edition of Munich’s art magazine, Mundus, was subtitled The Kolorist der Alpen. Drawing parallels with the Polish colourists of the 1930s and 1940s, the closest living counterpart to Avanti is the recently deceased American painter, Wolf Kahn.
Studer was born in Luzern and studied for a career in law before taking up abstract painting in the 1980s. Moving to portraiture and genre scenes a decade later, Studer has spent the latter half of his career concentrating on the Swiss Alps. Mundus’s journalist, Lena Naumann, characterizes Avanti as a twenty-first century disciple of Giovanni Segantini in his interpretation of the Alps whereas the painter would align himself just as closely with the work of Ferdinand Hodler, the leading Swiss painter of the late nineteenth century and Willy Guggenheim, known as Varlin.
Peter Studer refers to his gift for poetry and short stories as ‘painting with words’. His vibrant canvases display their own poetry, one derived entirely from colour.

The mountain
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.
Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.
The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.
___________________________________________
2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE JUNGFRAU MASSIF PAINTED BY ALEXANDRE CALAME

 

ALEXANDRE CALAME (1810-1864)

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft)

Switzerland (Valais)

In The Jungfrau Massif and Lauterbrunnen Valley, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland oil on canvas, 50 x 63 cm, John Mitchell gallery, London 

The mountain
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.
Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.
The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

The painter
Alexandre Calame was a Swiss painter. He was the son of a skillful marble worker in Vevey. His father lost the family fortune, and Alexandre Calame was forced to work in a bank at the age of 15. When his father fell from a building and then died, the young Calame provided for his mother.
In his spare time he began to practice drawing small views of Switzerland. In 1829 he met his patron, the banker Diodati, who made it possible for him to study under landscape painter François Diday. After a few months he decided to devote himself fully to art.
In 1835, he began exhibiting his Swiss-Alps and forest paintings in Paris and Berlin. He became quite well known, especially in Germany, although Calame was more a drawer than an illustrator. He is associated with the Dusseldorf school of painting. In 1842 he went to Paris and displayed his works Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau, the Brienzersee, the Monte Rosa and Mont Cervin. He taught in Geneva, where Adolf Mosengel was one of his pupils.
He went to Italy in 1844 and brought back from Rome and Naples countless paintings, among them one of the ruins of Paestum (in the city museum in Leipzig). He showed that he was capable of understanding Italian nature; but the Alps remained his speciality.
The glaciers, emerald-green, white foaming mountain water, which split the trees during the storm, and the whipped clouds, the multi-colored rocks, half masked from fog, in the rays of the gleaming sun, are those things, which he knew to be true to nature.
One of his most ingenious works is the representation of the four seasons and times of the day in four landscapes, a spring morning in the south, a summer midday in the Nordic flatlands, an Autumn evening, and a winter night on a mountain. He became popular with these large works, and his popularity grew with smaller pieces and lithographies, namely 18 studies of Lauterbrunnen and Meiringen and the 24 sheets of Alpine passes. These were widespread in France, England, and Germany and are still today used to teach this style of painting.
He died in Menton, France in 1864. An exhibition featuring more than thirty of Calame's paintings was held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 2006.

______________________________
2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

 

 

 

THE JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER   (1853-1918) 

The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft)  

Switzerland

In  The Jungfrau from Isenfluh, oil on canvas, 1902, Kunstmuseum Basel

The mountain 
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf  and Hieronymus Meyer, the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen,  reached the summit for the first time.

The painter 
Ferdinand Hodler was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the 19th century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called Parallelism.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death. Hodler developed a style he called "Parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One, groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggestive of ritual or dance.

Hodler painted number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes. In 1897 he accepted a commission to paint a series of large frescoes for the Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich. The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.

Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...

Un blog de Francis Rousseau

JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)

Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13, 642 ft) 

Switzerland

In Le Massif de la Jungfrau vu depuis Mürren, 1911 oil on canvas, 

Hahnloser/Jaeggli Stiftung, Winterthur.

The mountain
The Jungfrau (4,158 m - 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc. The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened. The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.
Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.
The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.


The painter
Ferdinand Hodler was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the 19th century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called Parallelism. In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death. Hodler developed a style he called "Parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One, groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggestive of ritual or dance.
Hodler painted number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes. In 1897 he accepted a commission to paint a series of large frescoes for the Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich. The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.
Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky.

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY CLEMENT CASTELLI

CLEMENT CASTELLI (1870-1959)  

Jungfrau  (4,158m- 13, 642ft)

Switzerland

The mountain 

The Jungfrau   (4,158 m- 13,642 ft) ("The virgin" in german)  is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps. It is one of the most represented by artists summits with the Matterhorn and the Mont Blanc.

The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811 by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened.

The construction of the Jungfrau railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Politically, the Jungfrau is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. Instead of the vertiginous precipices of the north-west, the south-east side emerges from the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier at around 3,500 metres. The 20 km long valley of Aletsch on the south-east is completely uninhabited and also surrounded by other similar glacier valleys. The whole area constitutes the largest glaciated area in the Alps as well as in Europe.

Climbing 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, having reached the summit for the first time.

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most of the accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau railway can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km. The final section of the climb is accomplished along one of the longest and sharpest arêtes of frozen snow to be found in the Alps, beyond which the eye plunges abruptly down a precipice 3,000 ft. in height into the depths of the Rottal, on the west of the Jungfrau. With perfect steadiness and first-rate guides there is no danger, unless too early in the season, or soon after a heavy fall of fresh snow. When it is necessary to cut steps all the way in hard frozen névé, the work is very laborious, and 3 hours may be consumed in ascending the 725 ft that separate the Sattel from the summit. Some rocks jut out close to the top, but the actual peak consists of a nearly level ridge of frozen snow falling away on either side like a house-top with an excessively steep roof. The view, on one side, commands the icy plains of the Aletsch Glacier, and the highest alpine peaks far and near; on the other overlooks populous valleys that lie at a depth of 2 miles below the spectator's feet.

The painter 

Clement (or Clemente) Castelli was born in Premia, Italy.  He moved to Paris in 1880, and studied painting with  Jules Adler and Léon Bellemont before to be a member of the  " Société des peintres de Montagnes " (Mountain Painters Society). Clement Castelli spent most of his career painting mountains in the French Alps (Chamonix Valley, La Meije and Oisans) but also the Swiss Alps (many paintings representing the Matterhorn in particular and the Junfgfrau) and Italian Alps. It painted as  mountain landscapes as well as valley bottoms or views from the peaks that its qualities of mountaineer allows it to frequent. He also painted some paintings on the Pyrenean sites (the Cirque de Gavarnie, the lake of Gaube or the valley of Ossau) which he exhibited in Tarbes. It was a prolific artist who  often paints on small panels, easier to carry with him in  mountains, but also on canvas. He paints with a brush, quite classically; its palette, made of rather "cold" colors is characteristic.

A stamp, affixed to the back of his paintings, indicates that at least for a time, his studio was located in Paris, rue du Faubourg-du-Temple. Clement Castelli has exhibited his works for many years at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants and at the Salon des Artistes Français.

LA JUNGFRAU PEINTE PAR FERDINAND HODLER

 

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)
Jungfrau (4'158 m - 13'642 ft)
Suisse.

In La Jungfrau au dessus d'une mer de nuages, 1908

La montagne
La Jungfrau (4'158 m - 13'642 ft) ("La jeune fille" en allemand) est l'un des principaux sommets des Alpes bernoises, situé entre le nord du canton de Berne et le sud du canton du Valais, à mi-chemin entre Interlaken et Fiesch. Avec l'Eiger et le Mönch, la Jungfrau forme un mur massif surplombant l'Oberland bernois et le plateau suisse, l'un des sites les plus distinctifs des Alpes suisses. C'est l'un des sommets les plus représentés par les artistes avec le Cervin et le Mont Blanc. Le sommet a été atteint pour la première fois le 3 août 1811 par les frères Meyer d'Aarau et deux chasseurs de chamois du Valais. L'ascension fait suite à une longue expédition sur les glaciers et les hauts cols des Alpes bernoises. Ce n'est qu'en 1865 qu'une route plus directe côté nord est ouverte. La construction du chemin de fer de la Jungfrau au début du XXe siècle, qui relie Kleine Scheidegg au Jungfraujoch, entre le Mönch et la Jungfrau, a fait de la région l'un des endroits les plus visités des Alpes. Avec le glacier d'Aletsch au sud, la Jungfrau fait partie de la région Jungfrau-Aletsch, qui a été déclarée site du patrimoine mondial en 2001.
Politiquement, la Jungfrau est partagée entre les communes de Lauterbrunnen (Berne) et de Fieschertal (Valais). C'est la troisième plus haute montagne des Alpes bernoises après le Finsteraarhorn et l'Aletschhorn, respectivement distants de 12 et 8 km. Mais du lac de Thoune, et de la plus grande partie du canton de Berne, c'est le plus remarquable et le plus proche des sommets de l'Oberland bernois ; avec un dénivelé de 3 600 m entre le sommet et la ville d'Interlaken. Ceci, et l'extrême raideur de la face nord, lui ont valu une réputation précoce d'inaccessibilité.
Les paysages autour de la Jungfrau sont extrêmement contrastés. Au lieu des précipices vertigineux du nord-ouest, le versant sud-est émerge des neiges supérieures du glacier d'Aletsch à environ 3 500 mètres. La vallée d'Aletsch, longue de 20 km au sud-est, est complètement inhabitée et également entourée d'autres vallées glaciaires similaires. L'ensemble de la région constitue la plus grande zone glaciaire des Alpes ainsi que d'Europe. 

Le peintre
Ferdinand Hodler fut l'un des peintres suisses les plus connus du 19e siècle. Ses premières œuvres étaient des portraits, des paysages et des peintures de genre dans un style réaliste. Plus tard, il adopta une forme personnelle de symbolisme qu'il appela Parallélisme.
Au cours de la dernière décennie du 19e siècle, son travail aévolua pour combiner les influences de plusieurs genres, dont le symbolisme et l'Art nouveau. En 1890, il achève Night une œuvre qui marqu un tournant  vers l'imagerie symboliste. Le «parallélisme»  mettait l'accent sur la symétrie et le rythme qui, selon lui, formaient la base de la société humaine. Dans des peintures telles que The Chosen One, des groupements de personnages sont disposés symétriquement dans des poses évoquant un rituel ou une danse.
Hodler a peint un certain nombre de peintures historiques à grande échelle, souvent avec des thèmes patriotiques. En 1897, il accepte une commande pour peindre une série de grandes fresques pour la salle d'armes du Schweizerisches Landesmuseum de Zurich. Les compositions qu'il a proposées, y compris La bataille de Marignan qui dépeignait une bataille perdue par les Suisses, étaient controversées pour leur imagerie et leur style, et Hodler n'a été autorisé à exécuter les fresques qu'en 1900.
L'œuvre de Hodler dans sa phase finale prend un aspect expressionniste avec des figures fortement colorées et géométriques. Les paysages sont réduits à l'essentiel, constitués parfois d'un coin de terre déchiqueté entre l'eau et le ciel.

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

THE GROSSGLOKNER PAINTED BY EDWARD T. COMPTON

EDWARD THEODORE COMPTON  (1849-1921)

Grossglockner  (3,798 m-12,461 ft) 
Austria

in 1918 - Alpenverein Museum Inssbruk

The mountain  

The Grossglockner (or just Glockner) is at (3,798 meters-12,461 ft) above the Adriatic, the highest mountain of Austria and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. It is part of the larger Glockner Group of the Hohe Tauern range, situated along the main ridge of the Central Eastern Alps and the Alpine divide. The Pasterze, Austria's most extended glacier, lies on the Grossglockner's eastern slope. The characteristically pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Grossglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,770 m (12,370 ft), from German: klein, "small"), separated by a saddle-like formation known as the Glocknerscharte.

The history of the climbs started with French-born natural scientist Belsazar Hacquet, from 1773 professor of anatomy at the Academy of Ljubljana. He travelled the Eastern Alps from 1779 to 1781 and published an itinerary in 1783, describing the Glokner mountain and stating that it had not been climbed yet. He estimated the mountain's height with converted 3,793 m (12,444 ft) and left an engraving illustrating Grossglockner and Pasterze, the first known depiction of the mountain.

Inspired by Hacquet's book and the first ascent of the Mont Blanc in 1786, the Gurk prince-bishop Count Franz Xaver of Salm (1749–1822) together with his vicar general Sigismund Ernst Hohenwart (1745–1825) and Baron Franz Xaver von Wulfen (1728–1805) started efforts for a Grossglockner expedition. They engaged two peasants from Heiligenblut as mountain guides to do the first explorations for an ascent through the Leitertal valley, which is the side of Grossglockner with the least ice (people feared glaciers in these times). These valiant men, called "Glockners" in the records, did more than they were ordered to do - and probably reached the Kleinglockner summit on 23 July 1799.

One month later the bishop's expedition started: a mountain hut (the first Salm Hut) had been built and the path in the Leitertal valley was prepared so that the bishop could use a horse to reach it. 30 people, among them Salm, Hohenwart and Wulfen, were part of the expedition. They suffered with bad weather and a first effort failed, but on 25 August 1799 Hohenwart and at least four other people, including the two "Glockners", reached - again - the Kleinglockner, where they installed one of the first summit crosses (one of the main goals of the church expedition). Hohenwart's reports did not tell clearly that they had not touched the highest point but Bishop Salm (who had reached the Adlersruhe rock at 3,454 m (11,332 ft)) was informed. Dissatisfied, he invited another, even bigger expedition the next year.

On 28 July 1800, 62 people, among them the pedagogue Franz Michael Vierthaler and the botanist David Heinrich Hoppe, started again into the Leitertal valley. Four peasants and carpenters (the "Glockners" and two others who are not known) did a track in the snow, had installed fixed ropes at some steeper sections up to the end of the Glocknerleitl, and even built a second refuge, called Hohenwarte Hut. The vanguard reached the Kleinglockner peak, however, according to the expedition records by the Dellach priest Franz Joseph Horasch (Orasch), only the four guides and Mathias Hautzendorfer, the local priest of the Rangersdorf parish, were able to cross the Obere Glocknerscharte and climb the Grossglockner summit. Hautzendorfer had to be persuaded to venture the step and administered the last rites in advance.

The two "Glockners" are usually identified as the brothers Joseph (Sepp) and Martin Klotz, however, this surname is not listed in the Heiligenblut parish register. A local peasant named Sepp Hoysen is documented as a member of the second Grossglockner expedition in 1802, and the surveyor Ulrich Schiegg mentioned one Martin Reicher as "Glockner" guide. The peasants and several other members of the expedition (among them Schiegg and his young apprentice Valentin Stanič, who climbed Mt. Watzmann for the first time some weeks later) did the ascent again the next day and finally installed the summit cross and a barometer on the Grossglockner summit.

Bishop Salm undertook two more ascents in 1802 (with Hohenwart reaching the summit) and in 1806, however, he himself never climbed beyond the Adlersruhe rock. The climbing of the Grossglockner was also described by the botanist Josef August Schultes, who explored the massif together with Count Apponyi in 1802. No further ascents were made during the Napoleonic Wars, the huts decayed and were plundered by locals. In the following Vormärz era, however, the mountain became a popular venue for Alpinists like Hermann and Adolf Schlagintweit, who all followed the route of the first ascent.

By the mid 19th century, the developing Alpine tourism began to alter the traditional agriculture economy in the Heiligenblut area. Therefore, the people of Kals tried to lay out a straight ascent from the western side, which however was not reached until Julius von Payer explored the ridge between Glöcknerleitl and Ködnitzkees in 1863. Johann Stüdl had a via ferrata erected along the southwestern ridge the next year and the Stüdlhütte erected at its foot in 1868. Already in 1869, most expeditions to the summit started in Kals. The first winter ascent of the Grossglockner was made on January 2, 1875 by William Adolf Baillie Grohman, a member of the Alpine Club. In 1876 Count Pallavicini and his guide Hans Tribusser undertook the first expedition up the steep glaciated Northeast Face, chopping 2,500 steps into the Pallavicinirinne in an ice climbing master stroke not repeated for 23 years.

In 1879, Count Pallavicini dedicated a new iron summit cross on the occasion of the silver wedding of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Empress Elisabeth; both had visited Heiligenblut and walked to the present-day Franz-Josefs-Höhe viewpoint in 1865. The cross was installed on 2 October 1880. Pallavicini also had the Archduke John Hut erected at the former Adlersruhe resting place of Bishop Salm, today the highest situated mountain hut in Austria. The Austrian Alpine Club built the new Salmhütte and the Glocknerhaus along the alpine route from Heiligenblut.

A first ascent by skiing was made in 1909 and the circumnavigation of the massif soon became a popular ski mountaineering tour. The Grossglockner became Austria's highest mountain, when the South Tyrolean Ortler region had to be ceded to the Kingdom of Italy according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain, which promoted its reputation as a tourist attraction.

The Painter 
Edward Theodore Compton, usually referred to as E. T. Compton, (29 July 1849 – 22 March 1921) was an English-born, German artist, illustrator and mountain climber, not to be confused with his son Edward Harrison Compton, also a mountain painter. He is well known for his paintings and drawings of alpine scenery, and as a mountaineer made 300 major ascents including no fewer than 27 first ascents.
Initially painting in the English romantic tradition, Compton later developed a more realistic representation of nature, being guided by his true artistic ideas while retaining topographical accuracy. Even his early watercolors show the great importance of brightness and light and his work is also remarkable for its portrayal of the elements such as water and air, including ascending mist and fog. He can be regarded as an impressionist.
He attended various art schools, including, for a time, the Royal Academy in London, but otherwise he was mainly self-taught in art. In 1867, wanting the best education for their artistically-talented son, and due to the high cost of schooling in England, the family decided to emigrate to Germany settling in Darmstadt. The city at that time was the seat of the Grand Duchy of Hesse under Grand Duke Ludwig III, and a community of artists had sprung up there. Entries in Compton's diary show that both he and his father were art teachers - Alice, the Princess of Hesse numbered amongst Edward's students.
Between 1867-68 Compton toured the Rhineland, Mosel and Eifel areas of Germany, making numerous sketches. In July 1868, the entire Compton family traveled to the Bernese Oberland, the alpine scenery encountered during this trip, particularly the view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks, inspiring Edward to become a mountain painter.
In 1869, Compton was living in Munich and two years later for the first time exhibited his work at the Glass Palace.
In 1872 he married Auguste Plotz and for two years they travelled through the Tyrol, Carinthia, Italy and Switzerland. From 1874, the couple settled in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg, building a comfortable house there called Villa Compton.
In the following years, Compton travelled to the mountains of Austria, Scandinavia, North Africa, Corsica and Spain recording his impressions in a variety of oil and watercolors paintings and ink drawings. Although alpine scenes predominated, Compton also visited and drew other areas such as the High Tatras in eastern Europe, the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands and Northern Cape in Norway, and the Colombian Andes.
In 1880 Compton became a member of the Royal Academy, London. Besides his work as a painter he also became well known as a book illustrator for the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DAV) with titles such as "In the high mountains" by Emil Zsigmondy (1889), "About Fels and Firn" by H. Hess (1901) and "Mountaineering in Pictures" by Alfred Steinitzer (1913). In England he was also in demand as an illustrator providing pictures for a range of titles (see below).
In 1909 Compton accompanied his friend, the mountaineer Karl Blodig on many tours in the Silvretta mountains. At the time of the First World War he was invited by the Austrian army to paint from the mountain front but was forbidden to do so by the Bavarian High Command. He was also excluded from the Munich Artists' Association, because he was English.
Apart from his art, Compton was also an excellent climber, highly regarded by Blodig for his "brilliant mountaineering skill on ice and rock, his truly admirable perseverance, his inexhaustible patience in bearing hardships". He was a member of the exclusive Alpine Club and the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DAV).
Amongst his notable ascents were: Torre di Brenta first climbed in 1882; Cima Brenta, first climbed by the south wall in 1882; Odle} (Large Fermeda); Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey (ascent in 1905 with Karl Blodig); Grossglockner, climbed at the age of 70!
Compton died in Feldafing on 22 July 1921, aged 72. His son Edward Harrison Compton and daughter Dora Compton were also mountain painters. His other daughter Marion was a flower and still life painter.