DIE ZUGSPITZE PAINTED BY MAX WOLFINGER

MAX  WOLFINGER (1837-1913)

The Zugspitze (2, 962 m- 9, 718 ft) 

Germany

The mountain 
The Zugspitze (2,962m -9,718 ft) above sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains as well as the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and the border between Germany and Austria runs over its western summit. South of the mountain is the Zugspitzplatt, a high karst plateau with numerous caves. On the flanks of the Zugspitze are three glaciers, including the two largest in Germany: the Northern Schneeferner with an area of 30.7 hectares and the Höllentalferner with an area of 24.7 hectares. The third is the Southern Schneeferner which covers 8.4 hectares.
The Zugspitze was first climbed on 27 August 1820 by Josef Naus, his survey assistant, Maier, and mountain guide, Johann Georg Tauschl. Today there are three normal routes to the summit: one from the Höllental valley to the northeast; another out of the Reintal valley to the southeast; and the third from the west over the Austrian Cirque (Österreichische Schneekar). One of the best known ridge routes in the Eastern Alps runs along the knife-edged Jubilee Ridge (Jubiläumsgrat) to the summit, linking the Zugspitze, the Hochblassen and the Alpspitze. For mountaineers there is plenty of nearby accommodation. On the western summit of the Zugspitze itself is the Münchner Haus and on the western slopes is the Wiener-Neustädter Hut.
Three cable cars run to the top of the Zugspitze. The first, the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car, was built in 1926 and terminated on an arête below the summit before the terminus was moved to the actual summit in 1991. A rack railway, the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway, runs inside the northern flank of the mountain and ends on the Zugspitzplatt, from where a second cable car takes passengers to the top. The rack railway and the Eibsee Cable Car, the third cableway, transport an average of 500,000 people to the summit each year. In winter, nine ski lifts cover the ski area on the Zugspitzplatt. The weather station, opened in 1900, and the research station in the Schneefernerhaus are mainly used to conduct climate research.
Climbing
At the Zugspitze's summit is the Münchner Haus, a mountain hut (Alpenhütte), a facility built by the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein). For more than a hundred years, the summit has also had a weather station, which nowadays also gathers data for the Global Atmosphere Watch.
Climbing up the Zugspitze can involve several routes. The large difference in elevation between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the summit is 2,200 m (7,200 ft), making the climb a challenge even for trained mountaineers.
On the German side, from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, climbers go either through the Höllental ("Valley of Hell") or the Reintal. The way through the Reintal is the easiest, but also the longest and takes 8 to 10 hours. This path goes through the Partnachklamm, a scenic gorge, then through the Reintal up to the Zugspitzplatt, a barren plateau. from there up to the summit. Climbers can stay for the night at two alpine huts, the "Reintalangerhütte" or the "Knorrhütte".
The more popular, but harder route is through the Höllental. It starts at Hammersbach near Garmisch, goes through the Höllentalklamm, a similar gorge up to the "Höllentalangerhütte", where one can take a meal or stay for the night. It then crosses the Höllentalferner, the remnants of a small glacier. After that it traverses a wall with the help of iron ladders and steps. Klettersteig equipment is recommended for that part. Over the Irmerscharte (a gap) it reaches the summit. This path will take 7 to 8 hours.
From the Austrian village of Ehrwald, there are also two variants. One goes straight through the Western Flank, which is the shortest route overall, but rather hard. It includes a via ferrata, and there is a hut called "Wiener Neustädter Hütte" by the Austrian Alpine Club. An easier path leads via the Ehrwalder Alm, across a small pass called "Gatterl", joining the Reintal path at the Knorrhütte.


The Painter 
Max Wolfinger was a german painter and teacher at several Aargau middle schools and curator.
After Wolfinger had graduated from the school in Mannheim, he attended the High School in his hometown. Then he trained in the studio of painter Willhelm Dünke. Later Wolfinger joined  the painting classes of Grand Ducal Gemäldegalerie in Mannheim. After two years of study in Berlin and Dresden from 1857 to 1859, he moved to Munich. There, Wolfinger devoted himself to landscape painting. His paintings are  typical features of the Munich landscape painting in the second half of the 19th century. His work "Park in Königsfelden" is located in the Aargau art collection and two landscapes "Studies from Bavaria" have the city of Aarau and the Aargauische district school.

LES ROUIES PHOTOGRAPHED BY VITTORIO STELLA

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1943)

Les Rouies (3, 589 m -11,7 75 ft)

France

Photographed in 1900

The artist

Vittorio Sella is a mountain italian climber and photographer who took his passion for mountains from his uncle, Quintino Sella, founder of the Italian Alpine Club.  He accomplished many remarkable climbs in the Alps, the first wintering in the Matterhorn and Mount Rose (1882) and the first winter crossing of Mont Blanc (1888).
He took part in various expeditions outside Italy:
- Three in the Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896 where a summit still bears his name;
- The ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska in 1897;
- Sikkim and Nepal in 1899;
- Possibly climb Mount Stanley in Uganda in 1906 during an expedition to the Rwenzori;
- Recognition at K2  in 1909;
- In Morocco in 1925.
During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2), he accompanied the Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia.
Sella continues the practice of climbing into his old age, completing his final attempt in the Matterhorn at the age of 76; a climb he had to interrupt the rise following an accident in which one of his guides injured. He died in his hometown during World War II.  His photographic collection is now managed by the Sella Foundation.
His photos mountain are still  considered today to be among the finest ever made.
Jim Curran believes that "Sella remains probably the greatest photographer of the mountain.  His name is synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement. "
The quality of the pictures of Vittorio Sella is partly explained by the use of a view camera 30 × 40 cm, despite the difficulty of the transportation of such a device, both heavy and fragile in places inaccessible; to be able to transport it safely, he had to make special pieces that can be stored in saddle bags.  His photographs have been widely distributed, either through the press or in the galleries, and were unanimously celebrated; Ansel Adams, who was able to admire thirty-one in an exhibition that was organized at Sella American Sierra Club, said they inspired him "a religious kind of sense of wonder."  Many of his pictures were taken in the mountains for the very first time in the History, which give them a much artistic, historical  but also scientific value ; for example, one could measure the decline in the Rwenzori glaciers in Central Africa.
Source:
 -  The Georgian Museum of Photography

The Mountain 
Les Rouies (3589 meters) is a mountain of Massif des Écrins (Ecrins Range) situated in Isère (France). The highest top of Les Rouies is very central to the rest of the range but rarely visible. It is the meeting point of three major lines of ridges that separate the valleys of Lavey, Gioberney and Chardon. It is towards the latter that flows mainly ice which largely cover the northeast slope of the summit, in developing the glacier of Les Rouies.
The summit itself and most of its eastern slopes consist of gneiss type Lavey strongly enough migmatized.
The glacier of Les Rouies is nowadays suspended above the glacier. It continues eastward for 3 kilometers although it is not yet powered by the serac falls from the first.
The jump between these two glaciers is reinforced by an NS band hornblende gneiss which continues south of the Pass of Les Rouies in the high slopes of the Circus of Gioberney where it chokes down (so it is likely the heart of a syncline).
Just a few decades the ice overflowed laterally to the south (side Gioberney), from the Pass of  Les Rouies towards the Circus of Lauzon, a glacier couloir which is now reduced to two ice corridor.
To the east of the Pass of Les Rouies the edge of the Peak of Vacivier is again integrally formed by gneisses of Lavey.  It is connected at right angles to Peaks du Says at the north ridge of Mount Gioberney which corresponds to a hornblende gneiss new band oriented N-S.
The western side of Rouies is formed by a steep line overlooking the upstream part of the valley of Lavey.  These steep follow at almost exactly the route of the great eastern Faille de Fétoules that stilted the Lavey gneiss its eastern chamber of several hundred meters, so these gneiss dominate there amphibolites circus and the Pointe de la Muande, extension of those of Olan, which normally constitutes the cover.  This major break, NS azimuth, the other continues south through the fault of Gazonné Peak in the Morges range, where it affects the sedimentary rocks and is also dotted with a few outcrops of Triassic: This is the evidence that this accident has worked at the "alpine" distortions (that is to say post-Hercynian).
The melting of glaciers that surround the foot of the steep western Rouies reached in the 1950s, the bedrock of the navel * * deepening of the glacier of the Lavey, now fills the Lake Rouies.
ascent
Climbing routes 
Les Rouies is a classic Ecrins Range climb. Leaving the shelter of Le Pigeonnier,  climb is done in a 4 to 5 hours up and  2 to 3 hours down.  This is a relatively long and varied climb. The passage of Les Rouies which gives access to the glacier can be tricky depending on the year. From the retreat of the glacier, the steep corridor passage can be avoided by the left; the route that we propose goes through the steep corridor and down the left slope. Conditions can change with the seasons ... the view at the top is great.
Sources:
-  Geol-Alp 
- Virtual Mountain

MOUNT KENYA PAINTED BY ROBERT McLELLAN-SIM

ROBERT McLELLAN-SIM (1907-1985)

Mount Kenya (5,199 m -17,057 ft) 

Kenya 

The mountain 

Mount Kenya  (5,199 m -17,057 ft)  is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro.   The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa and Kiinyaa which mean "God's resting place" in all three languages.  Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 mi) south of the equator, around 150 kilometres (93 mi) north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.

Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African rift.   Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the centre.  There are currently 11 small glaciers and 8 peaks of which the highest are : Batian (5,199 m -  (17,057 ft), Nelion (5,188 m - 17,021 ft)) and Point Lenana (4,985 m - 16,355 ft).   The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.

There are several vegetation bands from the base to the summit. The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax. An area of 715 km² (276 sq mi) around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.  The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year.

The main ethnic groups living around Mount Kenya are Kikuyu, Ameru, Embu and Maasai. 

The first three are closely related. They all see the mountain as an important aspect of their cultures.  The most famous Maasai  are semi-nomadic people, who use the land to the north of the mountain to graze their cattle. They believe that their ancestors came down from the mountain at the beginning of time.  The Maasai name for Mount Kenya is Ol Donyo Keri, which means 'mountain of stripes', referring to the dark shades as observed from the surrounding plains.  At least one Maasai prayer refers to Mount Kenya: " God bless our children, let them be like the olive tree of Morintat, let them grow and expand, let them be like Ngong Hills like Mt. Kenya, like Mt. Kilimanjaro and multiply in number. "

All these cultures arrived in the Mount Kenya area in the last several hundred years.

Climbing routes 

Most of the peaks on Mount Kenya have been summited. The majority of these involve rock climbing as the easiest route, although some only require a scramble or a walk. The highest peak that can be ascended without climbing is Point Lenana (4,985 m -16,355 ft).  The majority of the 15,000 visitors to the national park each year climb this peak.  In contrast, approximately 200 people summit Nelion and 50 summit Batian, the two highest peaks.

When ascended directly, Batian is usually climbed via the North Face Standard Route, UIAA grade IV+ (or 5.6+ YDS).  It was first ascended on 31 July 1944 by Firmin and Hicks.  The route is usually climbed in two days. The Normal Route is the most climbed route up Nelion, and thence across to Batian. It was first climbed by Shipton and Wyn-Harris on 6 January 1929.  It is possible to traverse between the two peaks, via the Gates of Mist, but this often involves spending a night in the Howell hut on top of Nelion. There is a bolted abseil descent route off Nelion. 

Mount Kenya's climbing seasons are a result of its location only 20 km (12 mi) from the equator. During the northern summer the rock routes on the north side of the peak are in good summer condition, while at the same time the ice routes on the south side of the peak are prime shape. The situation is reversed during the southern summer. The two seasons are separated by several months of rainy season before and after, during which climbing conditions are generally unfavorable.

Mount Kenya is home to several good ice routes, the two most famous being the Diamond Couloir and the Ice Window route. Snow and ice levels on the mountain have been retreating at an accelerated rate in recent years, making these climbs increasingly difficult and dangerous. The Diamond Couloir, a steep ice couloir fed by the fusion of the upper Diamond Glacier and pioneered in 1975 by Yvon Chouinard and Michael Covington, was once climbable in summer or winter but now is virtually unclimbable in summer conditions and is seldom deemed in climbable condition even in winter.  Last climbing reports describe the route very difficult, especially in the lower section. The route has changed into a modern ice climb with a very difficult 60m first pitch, starting with 8m of overhanging M7 dry tooling, followed by 50m of USA Grade V ice and by others 6 pitches of moderate climbing on good ice and finally one pitch of water ice USA Grade IV+ ice at the headwall before getting to the Upper Diamond Glacier.

The satellite peaks around the mountain also provide good climbs. These can be climbed in Alpine style and vary in difficulty from a scramble to climbing at UIAA grade VI. 

The painter 

Robert Mc Lellan Sim (RMS) was born in Newport, Gwent, Wales.  He attended Newport Secondary School from 1919 to 1924. In 1926 he won three prizes for graphic arts at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and in 1926 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Newport School of Arts and Crafts (now part of the University of Wales). After finishing college with a Board of Education Teachers Certificate he attended the Newport Institute for Research into Art and Design (N.I.R.A.D.). Years later NIRAD merged with its sister institute from Cardiff to create the Wales Institute for Research into Art and Design.  

RMS was a prolific artist, and during his time in East Africa (he travelled throughout Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar) he completed as many as 40 paintings a year. His work was in great demand, mostly in Kenya and purchased by many eminent people and was extremely popular as an official gift or a farewell present. The Colony of Kenya presented a McLellan-Sim painting to HM The Queen on the occasion of her Coronation in 1953, and HM The Queen Mother was presented with another to commemorate her Visit to Kenya in 1959. Many a departing dignitary at the time of independence received a McLellan-Sim painting as a farewell gift. Both Jake Fletcher and Amoeba Walker took McLellan-Sim works of art home with them to England when they left the Prince of Wales School. The Kenya Regiment presented a McLellan-Sim painting to Sir Patrick Renison as their departing Commander-in -Chief when he retired as Governor of Kenya in 1961. 

RMS was a successful commercial artist, with his clients including the East African Tobacco Company, the East African Standard and the Uganda Tourist Board. His public works included the murals for the Kenya Agricultural Stand in the Rhodes Centenary Exhibition of 1952 in Bulawayo, the Nakuru Railway Station murals of 1957 and the 1960 mural for the National Assembly Building in Nairobi. 

RMS designed the 1954 blue 10 shilling postage stamp depicting the Royal Lodge at Sagana.

RMS’s move to Kenya in 1947 was a search for colour and space. His brief war service in the Far East obviously gave him a taste for warmer climes, brighter colours and wide spaces, aspects that were to feature strongly in his African paintings. He is on record as saying that he preferred landscapes and seascapes to portraits because he could go away on his own, often combining his field trips with fishing expeditions, during which he could turn to his sketch book when the trout would not jump! 

In 1958, when back in England on home-leave, he told The Worthing Herald: 

”I always paint sunshine. It was the sunshine that attracted me. I can’t paint greyness and cloudy skies, so Kenya is definitely the place for me.” 

GUNUNG MERAPI PAINTED BY RADEN SALEH

SALEH (1811-1880) 

 Gunung Merapi or Mount Merapi (2,914m - 9,500 ft)

Indonesia (Java) 

  1. Gunung MerapiDuring the1865 eruption
2. Gurnung Merbabu and  Gunung Merapi

The mountain 

Mount Merapi or Gunung Merapi (2,914m - 9,500 ft)  is an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548. It is located approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Yogyakarta city which has a population of 2.4 million, and thousands of people live on the flanks of the volcano, with villages as high as 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level.

Smoke can often be seen emerging from the mountaintop, and several eruptions have caused fatalities. Pyroclastic flow from a large explosion killed 27 people on 22 November 1994, mostly in the town of Muntilan, west of the volcano.Another large eruption occurred in 2006, shortly before the Yogyakarta earthquake. In light of the hazards that Merapi poses to populated areas, it has been designated as one of the Decade Volcanoes.

On 25 October 2010 the Indonesian government raised the alert for Mount Merapi to its highest level and warned villagers in threatened areas to move to safer ground. People living within a 20 km (12 mi) zone were told to evacuate. Officials said about 500 volcanic earthquakes had been recorded on the mountain over the weekend of 23–24 October, and that the magma had risen to about 1 kilometre (3,300 ft) below the surface due to the seismic activity. On the afternoon of 25 October 2010 Mount Merapi erupted lava from its southern and southeastern slopes.

The mountain was still erupting on 30 November 2010, but due to lowered eruptive activity on 3 December 2010 the official alert status was reduced to level 3. The volcano is now 2930 metres high, 38 metres lower than before the 2010 eruptions.

After a large eruption in 2010 the characteristic of Mount Merapi was changed. On 18 November 2013 Mount Merapi burst smoke up to 2,000 meters high, one of its first major phreatic eruptions after the 2010 eruption. Researchers said that this eruption occurred due to combined effect of hot volcanic gases and abundant rainfall.

In 2004 an area of 6,410 hectares around Mount Merapi was established as a national park. The decision of the Ministry of Forestry to declare the park has been subsequently challenged in court by The Indonesian Forum for Environment, on grounds of lack of consultation with local residents. During the 2006 eruption of the volcano it was reported that many residents were reluctant to leave because they feared their residences would be confiscated for expansion of the national park, meaning they wouldn't have a house.

Mythology

Merapi is very important to Javanese, especially those living around its crater. As such, there are many myths and beliefs attached to Merapi. It is believed that when the gods had just created the Earth, Java was unbalanced because of the placement of Mount Jamurdipo on the west end of the island. In order to assure balance, the gods (generally represented by Batara Guru) ordered the mountain to be moved to the centre of Java. However, two armourers, Empu Rama and Empu Permadi, were already forging a sacred keris at the site where Mount Jamurdipo was to be moved. The gods warned them that they would be moving a mountain there, and that they should leave; Empu Rama and Empu Permadi ignored that warning. In anger, the gods buried Empu Rama and Empu Permadi under Mount Jamurdipo; their spirits later became the rulers of all mystical beings in the area. In memory of them, Mount Jamurdipo was later renamed Mount Merapi, which means "fire of Rama and Permadi.

The Javanese believe that the Earth is not only populated by human beings, but also by spirits (makhluk halus). Villages near Merapi believe that one of the palaces (in Javanese kraton) used by the rulers of the spirit kingdom lies inside Merapi, ruled by Empu Rama and Empu Permadi. This palace is said to be a spiritual counterpart to the Yogyakarta Sultanate, complete with roads, soldiers, princes, vehicles, and domesticated animals. Besides the rulers, the palace is said to also be populated by the spirits of ancestors who died as righteous people. The spirits of these ancestors are said to live in the palace as royal servants (abdi dalem), occasionally visiting their descendants in dreams to give prophecies or warnings. "

Spirits of Merapi

To keep the volcano quiet and to appease the spirits of the mountain, the Javanese regularly bring offerings on the anniversary of the sultan of Yogyakarta's coronation. For Yogyakarta Sultanate, Merapi holds significant cosmological symbolism, because it is forming a sacred north-south axis line between Merapi peak and Southern Ocean (Indian Ocean). The sacred axis is signified by Merapi peak in the north, the Tugu Yogyakarta (id) monument near Yogyakarta main train station, the axis runs along Malioboro street to Northern Alun-alun (square) across Keraton Yogyakarta (sultan palace), Southern Alun-alun, all the way to Bantul and finally reach Samas and Parangkusumo beach on the estuary of Opak river and Southern Ocean. This sacred axis connected the hyangs or spirits of mountain revered since ancient times—often identified as "Mbah Petruk" by Javanese people—The Sultan of Yogyakarta as the leader of the Javanese kingdom, and Nyi Roro Kidul as the queen of the Southern Ocean, the female ocean deity revered by Javanese people and also mythical consort of Javanese kings.

The painter 

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman was a pioneering Indonesian Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity.  He was considered to be the first "modern" artist from Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies), and his paintings corresponded with nineteenth-century romanticism which was popular in Europe at the time. He also expressed his cultural roots and inventiveness in his work.

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman was born in 1811 in Semarang on the island of Java into a noble Hadhrami family where his father was Sayyid Husen bin Alwi bin Awal bin Yahya, an Indonesian of Arab descent. 

Young Raden Saleh was first taught in Bogor by the Belgian artist A.J. Payen. Payen acknowledged the youth's talent, and persuaded the colonial government of the Netherlands to send Raden Saleh to the Netherlands to study art.  He arrived in Europe in 1829 and began to study under Cornelius Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. From Schelfhout, Raden Saleh furthered his skills as a landscape painter. 

During his stay in Paris, Saleh met Horace Vernet whose painting frequently took themes of African wildlife. Compared to Vernet, Saleh's painting seems to be more influenced by the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. This could be seen in one of Saleh's work, Hunting Lion, 1840, which has similar composition to Delacroix's La Liberté guidant le peuple. However, Werner Kraus, a researcher in the Southeast-Asian Art Center of Passau, German, said that Saleh "never mentioned Delacroix. Perhaps he saw Delacroix's, and possibly Vernet's, works during an exhibition."

While in Europe, in 1836 Saleh became the first indigenous Indonesian to be initiated into Freemasonry. From 1839, he spent five years at the court of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who became an important patron.

Raden Saleh visited several European cities.  Many of his paintings were exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Several of his paintings were destroyed when the Colonial Dutch pavilion in Paris was burnt in 1931.

Raden Saleh returned to Dutch East Indies in 1852 after living in Europe for 20 years.  He worked as conservator for the colonial collection of government art and continued painting portraits of the Javanese aristocracy, and many more landscape paintings. 

GLARAMARA PAINTED BY JOHN CONSTABLE

JOHN CONSTABLE (1776-1837) 

Glaramara (783m - 2,569 ft)   

United Kingdom

 In  View toward Glaramara, 1806- V & A museum. London 

The mountain 

Glaramara is a fell in the English Lake District in Cumbria. It is a substantial fell that is part of a long ridge that stretches for over six kilometres from Stonethwaite in Borrowdale up to the important mountain pass of Esk Hause. The summit of Glaramara at 783 m (2,569 ft) is the central point of this ridge, which separates the valleys of Langstrath and Grains Gill. However, the ridge has two additional fells, numerous subsidiary tops and several small tarns making its traverse an appealing and challenging walk.
The fell's unusual and pleasant-sounding name, previously only applied to the summit rocks, has now been accepted as the name for the whole fell. Like many fells of the district the name comes from a series of Old Norse words which in this case is translated as “Hill with the mountain hut by a chasm”.
The direct ascent of the fell is usually started from the Borrowdale road midway between Rosthwaite and Seatoller. From here it is possible to ascend on either of the ridges to the east or west of Combe Gill, the east ridge being the best because it allows for the climbing of Rosthwaite Fell and its subsidiary summit of Dovenest Top (632 m). On this route two other tops of Glaramara, Combe Door Top (676 m) and Combe Head (735 m), are passed over. Both of these are Nuttalls. Combe Head gives fine views down into Combe Gill and from here it is short climb to the twin summits of Glaramara.
Reference :
 - Wikipedia  

The painter

John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"— which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".
His most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park of 1816, Dedham Vale of 1802 and The Hay Wain of 1821. Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, Constable was never financially successful. He did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more works than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.
Constable quietly rebelled against the artistic culture that taught artists to use their imagination to compose their pictures rather than nature itself. He told Leslie, "When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture".
Constable was never satisfied with following a formula. "The world is wide", he wrote, "no two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of all the world; and the genuine productions of art, like those of nature, are all distinct from each other."  Constable painted many full-scale preliminary sketches of his landscapes to test the composition in advance of finished pictures. These large sketches, with their free and vigorous brushwork, were revolutionary at the time, and they continue to interest artists, scholars and the general public. The oil sketches of The Leaping Horse and The Hay Wain, for example, convey a vigour and expressiveness missing from Constable's finished paintings of the same subjects. Possibly more than any other aspect of Constable's work, the oil sketches reveal him in retrospect to have been an avant-garde painter, one who demonstrated that landscape painting could be taken in a totally new direction.
Constable's watercolours were also remarkably free for their time: the almost mystical Stonehenge, 1835, with its double rainbow, is often considered to be one of the greatest watercolours ever painted.[21] When he exhibited it in 1836, Constable appended a text to the title: "The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath, as much unconnected with the events of past ages as it is with the uses of the present, carries you back beyond all historical records into the obscurity of a totally unknown period."
The sketches themselves were the first ever done in oils directly from the subject in the open air. To convey the effects of light and movement, Constable used broken brushstrokes, often in small touches, which he scumbled over lighter passages, creating an impression of sparkling light enveloping the entire landscape.
Reference 
 - John Constable website

THE POPOCATEPETL BY ROBERT JENKINS ONDERDONK

ROBERT JENKINS ONDERDONK (1852-1917) 

The Popocatépetl (5,426 m -17,802 ft)  

Mexico

Painted in 1911

The mountain 
Popocatépetl  (5,426 m (17,802 ft) is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt.  The name Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca  (it smokes) and tepētl  (mountain), meaning Smoking Mountain. It is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) at 5,636 m (18,491 ft).
It is linked to the Iztaccihuatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cortés.
Popocatépetl is 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, from where it can be seen regularly, depending on atmospheric conditions. Until recently, the volcano was one of three tall peaks in Mexico to contain glaciers, the others being Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba. In the 1990s, the glaciers such as Glaciar Norte (North Glacier) greatly decreased in size, partly due to warmer temperatures but largely due to increased volcanic activity.  By early 2001, Popocatépetl's glaciers were gone; ice remained on the volcano, but no longer displayed the characteristic features of glaciers such as crevasses.
Magma erupting from Popocatépetl has historically been predominantly andesitic, but it has also erupted large volumes of dacite. Magma produced in the current cycle of activity tends to be a mixture of the two.
Climbing route 
The first ascent was made by ameridian Tecuanipas in 1289. Nowadays the easiest way to reach the top is via the north face. It begins at Tlamacas Lodge located at 3947 meters above sea level and accessible from the neck separating the Popocatepetl of Ixtaccihuatl via a paved road. The trail, which passes through Las Cruces and crosses snowfields and glaciers, measuring nearly five kilometers long with a climb of 1453 mètres. The best time to climb is winter and early spring, especially from  December to  April. The first mountain ski descent was conducted by Francisco Gonzalez Rul and Eduardo de Maria y Campos 1947.
Eruptive history 
Popocatépetl is the most active volcano in Mexico, having had more than 15 major eruptions since the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. A major eruption occurred in 1947.
- On December 21, 1994, the volcano spewed gas and ash which was carried as far as 25 km (16 mi) away by prevailing winds. The activity prompted the evacuation of nearby towns and scientists to begin monitoring for an eruption.
- In December 2000, tens of thousands of people were evacuated by the government based on the warnings of scientists. The volcano then made its largest display in 1,200 years.
- On December 25, 2005, the volcano's crater produced an explosion which ejected a large column of smoke and ash about 3 km (1.9 mi) into the atmosphere and expulsion of lava.
- In January and February 2012, scientists observed increased volcanic activity at Popocatépetl. On January 25, 2012, an ash explosion occurred on the mountain causing much dust and ash to contaminate the atmosphere around it.
- On April 19, 2012, there were reports of superheated rock fragments being hurled into the air by the volcano. Ash and water vapor plumes were reported 15 times over 24 hours.
- On Wednesday May 8, 2013, at 7:28 pm local time, Popocatépetl erupted again with a high amplitude tremor that lasted and was recorded for 3.5 hours. It began with plumes of ash that rose 3 km into the air and began drifting W at first, but later began to drift ESE covering areas of the villages of San Juan Tianguismanalco, San Pedro Benito Juárez and the City of Puebla in smoke and ash. Explosions from the volcano itself subsequently ejected fragments of fiery volcanic rock to distances of 700 m from the crater.
- On July 4, 2013, due to several eruptions of steam and ash for at least 24 hours, at least six U.S. airlines canceled more than 40 flights into and out of Mexico City and Toluca airports that day.
- During 27 August–September 2014, CENAPRED reported explosions accompanied by steam-and-gas emissions with minor ash and ash plumes that rose 800-3,000 m above Popocatépetl’s crater and drifted W, SW, and WSW. On most nights incandescence was observed, increasing during times with larger emissions.
- On 1 September partial visibility due to cloud cover was reported.
- On 29 and 31 August the Washington VAAC reported discrete ash emissions.
- On January 7, 2015, CENAPRED reported that ash from recent explosions coats the snow on the volcano's upper slopes.
- On March 28, 2016, an ash column 2,000 metres high was released, prompting the establishment of a 12-kilometer “security ring” around the summit.
- On 3 April 2016, Popocatépetl erupted, spewing lava, ash and rock.

The painter 
Robert Jenkins Onderdonk  was an American painter and art teacher, born in Catonsville, Maryland.  IT is considered as an Aimportant artist in the first stage of Texas art. Robert Jenkins Onderdonk studied art at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York in the 1870s. Among his teachers were William Merritt Chase[3] and James Carroll Beckwith.
R. J. Onderdonk went to Texas in 1878  and married Emily Gould in 1881 and they had three children. He hoped to execute portraits for rich Texas citizens and make enough money to travel to Europe. He eventually stayed in Texas for thirty-eight years, where he painted and taught. In San Antonio, he founded an art association for women painters, the Van Dyck club, which later became the San Antonio Arts League; his daughter Eleanor was an important member and organizer.  In 1893 in Dallas, he co-founded the Art Students League of Dallas, pupils of which displayed their paintings each year at the State Fair of Texas, in Dallas.
Onderdonk's masterpiece, the 1903 painting Fall of the Alamo, was displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and is now held in the Texas State Archives. Occupying central position in the painting is Davy Crockett, a depiction reproduced countless times in print; Crockett is portrayed in iconic style, "swinging his flintlock over his head to club the Mexicans advancing through a hanging cloud of gun smoke."  According to Fisk's A History of Texas Artists, he would have been ranked one of America's finest artists if he had spent more time painting rather than teaching.

GUNUNG SUMBING BY FRANZ-WILHELM JUNGHUHN

FRANZ-WILHELM  JUNGHUHN (1809-1864) 

Gunung Sumbing  or Mount Sumbing (3,371m -11,060 ft) 

Indonesia  (Java)

In 1853-1854  - Engraving shown in Leiden University Library

The mountain 

Gunung Sumbing or Gurung Sumbing  (meaning Mount Sumbing) is a prominent 3,371 m (11,060 ft) high stratovolcano that lies across a 1400-m-high saddle from symmetrical Sundoro (3,136m) volcano in central Java. Prominent cones are located on the N and SE flanks, which is somewhat more dissected than Sundoro. An 800-m-wide horseshoe-shaped summit crater breached to the NE is partially filled by a lava dome that fed a lava flow down to 2400 m elevation. Emplacement of the dome followed the eruption of extensive pyroclastic flows down the NE flank. 

The only report of historical activity, in about 1730 CE, may have produced the small phreatic craters found at the summit. 

The announcement of an eruption in the Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (30 July-5 August 2008) was later found to be false. The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) noted that a pilot reported an eruption plume from Sumbing on 1 August 2008. The plume allegedly rose to an altitude of 4.9 km and drifted W. However, ash was not identified on satellite imagery. Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) observers at the local observatory saw only non-eruptive processes at the volcano, and they noted brush fires in September and October. A common problem in this active region occurs when drifting plumes become linked to the wrong volcano. After discussing the field observations, both Darwin VAAC and Indonesia's CVG

M concluded the report was in error.  Ashes was not identified on satellite imagery.

The artist 

Friedrich Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn was a German-Dutch botanist and geologist, who studied medicine in Halle and in Berlin from 1827 to 1831, meanwhile publishing  (1830)a seminal paper on mushrooms in Limnaea. 

Junghuhn settled on Java, where he made an extensive study of the land and its people. 

He discovered the Kawah Putih crater lake south of Bandung in 1837.

 He published extensively on his many often highly adventurous expeditions and his scientific analyses.  Among his works is an important description and natural history in many volumes of the volcanoes of Java, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der vulkanen in den Indischen Archipel (1843). 

He completed Die Topographischen und Naturwissenschaftlichen Reisen durch Java (Topographic and Scientific Journeys in Java) in 1845 and a first anthropological and topographical study of Sumatra, Die Bättalander auf Sumatra (Batak lands of Sumatra). in 1847.

In 1849, ill health forced his return to the Netherlands.  While in the Netherlands, Junghuhn began work on a four volume treatise published in Dutch and translated into German between 1850 and 1854: Java, deszelfs gedaante, bekleeding en inwendige struktuur (in German: Java, seine Gestalt, Pflanzendecke, und sein innerer Bau). Junghuhn was an avid humanist and socialist. In the Netherlands he published anonymously his free-thinking manifesto Licht- en Schaduwbeelden uit de Binnenlanden van Java (Images of Light and Shadow from Java's interior) between 1853 and 1855. The work was controversial, advocating socialism in the colonies and fiercely criticizing Christian and Islamic proselytization of the Javanese people.   Junghuhn instead wrote of his preference for a form of Pandeism (pantheistic deism), contending that God was in everything, but could only be determined through reason.  The work was banned in Austria and parts of Germany for its "denigrations and vilifications of Christianity", but was a strong seller in the Netherlands where it was first published pseudonymously.  It was also popular in colonial Indonesia, despite opposition from the Dutch Christian Church there. 

Recovered from his ills, Junghuhn returned to Java in 1855. Highly interested in botany and its practical applications, he  became embroiled in a bitter and extended controversy about the effectiveness of Cinchona species in the treatment of malaria.  This controversy was conducted in public and in print with open letters to and demands on Het Natuurkundig Genootschap; part of this exchange of minds can be followed in Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië from 1862 onwards.  At his direction massive plantation of Chincocina was carried out in Java, making it leading producer of Kina (Chinocina bark). 

He remained on Java until his death from liver disease in 1864.  On his deathbed in his house near Lembang on the slopes of the volcano Tangkuban Perahu just north of Bandung, Java,  it is  said that Junghuhn asked the doctor to open the windows, in order to say goodbye to the mountains that he loved. 

In Lembang there is a small monument to his memory in a grassy square named after him planted with some of his favorite trees among which the Cinchona. A minor item of trivia playing into polemical discussions of Junghuhn is his surname, literally translated as "young chicken".

The plants Cyathea junghuhniana and Nepenthes junghuhnii are named after Franz Junghuhn.

ISOLATION PEAK PAINTED BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

     

  

 

LAWREN S. HARRIS  (1885–1970)  

Isolation peak (3,983 m - 13,067 ft)

United States of America

                                                                    1. painted in 1930 

 2.  painted between 1925  
3.  painted between 1925 and 1930 

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris, (1885–1970) was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."
(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
For Harris, art was to express spiritual values as well as to represent the visible world. North Shore, Lake Superior (1926), an image of a solitary weathered tree stump surrounded by an expanse of dramatically lit sky, effectively evokes the tension between the terrestrial and spiritual.
The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period, and from 1935 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. Several members of the Group of Seven later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters including Harris, A. J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, A. Y. Jackson, and Franklin Carmichael.
From 1934 to 1937, Harris lived in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he painted his first abstract works, a direction he would continue for the rest of his life. In 1938 he moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and helped found the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization of artists who advocated a spiritual form of abstraction.
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist. He was buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where his work is now held.
On November 26, 2015 his painting Mountain and Glacier was auctioned for $3.9 million at a Heffel Fine Art Auction House auction in Toronto, breaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's works.
In 2016 a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings, was produced by TV Ontario. It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang.
Reference
- Lawren S. Harris biography in  National Gallery of Canada notice


The mountain 
Residing far away from just about everywhere, the well-named Isolation Peak (3,983 m - 13,067 ft) occupies some prime terrain at the southern end of the great Rocky Mountain National Park, near Georgetown, Colorado, United States. Based on peakery data, it ranks as the 606th highest mountain in Colorado and the 848th highest mountain in the United States.
 For now at least, Isolation's vast summit view will stay her own, reserved for enduring souls that love solitude and long for even the obscure summits of Rocky Mountain National Park. So, if you like sacred places, then see for yourself the unique views Longs Peak, Mount Alice, Paradise Park and the pristine Fifth Lake area of East Inlet Basin. Most of all, go get Isolated!
The officially named Isolation Peak resides directly on the Continental Divide, a few miles south of Mount Alice and a few miles north of Ogalalla Peak. Its rocky summit towers over four different drainages, two west facing watersheds, (East Inlet & Paradise Park) and another two that face east (Thunder Lake & Frigid Lake.)
The west side of Isolation Peak harbors some of Colorado's most pristine land. Paradise Park is a designated Research Natural Area that is used for scientific investigations which requires the area to be unaltered by human intervention. Day hiking is allowed, but there are no maintained trails and camping is not allowed. The reclusive Fifth Lake area is another distant place protected by another long 8-mile approach.
From the Divide, the eastern aspects of Isolation Peak are named Wild Basin. Logistically, one can argue that Wild Basin is no more spectacular than the western aspects of East Inlet or Paradise Park. However, Wild Basin's proximity to Denver makes for a familiar, and well-named place. Protected by National Park status, the vast Wild Basin is known for its long approaches and extensive trail system. Many beautiful alpine lakes reside here, protected by miles of tree-laden landscape. Even further away and beyond those lakes resides obscure mountainous terrain. Peaks like Copeland Mountain, Ouzel Peak, Mount Alice, Tanima Peak and Chiefs Head, make up a natural boundary for Wild Basin. Wild Basin is within RMNP boundaries, if interested, you will need a camping permit to split your 17-mile adventure into two days. Attaining Wild Basin camping permits is not as difficult as you may think; just stay away from weekend crowds.
The nearest peaks are Mahana Peak, Eagles Beak, The Cleaver, Ouzel Peak, Tanima Peak, and Copeland Mountain. Isolation Peak belongs to the Rocky Mountain National Park Peak Challenge peak list. See the Isolation Peak map, 3D fly around, and the Isolation Peak photos to get a better sense of the mountain.
Climbing 
Isolation Peak is aptly named: far from any trailheads, it seems to be seldom climbed. The approach from the eastern side is from Wild Basin, about 13 miles south of Estes Park.
Camp below Bluebird Lake, about 5.5 miles from the trailhead,  to get an early start. Try to get a permit for the Upper Ouzel Creek campsite, which is said to be the prettiest in the area. Located above the trail in a stone perch, with the steep slopes of Copeland Mountain and a small waterfall across the valley, it is indeed a lovely site. The Indian Paintbrush and Columbine flowers are spectacular.
From Bluebird Lake, the route ascends a slope to the north, over fairly steep and often loose talus, to a relatively flat bench. Cairns mark a reasonably good route to the top.  The best way to avoid the bushes is to head to the west, directly down toward the creek flowing from Pipit Lake toward Bluebird Lake. Two small clearings are linked and lead to the creek area, which is free of the dense bushes; then follow the creek up toward Pipit Lake. Due to the global change of climate, many mountains are now free of snow, the cirque between Ouzel Peak and Isolation Peak (one route to the top) still has quite a bit of snow.
There is an other way, via Isolation Lake.
From the Pipit Lake area, head up to the right.  From here there is an obvious route up to the saddle between Isolation Peak, and Mahana Peak, then up the ridge to the summit. On can go up directly toward the summit, over fairly steep but mostly stable talus.
There is a PVC pipe for the summit register, but no register, just a Ziploc freezer bag containing several slips of paper.
It appears that this peak is not climbed often (perhaps a dozen times per year).  There are some dramatic views to Isolation Lake, to the south ridge of Isolation Peak, and especially to the west down to Fifth Lake, which has some angular rock formations. There is a steep drop-off on the west side of Isolation Peak.
References 
- Isolation peak notice in Summit.org
- Isolation peak notice in Peakery 
- Gordon S. Novak Jr. climbing route

COTOPAXI PAINTED BY FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900)

Cotopaxi (5,897 m - 19,347 ft) 

Ecuador  

1. First famous painting in 1855. Smithsonian American Museum. 

2. Painted during the 1862 eruption - Detroit Institute of Art.  

The mountain 
Cotopaxi  is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains,  which rises at 5,897 m - 19,347 ft and is located in the Latacunga canton of Cotopaxi Province, about 50 km (31 mi) south of Quito, and 33 km (21 mi) northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador, in South America.  It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft). It is one of the world's highest volcanoes. Many sources claim that Cotopaxi means "Neck of the Moon" in an indigenous language, but this is unproven. The mountain was honored as a "Sacred Mountain" by local Andean people, even prior to the Inca invasion in the 15th century.
Most of the time, Cotopaxi is clearly visible on the skyline from Quito and is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has an almost symmetrical cone that rises from a highland plain of about 3,800 metres (12,500 ft), with a width at its base of about 23 kilometres (14 mi). It has one of the few equatorial glaciers in the world, which starts at the height of 5,000 metres (16,400 ft). At its summit, Cotopaxi has an 800 X 550 m wide crater which is 250 m deep. The crater consists of two concentric crater rims, the outer one being partly free of snow and irregular in shape. The crater interior is covered with ice cornices and rather flat. The highest point is on the outer rim of the crater on the north side.
The first recorded eruption of Cotopaxi was in 1534.  With 87 known eruptions since then, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes.

The painter
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, perhaps best known for painting large panoramic landscapes, often depicting mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets, but also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he saw during his travels to the Arctic and Central and South America. Church's paintings put an emphasis on light and a romantic respect for natural detail. In his later years, Church painted classical Mediterranean and Middle Eastern scenes and cityscapes.
Church was the product of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the pupil of Thomas Cole, the school’s founder. The Hudson River School was established by the British Thomas Cole when he moved to America and started painting landscapes, mostly of mountains and other traditional American scenes.  Both Cole and Church were devout Protestants and the latter's beliefs played a role in his paintings especially his early canvases.  Church did differ from Cole in the topics of his paintings: he preferred natural and often majestic scenes over Cole's propensity towards allegory.
Church, like most second generation Hudson River School painters, used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings. Romanticism was prominent in Britain and France in the early 1800s as a counter-movement to the Enlightenment virtues of order and logic. Artists of the Romantic period often depicted nature in idealized scenes that depicted the richness and beauty of nature, sometimes also with emphasis on the grand scale of nature.
This tradition carries on in the works of Frederic Church, who idealizes an uninterrupted nature, highlighted by creating excruciatingly detailed art. The emphasis on nature is encouraged by the low horizontal lines, and preponderance of sky to enhance the wilderness; humanity, if it is represented, is depicted as small in comparison with the greater natural reality. The technical skill comes in the form of luminism, a Hudson River School innovation particularly present in Church's works. Luminism is also cited as encompassing several technical aspects, which can be seen in Church’s works. One example is the attempt to “hide brushstrokes,” which makes the scene seem more realistic and lessen the artist’s presence in the work. Most importantly is the emphasis on light (hence luminism) in these scenes. The several sources of light create contrast in the pictures that highlights the beauty and detailed imagery in the painting.
About the Cotopaxi paintings 
Church took two trips to South America, and stayed predominantly in Quito, Ecuador, the first in 1853 and the second in 1857. One trip was financed by businessman Cyrus West Field, who wished to use Church's paintings to lure investors to his South American ventures. Church was inspired by the Prussian polymath geographer Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos (about “the Earth, matter, and space”) and his exploration of the continent in the early 1800s; Humboldt had challenged artists to portray the "physiognomy" of the Andes. After Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America was published in 1852, Church jumped at the chance to travel and study in his icon’s footsteps (literally, as he stayed in Humboldt’s old house) in Quito, Ecuador. When Church returned in 1857 he added to his landscape paintings of the area. After both trips, Church had produced four landscapes of Ecuador: The Andes of Ecuador (1855), Cotopaxi (1855), Cayambe (1858), The Heart of the Andes (1859), and Cotopaxi while erupting in 1862 (see above). The Heart of The Andesas week as the Cotopaxi paintings are precious and precise  documentation, scientific studies of every natural feature that exists in that area of the Andes. Every species of plant and animal is readily identifiable; even climatic zonation by altitude is delineated precisely.
In this way, Church pays a unique tribute to Humboldt (who inspired his journey) as well as maintains his Hudson River School roots. “Therefore instead of the fiery crimsons and oranges of his emotional crepuscular scenes, the palette here is comparatively restrained by Church's standards: quiet greens, blues, browns, ochres and subdued grayish purples of sky, stone, verdure and water in full, even daylight.” 

DENALI PAINTED BY SYDNEY LAURENCE

SYDNEY LAURENCE (1865-1940) 

Denali, ex Mount Mc Kinley ( 6,190 m - 20,310 ft)

United States of America (Alaska)

1. Denali and Tokositna River - The Anchorage Museum 

2. Denali painted in 1919 
  3. Denali painted in 1921
4.  Denali painted in 1923

5. Denali in August 1924

The mountain 

Denali (also known as Mount McKinley, see the Naming paragraph below)) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of  6,190 m - 20,310 feet above sea level. Denali is the third most prominent and third most isolated peak after Mount Everest and Aconcagua.  Denali  is one of the Seven Summit, which includes the highest mountains of each of the seven  continents. Summiting all of them is regarded as a mountaineering  challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985 by Richard Bass.  The seven summit are :
Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Vinson  Massif (4,892m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko (2,228m) in Australia.

Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.

Denali has two significant summits: the South Summit is the higher one, while the North Summit has an elevation of 19,470 ft (5,934 m) and a prominence of approximately 1,270 ft (387 m).  The North Summit is sometimes counted as a separate peak (see e.g., fourteener) and sometimes not; it is rarely climbed, except by those doing routes on the north side of the massif.

Five large glaciers flow off the slopes of the mountain. The Peters Glacier lies on the northwest side of the massif, while the Muldrow Glacier falls from its northeast slopes. Just to the east of the Muldrow, and abutting the eastern side of the massif, is the Traleika Glacier. The Ruth Glacier lies to the southeast of the mountain, and the Kahiltna Glacier leads up to the southwest side of the mountain.  With a length of 44 mi (71 km), the Kahiltna Glacier is the longest glacier in the Alaska Range.

About the naming 

The Koyukon Athabaskans who inhabit the area around the mountain have for centuries referred to the peak as Dinale or Denali. The name is based on a Koyukon word for "high" or "tall".  During the Russian ownership of Alaska, the common name for the mountain was Bolshaya Gora (Russian: Большая Гора, meaning Russian "big mountain)" which is the Russian translation of Denali.  It was briefly called Densmore's Mountain in the late 1880s and early 1890s after Frank Densmore, an Alaskan prospector who was the first European to reach the base of the mountain.

In 1896, a gold prospector named it McKinley as political support for then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who became president the following year. The United States formally recognized the name Mount McKinley after President Wilson signed the Mount McKinley National Park Act of February 26, 1917.  

In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson declared the north and south peaks of the mountain the "Churchill Peaks", in honor of British statesman Winston Churchill.  The Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain to Denali in 1975, which was how it is called locally.  However, a request in 1975 from the Alaska state legislature to the United States Board on Geographic Names to do the same at the federal level was blocked by Ohio congressman Ralph Regula, whose district included McKinley's hometown of Canton.

On August 30, 2015, just ahead of a presidential visit to Alaska, the Barack Obama administration announced the name Denali would be restored in line with the Alaska Geographic Board's designation. 

Climbing history

The first recorded attempt to climb Denali was by Judge James Wickersham in 1903, via the Peters Glacier and the North Face, now known as the Wickersham Wall. Because of the route's history of avalanche danger, it was not successfully climbed until 1963.

Famed explorer Dr. Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent of the mountain in 1906. His claim was regarded with some suspicion from the start, but was also widely believed. It was later proved false, with some crucial evidence provided by Bradford Washburn when he was sketched on a lower peak.

In 1910, four area locals – Tom Lloyd, Peter Anderson, Billy Taylor, and Charles McGonagall – known as the Sourdough Expedition, attempted to climb Denali despite a lack of climbing experience. The group spent approximately three months on the mountain. Their purported summit ascent day included carrying a bag of doughnuts each, a thermos of hot chocolate, and a 14-foot (4.2 m) spruce pole. Two of them reached the North Summit, the lower of the two, and erected the pole near the top. According to the group, the time they took to reach the summit was a total of 18 hours. Until the first ascent in 1913, their claims were disbelieved, in part due to false claims they had climbed both summits.

In 1912, the Parker-Browne expedition nearly reached the summit, turning back within just a few hundred yards of it due to harsh weather. Hours after their ascent, the Great Earthquake of 1912 shattered the glacier they had ascended.

The first ascent of the main summit of Denali came on June 7, 1913, by a party led by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens. The first man to reach the summit was Walter Harper, an Alaska Native. Robert Tatum also made the summit. Using the mountain's contemporary name, Tatum later commented, "The view from the top of Mount McKinley is like looking out the windows of Heaven!"   Stuck confirmed, via binoculars, the presence of a large pole near the North Summit; this report confirmed the Sourdough ascent, and today it is widely believed that the Sourdoughs did succeed on the North Summit. However, the pole was never seen before or since, so there is still some doubt. Stuck also discovered that the Parker-Browne party were only about 200 feet (61 m) of elevation short of the true summit when they turned back.

The mountain is regularly climbed today; in 2003, around 58% of climbers reached the top. But by 2003, the mountain had claimed the lives of nearly 100 mountaineers over time.[49] The vast majority of climbers use the West Buttress Route, pioneered in 1951 by Bradford Washburn,  after an extensive aerial photographic analysis of the mountain. Climbers typically take two to four weeks to ascend Denali.

The painter 

Sydney Mortimer Laurence was an American Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of Alaska's most important historical artists. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York.  He exhibited regularly by the late 1880s. He and his wife traveled to England, settling in 1889 in the English artists' colony of St. Ives, Cornwall from 1889 to 1898. over the next decade he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists and was included in the Paris Salon in 1890, 1894, and 1895, winning an award in 1894.

Suddently in 1903 or 1904, it appears that Laurence abandoned his family and came to Alaskan shich was quite a wild aerea.

Laurence was the first professionally trained artist to make Alaska his home. He moved to Alaska in 1904 for reasons still unknown. Records from 1907 show he lived in the village of Tyonek on the North Shore of Cook Inlet in Southcentral Alaska, about 60 miles from Ship Creek where Anchorage would begin years later.  Living the hard life of the pioneer prospector, he painted little in his first years in the then-District of Alaska, but between 1911 and 1914 he began to focus once again on his art.  He moved from Valdez to the nascent town of Anchorage in 1915 and by 1920 was Alaska's most prominent painter. 

Laurence painted Mount McKinley  at least 5 or 6 times all along his life, but it is image of Denali from the hills above the rapids of the Tokositna River, shown in this blog in n° 1, which  became his trademark. It is this image more than any other which personifies Laurence for his many admirers and collectors in Alaska and beyond. Laurence forged a uniquely personal style by applying the tonalist techniques he had learned in New York and Europe to the wilderness of the North. He, more than any other artist, defined for Alaskans and others the image of Alaska as "The Last Frontier."

Laurence painted as welle a variety of Alaskan scenes in his long and prolific career, among them sailing ships and steamships in Alaskan waters, totem poles in Southeast Alaska, dramatic headlands and the quiet coves and streams of Cook Inlet, cabins and caches under the northern lights, and Alaska Natives, miners, and trappers engaged in their often solitary lives in the northern wilderness.

In May 1927, Laurence married Jeanne Kunath, a French-born artist who had emigrated to the United States in 1920. He died in Anchorage on December 10, 1940.

Several places were named for Laurence in his adopted hometown. Laurence Court is a short street in the Bootleggers Cove neighborhood of Anchorage. Perhaps the most significant was the Sydney Laurence Auditorium, which sat downtown at the northwest corner of West Sixth Avenue and F Street. This structure was replaced during the 1980s by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in what Anchorage called "Project 80s", a large-scale civic improvement program carried out under mayors George M. Sullivan and Tony Knowles; now the Sydney Laurence theater is smallest of three stages at the Performing Arts Center.

Références 

- Sydney Laurence Biography - University of Alaska 

MAYON VOLCANO PAINTED BY FERNANDO AMORSOLO

 FERNANDO AMORSOLO (1882-1972) 

Mayon Volcano (2,463 m - 8,081 ft)  

Philippines (Luzon)

In Harvesting rice near Mayon, 1950, oil on canvas , Private collection 

The mountain 

Mayon, also known as Mayon Volcano or Mount Mayon, is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol Region, on the large island of Luzon in the Philippines. Renowned as the "perfect cone" because of its symmetric conical shape, the volcano and its surrounding landscape was declared a national park on July 20 of 1938, the first in the nation. It was reclassified a Natural Park and renamed as the Mayon Volcano Natural Park in 2000.[3] Local folklore refers to the volcano being named after the legendary princess-heroine Daragang Magayon.
Like other volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean, Mayon is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is on the southeast side of Luzon, close to the Philippine Trench, which is the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is driven under the Philippine Mobile Belt. When a continental plate meets an oceanic plate, the lighter and thicker continental material overrides the thinner and heavier oceanic plate, forcing it down into the Earth's mantle and melting it. Superheated magma and gases may be forced through weaknesses in the continental crust caused by the subduction of the oceanic plate, and one such exit point is Mayon.
Mayon is the most active volcano in the Philippines, erupting over 49 times in the past 400 years. The first record of a major eruption was witnessed in February 1616 by Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen who recorded it on his log in his circumnavigation trip around the world. The first eruption for which an extended account exists was the six-day event of July 20, 1766.
The main eruptions are :
- February 1, 1814  the most destructive one) ;
- From July 6, 1881 until approximately August 1882 ;
- June 23, 1897 (VEI=4), which lasted for seven days of raining fire ;
- 1884 and 1993 eruptions ;
- 2006 eruption ;
- 2008 eruption ;
- 2009-2010 eruptions ;
- 2013 phreatic eruption :
-August 12 - September 18, 2014, earthquake events and 251rockfall events. 

The painter 
Fernando Cueto Amorsolo was one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines.Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. After graduating from the Univeajor influences on his work. Amorsolo set up his own studio upon his return to Manila and painted prodigiously during the 1920s and the 1930s. His Rice Planting (1922), which appeared on posters and tourist brochures, became one of the most popular images of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Beginning in the 1930s, Amorsolo's work was exhibited widely both in the Philippines and abroad. His bright,optimistic, pastoral images set the tone for Philippine painting before World War II . Except for his darker World War II-era paintings, Amorsolo painted quiet and peaceful scenes throughout his career.

Amorsolo was sought after by influential Filipinos including Luis Araneta, Antonio Araneta and Jorge B. Vargas. Amorsolo also became the favourite Philippine artist of United States officials and visitors to the country. Due to his popularity, Amorsolo had to resort to photographing his works and pasted and mounted them in an album. Prospective patrons could then choose from this catalog of his works. Amorsolo did not create exact replicas of his trademark themes; he recreated the paintings by varying some elements.

His works later appeared on the cover and pages of children textbooks, in novels, in commercial designs, in cartoons and illustrations for the Philippine publications such The Independent, Philippine Magazine, Telembang, El Renacimiento Filipino, and Excelsior. He was the director of the University of the Philippine's College of Fine Arts from 1938 to 1952.

During the 1950s until his death in 1972, Amorsolo averaged to finishing 10 paintings a month. However, during his later years, diabetes, cataracts, arthritis, headaches, dizziness and the death of two sons affected the execution of his works. Amorsolo underwent a cataract operation when he was 70 years old, a surgery that did not impede him from drawing and painting.

After being confined at the St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City for two months, Amorsolo died  at the age of 79 on April 24, 1972. The volume of paintings, sketches and studies of Amorsolo is believed to have reached more than 10,000 pieces. Amorsolo was an important influence on contemporary Filipino art and artists, even beyond the so-called "Amorsolo school." Amorsolo's influence can be seen in many landscape paintings by Filipino artists, including early landscape paintings by abstract painter Federico Aguilar Alcuaz.

In 2003, Amorsolo's children founded the Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving Fernando Amorsolo's legacy, promoting his style and vision, and preserving a national heritage through the conservation and promotion of his works.

2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau