MOUNT ASPIRING / TITETEA BY LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON

LAURENCE WILLIAM WILSON (1851-1912)
Mount Aspiring / Tititea (3, 033 m -9,951 ft)
New Zealand

In Mount Aspiring, Matukituki River, watercolour,
Christchurh Art Gallery- Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

The mountain
Mount Aspiring / Tititea is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region.
Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres (9,951 ft). Māori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. It was named in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the Otago Province, John Turnbull Thomson.[2] It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Matukituki River. The first ascent was on 23 November 1909 by Major Bernard Head and guides Jack Clarke and Alec Graham.[3] Head's party climbed to the summit ridge by the west face from the Bonar Glacier, a route not repeated until 1965.
Mount Aspiring / Tititea sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka.[2] It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.


The painter
Laurence William Wilson emigrated to Auckland in 1877 and then travelled extensively to settle in Dunedin in 1884. He painted in both oils and watercolours, became a painting companion of George O'Brien and a teacher. One of his pupils was the Dunedin artist Alfred O'Keefe. In 1895, LW Wilson together with Grace Joel, Alfred O'Keefe, Jane Wimperis and Girolami Nerli formed the Easel Club , a breakaway from the Dunedin Establishment, which offered a programme of special classes and the introduction of a professional lady model for life drawing. In 1904 LW Wilson left Dunedin for Melbourne where he spent 5 months on a commissioned painting of the city before he set out for England, eventually returning to New Zealand via India and Africa. He exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1882 and the Otago Art Society between 1994 and 1904. His work was included in the NZ and South Seas Exhibition Dunedin 1889-90 and at the St Louis Exposition in 1904. LW Wilson is represented in the collections of all the major public galleries in New Zealand.

___________________________________________

2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT ASPIRING / TITITEA PAINTED BY JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON

JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON (1821-1884)

Mount Aspiring / Tititea (3, 033 m -9,951 ft)

New Zealand 

The mountain
Mount Aspiring / Tititea is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region.
Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres (9,951 ft). Māori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. It was named in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the Otago Province, John Turnbull Thomson.[2] It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Matukituki River. The first ascent was on 23 November 1909 by Major Bernard Head and guides Jack Clarke and Alec Graham.[3] Head's party climbed to the summit ridge by the west face from the Bonar Glacier, a route not repeated until 1965.
Mount Aspiring / Tititea sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka.[2] It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.

The painter 
John Turnbull Thomson was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand.
After his father was killed in a hunting accident in 1830, the young Thomson and his mother went to live in Abbey St. Bathans, Berwickshire. He was educated at Wooler and Duns Academy, later spending some time attached to Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh University before studying engineering at Peter Nicholson's School of Engineering at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Thomson arrived in the Malay Straits in 1838 and was employed by the East India Survey. In 1841 he was appointed Government Surveyor at Singapore and in 1844 became Superintendent of Roads and Public Works. He was responsible for the design and construction of a number of notable engineering works including bridges, roads, and hospitals. His outstanding achievement was the erection of the Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca. In 1853 his health failed and he returned to England where he studied modern engineering techniques, and travelled widely through Britain and the Continent inspecting engineering works. Early in 1856 he emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked as Chief Surveyor of the Otago Province until 1873. From 1876 until 1879 he was Surveyor-General of New Zealand. He was also the original surveyor of the city of Invercargill.
From 1856 until 1858 Thomson surveyed and explored large sections of the interior of the South Island, covering most of the southern half of the island.
He was also a amateur painter of landscapes, working mostly in oils. He was almost known for the interesting historical topographical viewpoint of his paintings.

MOUNT DOMETT PAINTED BY EDWYN TEMPLE

Edwyn Temple (1835-1921)

Mount Domett (1, 942m - 6, 370 ft)

 New Zealand (South Island) 

  In Mount Domett and Tarn Roslyn, Waitaki river, watercolor on paper, 1883, Private collection 

The mountain 
Mount Domett (1, 942m- 6, 370 ft) is a peak on the North Otago western horizon when viewed from the coastal town of Oamaru. It was named by Commissioner Walter Mantell on 25th October 1848 in honour of the New Zealand politician, Alfred Domett. It would have been first ascended sometime after 1854 when the area went through an extensive period of European settlement. No doubt an ascent was made by a landowner or shepherd on an exploratory excursion into the range.
Mount Domett and the other peaks of the St. Marys Range are frequent objectives for tramping and climbing parties from Oamaru, although the peak is within day-trip range from the southern city of Dunedin, two hours away by main roads. Road access to the peak ends no closer than 10 kilometres, although further access on foot or by 4WD vehicle is possible over old, disused vehicle tracks (although often washed out).
The mountain offers views of the North Otago and South Canterbury coastal plains and the Waitaki River and its hydro-electric lakes, to New Zealand's highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook, and the chain of the Southern Alps running south towards Mount Aspiring/Tititea. There are further spectacular views to the south and west, towards the Strath Taieri and the Maniototo Basin and the western ranges of the Otago province.

The artist 
 Edwyn Temple, or 'The Captain' as he was referred to by his friends and family, was born in England in 1835, the son of Lieutenant Colonel John Temple and the grandson of Grenville Temple-Temple 9th Baronet of Stowe.  Educated at Rugby School, he entered the military services in 1853. During a brief period in Italy a relative, Princess Pondalfina, recognised his ability and engaged a tutor to teach him the rudiments of painting.
Temple was ensigned in 1854 and became a Captain in the 55th Foot (Westmoreland) Regiment in 1858. He later served in the Crimea and in India from 1864 to 1866. By that time he had married and the first of a family of nine children had been born. It was more than nine years after retiring from the army that he decided to emigrate with his wife and family to New Zealand, arriving in Lyttelton on 25 October 1879.
Full Wandering vertexes  entry  =>

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau