BARRON CANYON (PETAWAWA) PAINTED BY TOM THOMSON

TOM THOMSON (1877-1917) 

Barron Canyon (139m - 456ft)

Canada (Ontario) 

1. In Petawawa, fall 1916, oil on panel Private collection 

2. In Sketch for Petawawa Gorges (Early Spring), Spring 1914, oil on panel Private collection 

3. In Petawawa Gorges, fall 1916 , oil on panel Private collection 

 Note : 

Several of Thomson's sketches of  1914 - 1916 entitled   "Gorges of the Petawawa" were painted in what is now known as the Barron Canyon on the Barron River. 

The Canyon 

Barron Canyon (100 m- 328 ft) is a deep canyon formed approximately 10,000 years ago, the river was a main outlet for glacial meltwater in this region. It is believed to have carried for a short time the outflow from the Lake Agassiz. The rocks exposed in the Canyon are part of the Canadian Shield. The canyon itself still shows activity in the form of rockfalls and landslides.
The Barron River (in French: Rivière Barron) is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in Nipissing District and Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. It flows from Clemow Lake in northern Algonquin Provincial Park and joins the Petawawa River, whose southern branch it forms, in the municipality of Laurentian Hills, near the municipality of Petawawa.

The painter 
Thomas John "Tom" Thomson was an influential Canadian artist of the early 20th century. He directly influenced a group of Canadian painters that would come to be known as the Group of Seven, and though he died before they formally formed, he is sometimes incorrectly credited as being a member of the group itself.
Thomson was largely self-taught. His first trips to Algonquin Park inspired him to follow the lead of fellow artists in producing oil sketches of natural scenes on small, rectangular panels for easy portability while travelling. Between 1912 and his death in 1917, Thomson produced hundreds of these small sketches, many of which are now considered works in their own right, and are housed in such galleries as the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Many of Thomson's major paintings, including Northern River, The Jack Pine, and The West Wind, began as sketches before being expanded into large oil paintings at Thomson's "studio"—an old utility shack with a wood-burning stove on the grounds of the Studio Building, an artist's enclave in Rosedale, Toronto. Although Thomson sold few of these paintings during his lifetime, they formed the basis of posthumous exhibitions, including one at Wembley in London, that eventually brought international attention to his work.
Thomson was aided by the patronage of Toronto physician James MacCallum, who enabled Thomson's transition from graphic designer to professional painter.  Although the Group of Seven was not founded until after Thomson's death, his work is sympathetic to that of group members A. Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer.  These artists shared an appreciation for rugged, unkempt natural scenery, and all used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the stark beauty and vibrant colour of the Ontario landscape. Thomson's art bears some stylistic resemblance to the work of European post-impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, whose work he may have known from books or visits to art galleries.
Described as having an "idiosyncratic palette," Thomson's control of colour was exceptional. He often mixed available pigments to create unusual, new colours making his distinctive palette along with his brushwork instantly recognizable regardless of the subject of his work. For Thomson biographer Harold Town, the brevity of Thomson's career hinted at an artistic evolution never fully realized. He cites the oil painting Unfinished Sketch as "the first completely abstract work in Canadian art" a painting that, whether or not it was intended as a purely non-objective work, presages the innovations of Abstract expressionism.
Thomson died under mysterious circumstances on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park.
Since his death, Thomson's work has grown in value and popularity. In 2002, the National Gallery of Canada staged a major exhibition of his work, giving Thomson the same level of prominence afforded Picasso, Renoir, and the Group of Seven in previous years. In recent decades, the increased value of Thomson's work has led to the discovery of numerous forgeries of his work on the market.
Source : 
- Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery 

AORAKI / MOUNT COOK PAINTED BY JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON

JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON (1821-1884)

Aoraki/ Mount Cook (3,724m - 12, 218ft) 

New Zealand

The mountain 

Aoraki / Mount Cook (3,724m - 12, 218ft)  is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height since 2014 is listed as 3,724 m since December 1991, due to a rockslide and subsequent erosion. It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers. Aoraki / Mount Cook consists of three summits, from South to North the Low Peak (3,593 m or 11,788 ft), Middle Peak (3,717 m or 12,195 ft) and High Peak. The summits lie slightly south and east of the main divide of the Southern Alps, with the Tasman Glacier to the east and the Hooker Glacier to the southwest.The mountain is in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, in the Canterbury region. The park was established in 1953 and along with Westland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Fiordland National Park forms one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and 72 named glaciers, which cover 40 percent of its 700 square kilometres (170,000 acres).

Aoraki is the name of a person in the traditions of the Ngāi Tahu iwi; an early name for the South Island is Te Waka o Aoraki (Aoraki's Canoe). In the past many believed it meant "Cloud Piercer",  Historically, the Māori name has been spelt Aorangi, using the standard Māori form.

Aoraki / Mount Cook has been known to Maori since their arrival in New Zealand some time around the 14th century CE. The first Europeans who may have seen Aoraki / Mount Cook were members of Abel Tasman's crew, who saw a "large land uplifted high" while off the west coast of the South Island, just north of present-day Greymouth on 13 December 1642 during Tasman's first Pacific voyage. The English name of Mount Cook was given to the mountain in 1851 by Captain John Lort Stokes to honour Captain James Cook who surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand in 1770. Captain Cook did not sight the mountain during his exploration.
Following the settlement between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown in 1998, the name of the mountain was officially changed from Mount Cook to Aoraki / Mount Cook to incorporate its historic Māori name, Aoraki. As part of the settlement, a number of South Island placenames were amended to incorporate their original Māori name. Signifying the importance of Aoraki / Mount Cook, it is the only one of these names where the Māori name precedes the English.
Climbing
The first recorded European attempt on the summit was made by the Irishman Rev. William S. Green and the Swiss hotelier Emil Boss and the Swiss mountain guide Ulrich Kaufmann on 2 March 1882 via the Tasman and Linda Glaciers. Mt Cook Guidebook author Hugh Logan believe they came within 50 metres of the summit.
The first known ascent was on 25 December 1894, when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, John Michael (Jack) Clarke and George Graham successfully reached the summit via the Hooker Valley and the north ridge. Despite an earlier failed attempt on 20 December, the local climbers were spurred on by their desire for the first ascent to be made by New Zealand mountaineers amid reports that the American mountaineer Edward FitzGerald had his eye on the summit. The route they had successfully traversed was not repeated again until the 100th ascent over 60 years later in 1955.
 Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen of FitzGerald's party made the second ascent on 14 March 1895 from the Tasman Glacier side, via the ridge that now bears his name. This is credited as the first solo ascent, although Zurbriggen was accompanied part of the way up the ridge by J Adamson. After Zurbriggen's ascent it was another ten years before the mountain was climbed again. In February 1905 Jack Clarke with four others completed the third ascent following Zurbriggen's route. So Clarke therefore became the first person to do a repeat ascent.
The first woman to ascend the mountain was Freda Du Faur, an Australian, on 3 December 1910. Local guide George Bannister, a nephew of another guide, Pahikore Te Koeti Turanga of Ngāi Tahu, was the first Māori to successfully scale the peak in 1912. A traverse of the three peaks was first accomplished in 1913 by Freda Du Faur and guides Peter and Alex Graham. This 'grand traverse' was repeated in January 1916 by Conrad Kain, guiding the 57-year-old Mrs. Jane Thomson, considered at the time "a marvellous feat unequalled for daring in the annals of the Southern Alps".
Sir Edmund Hillary made his first ascent in January 1948. In February 1948 with Ruth Adams, Harry Ayres and Mick Sullivan, Hillary made the first ascent of the South Ridge to the Low Peak. In order to celebrate the life of Hillary the South Ridge was renamed as Hillary Ridge in August 2011.
Aoraki / Mount Cook is a technically challenging mountain with a high level of glaciation. Its level of difficulty is often understimated and can change dramatically depending on weather, snow and ice conditions. The climb crosses large crevasses, and involves risks of ice and rock falls, avalanches and rapidly changing weather conditions.
Since the early 20th century, around 80 people have died attempting to climb the mountain, making it New Zealand's deadliest peak. The climbing season traditionally runs from November to February, and hardly a season goes by without at least one fatality.

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, almost known for the interesting historical topographical viewpoint of his paintings.

ODORAY MOUNTAIN PAINTED BY J.E.H. MACDONALD

J.E.H. MACDONALD (1873-1932)
Odoray mountain (3,137 m- 10,292 ft)
Canada (British Columbia)

In Mont Odoray, 1930, Huile sur carton, 21,6 x 26,7cm, Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa

The mountain
Odaray Mountain (3,137-m - 10,292 ft) is a summit located west of Lake O'Hara in the Bow Range of Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Huber, 3.86 km (2.40 mi) to the east. The standard climbing route follows the southeast glacier and ridge starting from Elizabeth Parker hut. Pronunciation sounds like the two words "ode array". Odaray Mountain is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny. The first ascent of the mountain was made in 1887 by James J. McArthur, and he named it Odaray which is the expression for "many waterfalls" in the Stoney language. Other reports have it being named in 1894 by Samuel Evans Stokes Allen for the Stoney Indianword for "cone". However, it is possible that McArthur only ascended the lesser secondary summit cone (2965 m) now known as Little Odaray which is southeast of the true summit. The mountain's current name became official in 1952 when the Geographical Names Board of Canada rescinded the name Mount Odaray.

The artist
James Edward Hervey MacDonald RCA was an English-Canadian artist who initiated the first major Canadian national art movement. He was the father of the illustrator Thoreau MacDonald. n 1895, MacDonald took a position as a commercial designer at Grip Ltd, an important commercial art firm, where he further developed his design skills. In the coming years, he encouraged his colleagues—including future artist Tom Thomson—to develop their skills as painters. In 1920, MacDonald co-founded the Group of Seven, which dedicated itself to promoting a distinct Canadian art developed through direct contact with the Canadian landscape. The other founding members were Frederick Varley, A. Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, and Franklin Carmichael. MacDonald had worked with Lismer, Varley, Johnston, and Carmichael at the design firm Grip Ltd. in Toronto. Together they initiated the first major Canadian national art movement, producing paintings directly inspired by the Canadian landscape. Every summer beginning in 1924, MacDonald travelled to the Canadian Rockies to paint the mountainous landscapes that dominated his later work. By this time he had become somewhat alienated from the rest of the Group of Seven, as many of the younger members were beginning to paint in a more abstract manner.  Today, MacDonald is viewed with general admiration for his art, with one writer commenting, "no Canadian landscape painter possessed a richer command of colour and pigment than J. E. H. MacDonald ... His brushwork is at once disciplined and vigorous. His best on-the-spot sketches possess an intensity and freshness of execution not dissimilar from Van Gogh."

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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

HEKLA PAINTED BY ÞORANINN B. ÞORLAKSSON

ÞORANINN B. ÞORLAKSSON (1867-1924)

Hekla (1,488m - 4,882ft) 

Iceland

  In Hekla ur Laugardal, 1922, oil on canvas 

The mountain

Hekla or Hecla (1,488m - 4,882ft) is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland. Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Europeans called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell".
Hekla is part of a volcanic ridge, 40 km (25 mi) long. The most active part of this ridge, a fissure about 5.5 km (3.4 mi) long named Heklugjá, is considered to be within Hekla proper.  Hekla looks rather like an overturned boat, with its keel being a series of craters, two of which are generally the most active.
The volcano's frequent large eruptions have covered much of Iceland with tephra, and these layers can be used to date eruptions of Iceland's other volcanoes. Approximately 10% of the tephra created in Iceland in the last thousand years has come from Hekla, amounting to 5 km3. Cumulatively, the volcano has produced one of the largest volumes of lava of any in the world in the last millennium, around 8 km3.
The earliest recorded eruption of Hekla took place in 1104. Since then there have been between twenty and thirty considerable eruptions, with the mountain sometimes remaining active for periods of six years with little pause. Eruptions in Hekla are varied and difficult to predict. Some are very short (a week to ten days) whereas others can stretch into months and years (the 1947 eruption started 29 March 1947 and ended April 1948). But there is a general correlation: the longer Hekla goes dormant, the larger and more catastrophic its opening eruption will be.
The most recent eruption was on 26 February 2000.
Hekla is a popular destination for hiking. Following the most recent eruption the path goes most of the way to the summit;  the walk takes 3 to 4 hours.  In spring, skiing is possible on short routes around the rim of the crater. In summer, there are easy (F) mountaineering routes also around the crater rim,  and it is possible to snowcat to the top in winter. The volcano can be reached using the buses to Landmannalaugar 30 km further east, and it is possible to stay or camp at farms in the area. A visitor centre, The Hekla Center at Leirubakki Farm, opened in 2007.

The Painter 

Þóуrarinn Benedikt Þorlбksson  was one of Iceland's first contemporary painters, the first Icelander to exhibit paintings in Iceland, and recipient of the first public grant that country made to a painter.

He was born in 1867, the 13th of 14 children of a clergyman father, who died when he was just five years old. Originally trained and working as a bookbinder, Þorlбksson studied painting under a Copenhagen-trained Icelandic woman, Thуra Thoroddsen. In 1900 he was awarded a grant by the Icelandic Parliament to study art in Denmark, and he trained there from 1895 to 1899. Returning to Iceland, he held an exhibition of his works at a place perplexingly called Glasgow, in Reykjavik, in the summer of 1900—the first exhibition of Icelandic painting in Iceland. Þorlбksson's principal interest was landscape painting, and perhaps fittingly a dominant subject in this first exhibition of works was Þingvellir, a site of enormous historical significance to Icelanders as the site of their parliaments (which dated back to 930 AD).

Þóуrarinn Þorlбksson continued to paint, holding regular exhibitions until 1911. However, he required a regular income that could not be derived solely from his art. On December 30, 1913, he was appointed by Prime Minister Hannes Hafstein as one of the five people on the committee that designed the Flag of Iceland.  He taught drawing at the Technical College and other institutions in Reykjavik, and was principal of that college from 1916 to 1922. He also ran a shop selling art materials, journals and books until his death. Throughout his life he continued to paint, particularly in the countryside during the summers.

Þorlбksson, together with a small number of other artists including his contemporary Asgrimur Jonsson, confronted and portrayed the landscape of their country on its terms and through Icelandic eyes, rather than through the conventions—and the light—of Western European artistic tradition. In this respect the work of Þorlбksson and Jonsson played a role similar to that of the Heidelberg School in Australia (slightly earlier) and the Group of Seven, Emily Carr and Tom Thomson in Canada (a little later).

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT EARNSLAW PAINTED BY EUGENE VON GUERARD

 EUGENE VON GUERARD (1811-1901)

  Mount Earnslaw or Pikirakatahi  (2,819m -9,249 ft)

New Zealand

 In Mount Earnslaw with Lake Wakatipu, Middle Island, in 1877–79, oil on canvas 

New Zealand Mackelvie Trust Collection, Auckland Art Gallery

The Mountain 

Mount Earnslaw, (2,819m -9,249 ft) also named Pikirakatahi by Māori is located on New Zealand's South Island. It is named after Earnslaw (formerly Herneslawe) village in the parish of Eccles, Berwickshire, hometown of the surveyor John Turnbull Thomson's father.

Mount Earnslaw is within Mount Aspiring National Park at the southern end of the Forbes Range of New Zealand's Southern Alps. It is located 25 kilometres north of the settlement of Glenorchy, which lies at the northern end of Lake Wakatipu.

Climbing

Reverend W.S. Green had come to New Zealand to try to climb Mount Cook. In March 1882, with guides Emil Boss and Ulrich Kaufmann, he attempted Earnslaw, but transport and weather problems forced them to turn back after climbing 1, 500m (5,000 ft).  After several attempts over a period of years, Glenorchy guide Harry Birley climbed the eastern peak of Earnslaw in 1890. He left a bent shilling in an Irish Moss bottle within a stone cairn, to prove he had reached the top.

The 10 m lower, but much more challenging West Peak, 2.5 km to the west-south-west and separated by a 200 m deep pass, was climbed in 1914 by H.F. Wright and J. Robertson.

Mt Earnslaw (Pikirakatahi) has variety of routes available for a moderate to technical challenge and provide and excellent platform to begin your alpine practice.  The peak(s) west and east, dominate over the northern arm of Lake Wakatipu and the small hamlet of Glenorchy (315 m) is the last frontier before the lush river valley leads the way to the eastern slopes and the access to climb Mt. Earnslaw.  Although the easiest route is not technically demanding, Mt. Earnslaw will physically challenge any mountaineer with a variety of routes on Earnslaw await the climber who wants a technical challenge.   An excellent campsite is located on the old moraine bench at the foot of the ascent track beyond the Rees crossing point 

There are two huts available on the ascent:

1) Earnslaw Hut (at about 1000m - still below the tree line) It is owned by the DOC. Some describe its condition as "derelict" but you should prefer to like it for its historic feel and rustic construction! This is where Frank Wright commenced his FA of West Peak back in 1914. 

2). Esquilant Bivvy at Wright Col (Just beyond it actually) at 2150m owned by N.Z ALPINE CLUB - for more details click here.

The best season to climb is from December to the end of February.  The nearest city is Queenstown.

The Painter 

Johann Joseph Eugene von Guerard was an Austrian-born artist, active in Australia from 1852 to 1882. Known for his finely detailed landscapes in the tradition of the Düsseldorf school of painting, he is represented in Australia's major public galleries, and is referred to in the country as Eugene von Guerard. In 1852 von Guerard arrived in Victoria, Australia, determined to try his luck on the Victorian goldfields. As a gold-digger he was not very successful, but he did produce a large number of intimate studies of goldfields life, quite different from the deliberately awe-inspiring landscapes for which he was later to become famous. Realizing that there were opportunities for an artist in Australia, he abandoned the diggings and was soon undertaking commissions recording the dwellings and properties of wealthy pastoralists.

By the early 1860s, von Guerard was recognized as the foremost landscape artist in the colonies, touring Southeast Australia and New Zealand in pursuit of the sublime and the picturesque.  He is most known for the wilderness paintings produced during this time, which are remarkable for their shadowy lighting and fastidious detail.  Indeed, his View of Tower Hill in south-western Victoria was used as a botanical template over a century later when the land, which had been laid waste and polluted by agriculture, was systematically reclaimed, forested with native flora and made a state park. The scientific accuracy of such work has led to a reassessment of von Guerard's approach to wilderness painting, and some historians believe it likely that the landscapist was strongly influenced by the environmental theories of the leading scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Others attribute his 'truthful representation' of nature to the criterion for figure and landscape painting set by the Düsseldorf Academy.

In 1866 his Valley of the Mitta Mitta was presented to the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne; in 1870 the trustees purchased his Mount Kosciusko shown in this article was titled "Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko", which is actually  "from Mount Townsend". 

In 2006, the City of Greater Geelong purchased his 1856 painting View of Geelong for A$3.8M. His painting, Yalla-y-Poora, is in the Joseph Brown Collection on display at the National Gallery of Victoria.  The State Library of New South Wales in Sydney holds an extensive collection of working sketchbooks by Eugene von Guerard, as well as larger drawings and paintings and a diary. The sketchbooks cover regions as diverse as Italy and Germany, Tasmania, New South Wales, and of course, Victoria.

In 1870 von Guerard was appointed the first Master of the School of Painting at the National Gallery of Victoria, where he was to influence the training of artists for the next 11 years. His reputation, high at the beginning of this period, had faded somewhat towards the end because of his rigid adherence to picturesque subject matter and detailed treatment in the face of the rise of the more intimate Heidelberg School style. Amongst his pupils were Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts. Von Guerard retired from his position at the National Gallery School the end of 1881 and departed for Europe in January 1882. In 1891 his wife died. Two years later, he lost his investments in the Australian bank crash and he lived in poverty until his death in Chelsea, London, on 17 April 1901.