MOUNT VINSON BY U.S. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

US GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

Mount Vinson (4,892 m - 16,050 ft) 

Antartica - International condominium 

1. Colorized anonymus photo  (ca .1930)

2. Vinson Massif and Sentinel range Map.

The mountain 

Mount Vinson  (4,892 m -16,050 ft) is the highest peak in Antarctica  and it is part of the seven highest summits  in the world among:  

Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m),  Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko  (2,228m) in Australia. 

Mount Vinson lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres  north of Hollister Peak. It was first climbed in 1966. An expedition in 2001 was the first to climb via the Eastern route, and also took GPS measurements of the height of the peak. As of February 2010, 1,400 climbers have attempted to reach the top of Mount Vinson.

Vinson Massif  is a large mountain massif that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8.1 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by USACAN, for Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On Nov. 1, 2006, USACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities.
Climbing 

In 1963, two groups within the American Alpine Club, one led by Charles Hollister and Samuel C. Silverstein, M.D., then in New York, and the other led by Peter Schoening of Seattle, Washington, began lobbying the National Science Foundation to support an expedition to climb Mount Vinson. The two groups merged in spring 1966 at the urging of the National Science Foundation and the American Alpine Club, Nicholas Clinch was recruited by the American Alpine Club to lead the merged expeditions. Officially named the American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition 1966/67, the expedition was sponsored by the American Alpine Club and theNational Geographic Society,, and supported in the field by the U.S. Navy and the National Science Foundation Office of Antarctic Programs. Ten scientists and mountaineers participated in AAME 1966/67. In addition to Clinch they were Barry Corbet, John Evans (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN), Eiichi Fukushima (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), Charles Hollister, Ph.D. (Columbia University, New York, NY), William Long, Ph.D. (Alaska Methodist University, Anchorage, AK), Brian Marts, Peter Schoening, Samuel Silverstein, M.D. (Rockefeller University, New York, NY) and Richard Wahlstrom.

In the months prior to its departure for Antarctica the expedition received considerable press attention, primarily because of the reports that Woodrow Wilson Sayre was planning to fly in a Piper Apache piloted by Max Conrad, the "flying Grandfather", with four companions into the Sentinel Range to climb the Mount Vinson. Sayre had a reputation for problematic trips as a result of his unauthorized, unsuccessful, and nearly fatal attempt to climb Mount Everest from the North in 1962. His unauthorized incursion into Tibet led China to file an official protest with the U.S. State Department. In the end, the purported race did not materialize as Conrad had difficulties with his plane. According to press reports, he and Sayre were still in Buenos Aires on the day the first four members of AAME 1966/67 reached Mount Vinson's summit.

In December 1966 the Navy transported the expedition and its supplies from Christchurch, New Zealand to the U.S. base at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and from there in a ski-equipped C-130 Hercules to the Sentinel Range. All members of the expedition reached the summit of Mount Vinson. The first group of four climbers summited on December 18, 1966, four more on December 19, and the last three on December 20.

On August 17, 2006, from nomination by Damien Gildea of the Omega Foundation, US-ACAN approved naming the subsidiary peaks south of Mount Vinson for the AAME 1966/67 members Nicholas Clinch, Barry Corbet, Eiichi Fukushima, Charles Hollister, Brian Marts, Samuel Silverstein, Peter Schoening and Richard Wahlstrom. Other peaks in the Sentinel Range had previously been named for John Evans and William Long.

Gavin Bate ascending Mount Vinson in 2000

The climb of Vinson offers little technical difficulty beyond the usual hazards of travel in Antarctica, and as one of the Seven Summits, it has received much attention from well-funded climbers in recent years. Multiple guide companies offer guided expeditions to Mount Vinson, at a typical cost of around $30,000 per person, including transportation to Antarctica from Chile.

Reference

 - Mount Vinson Wikipedia Page 

MOUNT HUANGSHAN PAINTED BY SHITAO

SHITAO  - 石涛 (1641-1707)

Mount Huangshan (1,864 m - 6,115 ft) 

China

painted in 1670

The mountain

Huangshan -  黄山 is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. Vegetation on the range is thickest below 1,100 meters -3,600 ft), with trees growing up to the treeline at 1,800 meters -5,900 ft).   The Huangshan mountain range has many peaks, some more than 1,000 meters (3,250 feet) high. The three tallest and best-known peaks are Lotus Peak (Lian Hua Feng, 1,864 m), Bright Summit Peak (Guang Ming Ding, 1,840 m), and Celestial Peak (Tian Du Feng, literally Capital of Heaven Peak, 1,829 m). 

The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan pine trees, hot springs, winter snow, and views of the clouds from above. Much of Huangshan's reputation derives from its significance in Chinese arts and literature. In addition to inspiring poets such as Li Bai, Huangshan and the scenery therein has been the frequent subject of poetry and artwork, especially Chinese ink painting and, more recently, photography. Overall, from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20,000 poems were written about Huangshan, and a school of painting named after it. The mountains also have appeared in modern works. James Cameron, director of the 2009 film Avatar, cited Huangshan as one of his influences in designing the fictional world of that film.  The area also has been a location for scientific research because of its diversity of flora and wildlife. In the early part of the twentieth century, the geology and vegetation of Huangshan were the subjects of multiple studies by both Chinese and foreign scientists. The mountain is still a subject of research. For example, in the late twentieth century a team of researchers used the area for a field study of Tibetan macaques, a local species of monkey.

Huangshan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of China's major tourist destinations.  The World Heritage Site covers a core area of 154 square kilometres and a buffer zone of 142 square kilometres. In 2002, Huangshan was named the "sister mountain" of Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps.

The painter 

Shitao - 石涛 -  was a Chinese landscape painter and poet during the early part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).  Shitao was a member of the Ming royal house. He narrowly avoided catastrophe in 1644 when the Ming Dynasty fell to invading Manchurians and civil rebellion. Having escaped by chance from the fate to which his lineage would have assigned him, Shitao assumed the name Yuanji Shitao no later than 1651 when he became a Buddhist monk. He moved from Wuchang, where he began his religious instruction, to Anhui in the 1660s. Throughout the 1680s he lived in Nanjing and Yangzhou, and in 1690 he moved to Beijing to find patronage for his promotion within the monastic system. Frustrated by his failure to find a patron, Shitao converted to Daoism in 1693 and returned to Yangzhou where he remained until his death in 1707.

Shitao is one of the most famous individualist painters of the early Qing dynasty. The art he created was revolutionary in its transgressions of the rigidly codified techniques and styles that dictated what was considered beautiful.  Imitation was valued over innovation, and although Shitao was clearly influenced by his predecessors (namely Ni Zan and Li Yong), his art breaks with theirs in several new and fascinating ways. His formal innovations in depiction include drawing attention to the act of painting itself through his use of washes and bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, as well as an interest in subjective perspective and the use of negative or white space to suggest distance.  Shi Tao's stylistic innovations are difficult to place in the context of the period.  In a colophon dated 1686, Shitao wrote: "In painting, there are the Southern and the Northern schools, and in calligraphy, the methods of the Two Wangs (Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi). Zhang Rong (443–497) once remarked, 'I regret not that I do not share the Two Wangs' methods, but that the Two Wangs did not share my methods.' If someone asks whether I [Shitao] follow the Southern or the Northern School, or whether either school follows me, I hold my belly laughing and reply, 'I always use my own method!'"

The poetry and calligraphy that accompany his landscapes are just as beautiful, irreverent, and vivid as the paintings they complement. His paintings exemplify the internal contradictions and tensions of the literati or scholar-amateur artist, and they have been interpreted as an invective against art-historical canonization.

Reference: 

- Shitao Biography in China on line Museum 

THE WETTERHORN PAINTED BY JOSEPH A. KOCH

JOSEPH ANTON KOCH  (1768-1839)

Das Wetterhorn or Halse Jungfrau   (3,692m -12,113ft)

Switzerland

 Mit dem reichenbachtal,1824 - Museum Oscar Reinhart

The mountain 

The Wetterhorn (3,692m-12,113ft) in the  Bernese Alps, towers above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits of a mountain named Wetterhorn sensu lato, or the "Wetterhцrner", the highest summit of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 m) and the most distant the Rosenhorn (3,689 m). The Mittelhorn and Rosenhorn are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald. The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn.

Climbing 

The Wetterhorn summit was first reached on August 31, 1844, by the Grindelwald guides Hans Jaun and Melchior Bannholzer, three days after they had co-guided a large party organized by the geologist Edouard Desor to the first ascent of the Rosenhorn. The Mittelhorn was first summitted on 9 July 1845 by the same guides, this time accompanied by a third guide, Kaspar Abplanalp, and by Stanhope Templeman Speer. The son of a Scottish physician, Speer lived in Interlaken, Switzerland.

A September 1854 ascent by a party including Alfred Wills is much celebrated in Great Britain. Apparently believing to be the first ascendant, Wills' description of this trip in his book "Wanderings Among the High Alps" (published in 1856) helped make mountaineering fashionable in Britain and ushered in the systematic exploration of the Alps by British mountaineers, the so-called golden age of alpinism.  Despite several well-documented earlier ascents and the fact that he was guided to the top, even in his obituary in 1912 he was considered to be "certainly the first who can be said with any confidence to have stood upon the real highest peak of the Wetterhorn proper" (i.e. the 3,692 m summit).  In a subsequent corrigendum, the editors admitted two earlier ascents, but considered his still "the first completely successful" one.

In 1866, Lucy Walker was the first documented female ascendant of the peak.

The 24-year-old English mountaineer William Penhall and his Meiringen guide Andreas Maurer were killed by an avalanche high up on the Wetterhorn on 3 August 1882.

The famed guide and Grindelwald native Christian Almer climbed the mountain many times in his life, including on his first of many trips with Meta Brevoort and her nephew W. A. B. Coolidge in 1868. His last ascent was in 1898 at the age of 70 together with his wife to celebrate their golden anniversary on top.  Winston Churchill is also supposed  to have climbed the Wetterhorn in 1894.

The Wetterhorn summit was the intended terminal for the world's first passenger carrying aerial tramway, but only the first quarter was built. It was in operation until the beginning of World War I.

There are four "normal" routes, depending on direction and season. You will need rope, ax, crampons. Hundred years a ago, a cable car from Grindelwald (1200 m) in three stages was planned. The lowest part can still be seen and is an interesting reminder of the enthusiasm investors had before World War I.

Wetterhorn is neither a difficult, nor an easy mountain. Each access has its specialty. Three huts and  one bivouac are at your choice and if you are in good shape and can climb 2500 meters in one morning, you do not have to bother about huts. The choice of the huts varies according to the season. In summer you have two huts with extremely nice walks. Even if you do not succeed in climbing the Wetterhorn, you will like the view and the variation of the climb to the Dossen- or Gleckstein huts. If you have an inexperienced person or child with you, a short rope is

nice to have. Since the Wetterhorn can be seen from most mountains within 100 miles, the view is unique. Although everything up there is snow and ice, looking perpendicularly down to the green pastures of Grindelwald provides an unforgettable contrast.

The painter 

Joseph Anton Koch was an Austrian (Tyrol) painter of Neoclassicism and later the German Romantic movement; he is perhaps the most significant neoclassical landscape painter.

He   received academic training in the Karlsschule Stuttgart, a strict military academy. In 1791, he ran away, and traveled through France and Switzerland. He arrived in Rome in 1795. Koch was close to the painter Asmus Jacob Carstens and carried on Carstens' "heroic" art, at first in a literal manner. 

After 1800, Koch developed as a landscape painter.  In Rome, he espoused a new type of "heroic" landscape, revising the classical compositions of Poussin and Lorrain with a more rugged, mountainous scenery. In 1812, forced through inadequate income from his work, or in protest of the French invasion, he went to Vienna, where he worked prolifically. He stayed in Vienna until 1815. During this period, he incorporated more non-classical themes in his work.  In Vienna, he was influenced by Friedrich Schlegel and enthusiasts of old German art.  In response, his style became harsher. When returning to Rome, Koch became a conspicuous figure in the German artists' colony there.  He painted, among other works, the four frescoes in the Dante Room of the Villa Massimi (1824–29).  He wrote Moderne Kunstchronik oder die rumfordische Suppe gekocht und geschrieben von J. A. Koch (Stuttgart, 1834) which was directed humorously against unjustifiable criticism and false connoisseurship.  Koch's last years were spent in great poverty. He died in Rome,where he was buried in the Teutonic Cemetery, located next to St. Peter's Basilica within Vatican City.  He etched 20 Italian landscapes and a large sheet representing The Oath of the French at Millesimo; 14 pages after Dante, adding later another 30 pages (published Vicenza, 1904), and 36 pages after Ossian.  

He contributed American landscape scenes to the works of Alexander von Humboldt (1805).

PIC DU MIDI D'OSSAU PAINTED BY EMILE GODCHAUX

EMILE GODCHAUX (1860-1938) 

The Pic du Midi d'Ossau (2, 848 m - 9,462 ft) 

France 

 Painted in 1890

The mountain

The Pic du Midi d'Ossau (2, 848m-9,462 ft)  not to be confused with  the Pic du Midi de Bigorre is a mountain rising above the Ossau Valley in the French Pyrenees. Despite possessing neither a glacier nor, in the context of the range, a particularly high summit, its distinctive shape makes it a symbol of the French side of the Pyrenees. This familiar shape also makes it easily recognisable from afar, and it is particularly distinctive from the Boulevard des Pyrénées in Pau, some 55 km to the north.

The Pic du Midi d'Ossau lies within the commune of Laruns, in the département of Pyrénées Atlantiques and the Aquitaine region of France. It lies within the fully protected area of the Pyrenees National Park.  As normally seen from the north, the mountain presents itself as having two distinct peaks, although from the south two other summits are also visible. It stands separate from any surrounding peaks, being largely surrounded by the valleys of the Gave de Bious, to the west, and the Gave du Brousset, to the east. These two mountain streams come together in the hamlet of Gabas at the foot of the mountain's northern slopes, to form the Gave d'Ossau.

The valley of Ossau is placed in the Béarnaises Pyrénées, between la vallée d'Aspe and the Vallée de Gavarnie, from Rébénacq to the French-Spanish frontier (Col du Portalet). The Col d'Aubisque closes the valley to the east. The villages (from N to S) of the high Ossau are: Bilhères, Bielle, Béon, Bélesten, Gère-Bélesten, Aste-Béon, Louvie-Soubiron, Béost, Assouste, Aas, Laruns, Eaux-Bonnes, Gourette, Eaux-Chaudes, Goust, Gabas, Arouste-Fabréges and Pont de Camps.

The Pic du Midi d'Ossau was reputedly first climbed in 1552 by an expedition led by François de Foix-Candale, later to become the Bishop of Aire. Although the success of this first climb is disputed, it is known that the mountain had been successfully climbed by 1787 when a military surveyor noted that a triangulation cairn had been built on the summit. The first fully recorded climb was by Guillaume Delfau accompanied by Mathieu (a shepherd from Eaux-Bonnes) on October 2, 1797.

The mountain offers many routes of ascent; the voie normale is a serious scramble and rock climb with a grading of PD, II+, 550 m. It approaches the summit via the Refuge de Pombie, a Club Alpin Français owned mountain hut situated at 2,031 m - 6,663 ft, and requires most of a day to execute.

Two others refuges : Cabane Pyrenea Sports belonging to Société Pyrénées Sports at Pau, 25 places located on the NE shore of Lac de Bious-Artigues, and Cabane de Peyreget (1.950 m)

non guarded, 4 places located near Lac de Peyreget and W of Peyreget' little peak ridge. 

Reference 

 - Pic du Midi d'Ossau in Summitpost.org 

The painter 
 Emile Godchaux is a french painter born in 1860. He is  perhaps from the  same the family than the sculptor Roger Godchaux. He is often confused with an other painter from Lyon, Alfred Godchaux, who painted at the same time on similar themes and in a fairly close manner.
Emile Godchaux was well-known from the Bordeaux junk dealers around 1900,  due to the fact he used to sell  his paintings in public places, putting sometimes them in the lottery, the painting being then the jackpot of a series of 10 or 20 tickets for 1 franc !
His favorite themes were the ports, the cliffs of the Normandy coast, the animated Atlantic beaches and fishing boats, the mountainous landscapes taken on the ground in the Pyrenees and Savoie, Venice. His skies are often tumultuous. His characters in costumes of fishermen or farmers  of the end of the century. The material is beautiful, generous and dense, robust design in its schematic. The signing comes in two very different forms, one classic, a large and very readable layout, the other finely cut into the dough through a tip (some paintings bear two signatures). Some mystery still hangs over this prolific painter for which researches are ongoing.
Reference 
- Galerie du Palais Gallien 

MOSQUITO PASS PAINTED BY THOMAS MORAN

THOMAS MORAN (1837-1926)

Mosquito Pass  (4,019 m -13,185 ft)  

United States of America (Colorado)

Painted in 1874 

The mountain 

Mosquito Pass (4,019 m-13,185 ft), is a high mountain pass in the Mosquito Range of central Colorado in the United States. About the origin of the Mosquito pass name, there are lots of versions. One of the most popular says that just after nearby Montgomery was founded, gold was discovered high in the mountains above and gave rise to the town of Mosquito. The name came from a town meeting where a mosquito was crushed between pages of a book during the meeting. It was the only name they could agree on. 

Mosquito Pass is situated on the boundary between Lake and Park counties between Leadville (west) and Fairplay (east). It also lies on the divide between the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers, which is the informal demarcation between the northern and southern parts of Colorado east of the Continental Divide.

One of the highest passes in the state, Mosquito Pass can be traversed only on foot, on an off road motorcycle or with a proper four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle. 2WD vehicles will find the road difficult due to the stream crossings and high rocky sections. Even with 4WD, it is typically passable only during the summer months. The best time to attempt the pass is between late July and early September. With such a high summit altitude the road can be closed anytime due to snowfalls. The zone is prone to heavy mist and can be dangerous in low visibility conditions.

The pass is two way, so you could start at Fairplay or Leadville. Starting at the intersection of Highways 285 and 9 it heads towards Alma. There is a sign that marks the entrance to 'Mosquito Gulch' - turn left here (Colorado Highway 12). Proper preparation is essential to having a safe, enjoyable trop on this road. Due to the remoteness of the area, take special care to ensure that your vehicle is ready for the trip: inspect all tires and make sure they are properly inflated, check all vehicle fluids, replace worn hoses and belts, empty your RV's holding tank and fill the water tank, purchase groceries and supplies. For the vehicle, bring at least two full-sized spare tires mounted on rims, tire jack and tools for flat tires, emergency flares, extra gasoline, motor oil, and wiper fluid and a radio.

The pioneering Methodist circuit rider John Lewis Dyer crossed over Mosquito Pass several times a week during the 1860s, using snowshoes in winter, in his mission to spread the gospel. Father Dyer Peak is named in his honor.

Reference

- Mosquito Pass in Dangeruos roads website

The painter 

Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.

Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group.

Thomas Moran has a painting exhibited as part of the White House collection. In the photograph depicting President Barack Obama and Israeli President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office it is seen on the wall: the portrait of George Washington is between City of Washington From Beyond the Navy Yard (1833) by George Cooke (on the left) and The Three Tetons (1895) by Thomas Moran (on the right). 

Reference

- The National Gallery of Art, Washington 

THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR BY FRANCIS FRITH

FRANCIS FRITH  (1822-1898) 

 Rock of Gibraltar  (426 m -1,398 ft)
United Kingdom - Spain border

1.  In Rock of Gibraltar, photo Collodion  process, 1850 

2.  In Rock of Gibraltar by an anonymous painter, oil on canvas,  1810  

The mountain

The Rock of Gibraltar  (426 m -1,398 ft) in spanish : El Peсуn de Gibraltar, sometimes called by its original Latin name, Calpe, is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is 426 m (1,398 ft) high. The Rock is Crown property of the United Kingdom, and borders Spain. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. These macaques, as well as a labyrinthine network of tunnels, attract a large number of tourists each year.  The Rock of Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules and was known to the Romans as Mons Calpe, the other pillar being Mons Abyla or Jebel Musa on the African side of the Strait. In ancient times, the two points marked the limit to the known world, a myth originally fostered by the Greeks and the Phoenicians.

Gibraltar is not the southernmost point of Europe, which is the Punta de Tarifa, at 25 km southwest of Gibraltar, as the crow flies.  Gibraltar is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea and has no contact with the Atlantic Ocean.

The photographer

Francis Frith  was an English photographer of the Middle East and many towns in the United Kingdom. After attending a Quaker school, he started in the cutlery business and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1843.  In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward.  A successful grocer, and later, printer, Frith fostered an interest in photography, becoming a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853.  Frith sold his companies in 1855 in order to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He journeyed to the Middle East on three occasions, the first of which was a trip to Egypt in 1856 with very large cameras (16" x 20"). He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions.

During his travels he noted that tourists were the main consumers of the views of Italy, but armchair travellers bought scenes from other parts of the world in the hope of obtaining a true record, "far beyond anything that is in the power of the most accomplished artist to transfer to his canvas." These words express the ambitious goal that Frith set for himself when he departed on his first trip to the Nile Valley in 1856. He also made two other trips before 1860, extending his photo-taking to Palestine and Syria.  In addition to photography, he also kept a journal during his travels elaborating on the difficulties of the trip, commenting on the "smothering little tent" and the collodion fizzing - boiling up over the glass. Frith also noticed the compositional problems regarding the point of view from the camera. According to Frith, "the difficulty of getting a view satisfactorily in the camera: foregrounds are especially perverse; distance too near or too far; the falling away of the ground; the intervention of some brick wall or other common object... Oh what pictures we would make if we could command our point of views." An image he took known as the "Approach to Philae" is just one example which elaborates his ability to find refreshing photographic solutions to these problems. (cited from "A World History of Photography")

Reference: 

- Francis Frith official website 

GRAND MUVERAN PAINTED BY FERDINAND HODLER

FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918) 

Le Grand Muveran (3,051m - 10,009 ft)
Switzerland

1. Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 1912

2. Private collection, 1912

The mountain 

The Grand Muveran (3,051 m) is a Swiss summit, located on the border between Vaud and Valais canton. It is part of the range in the Bernese Alps and extends the Dents de Morcles to les Diablerets through the valley of Nant. This is the third highest peak in the canton of Vaud after Les Diablerets and Oldenhorn.  The Petit Muveran is a bit southwest and culminates at  (2,810m -9,21916 ft). 

The tips are easily recognizable from the north, the Grand Muveran forming a wide, solid wall and Little Muveran resembling a small tooth. They are visible from afar, the Chablais to the Lausanne area. Valais side, the Grand Muveran dominates Ovronnaz and can be seen from the plain to the height of Riddes.

The Grand Muveran was the subject of the  painting (above) by Ferdinand Hodler in 1912 and sold for a little over 1,5 million Swiss francs in 2003.

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

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

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

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

MOUNT MORAN PAINTED BY EDWARD HOPPER

EDWARD HOPPER (1882-1967)

Mount Moran (3,842 m -12,605 ft) 

 United States of America  (Wyoming)

The mountain
Mount Moran is a mountain in Grand Teton National Park of western Wyoming, USA. The mountain is named for Thomas Moran, an American western frontier landscape artist. Mount Moran dominates the northern section of the Teton Range rising 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above Jackson Lake.  Several active glaciers exist on the mountain with Skillet Glacier plainly visible on the monolithic east face. Like the Middle Teton in the same range, Mount Moran's face is marked by a distinctive basalt intrusion known as the Black Dike.

On November 21, 1950, a C-47 cargo plane owned by the New Tribes Mission crashed on Mount Moran during a storm, killing all 21 on board. A rescue party organized by Paul Petzoldt located the wreckage on November 25, but the extreme location of the crash made it impossible to recover the plane or the bodies. The wreckage remains on the mountain today, but the Park Service discourages direct climbs to the site.

Climbing

The first ascent of Mount Moran was made on July 22, 1922 by LeGrand Hardy, Bennet McNulty and Ben C. Rich of the Chicago Mountaineering Club via the Skillet Glacier route. The Skillet Glacier still provides perhaps the easiest and most direct route to the summit and is rated 5.4. As the name implies, most of the climb is on the steep snow and ice of Skillet Glacier, and an ice axe and crampons should be used in the ascent.

Mount Moran is an impressive mountain which would make it attractive to mountaineers.  However, the comparative difficulty of the approach to the climbs makes it a much less popular climb than the Grand Teton and other peaks to the south. No trails to Mount Moran have been maintained for over twenty years, and any approach overland requires a great deal of bushwhacking through vegetation, deadfalls and bogs along the perimeter of Leigh Lake. Instead, most climbers choose to canoe from String Lake, across Leigh Lake and then pick their way to their respective route; but even this may require some overland route finding. As a result, most climbs on Mount Moran tend to take several days even when the technical portion of the climb is comparatively brief.

The most popular route up Mount Moran is the CMC route, named for the Chicago Mountaineering Club. The CMC is rated 5.5, and ascends the east face just south of the Black Dike. The CMC climbs good rock and is essentially free of snow and ice. It also has the advantage of a good camp high on the flank of the mountain.  The Direct South Buttress route, rated 5.7 A3, is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.

References :
- Mount Moran in Summitpost.org 
- Wikipedia Moutn Moran Page

 The painter
Edward Hopper was a American realist painter and printmaker.

Conservative in politics and social matters (Hopper asserted for example that "artists' lives should be written by people very close to them"), he accepted things as they were and displayed a lack of idealism. Cultured and sophisticated, he was well-read, and many of his paintings show figures reading. He was generally good company and unperturbed by silences, though sometimes taciturn, grumpy, or detached. He was always serious about his art and the art of others, and when asked would return frank opinions.

Hopper's most systematic declaration of his philosophy as an artist was given in a handwritten note, entitled "Statement", submitted in 1953 to the journal, Reality:

"Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the human intellect for a private imaginative conception.

The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design.

The term life used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.

Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great."

Though Hopper claimed that he didn't consciously embed psychological meaning in his paintings, he was deeply interested in Freud and the power of the subconscious mind. He wrote in 1939: "So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect."

Hopper was stoic and fatalistic—a quiet introverted man with a gentle sense of humor and a frank manner. Hopper was someone drawn to an emblematic, anti-narrative symbolism, who "painted short isolated moments of configuration, saturated with suggestion".  His silent spaces and uneasy encounters "touch us where we are most vulnerable", and have "a suggestion of melancholy, that melancholy being enacted". His sense of color revealed him as a pure painter as he "turned the Puritan into the purist, in his quiet canvasses where blemishes and blessings balance".  According to critic Lloyd Goodrich, he was "an eminently native painter, who more than any other was getting more of the quality of America into his canvases".

Hopper derived his subject matter from two primary sources: one, the common features of American life (gas stations, motels, restaurants, theaters, railroads, and street scenes) and its inhabitants; and two, seascapes and rural landscapes, a few (2 or 3, not much)  mountains landscape. Regarding his style, Hopper defined himself as "an amalgam of many races" and not a member of any school, particularly the "Ashcan School".  Once Hopper achieved his mature style, his art remained consistent and self-contained, in spite of the numerous art trends that came and went during his long career.

Hopper's seascapes fall into three main groups: pure landscapes of rocks, sea, and beach grass; lighthouses and farmhouses; and sailboats. Sometimes he combined these elements.

Urban architecture and cityscapes also were major subjects for Hopper. He was fascinated with the American urban scene, "our native architecture with its hideous beauty, its fantastic roofs, pseudo-gothic, French Mansard, Colonial, mongrel or what not, with eye-searing color or delicate harmonies of faded paint, shouldering one another along interminable streets that taper off into swamps or dump heaps."

References

-  Edward Hopper Wikipedia Page 

THE JUNGFRAU PAINTED BY JOHN MARTIN

JOHN MARTIN (1789-1854)

The Jungfrau  (4,158 m -13,642 ft)

Switzerland

 In Manfred on the Jungfrau, 1837

The mountain 

The Jungfrau (4,158m -13,642 ft)) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mцnch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.

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

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

Reference :

- Official Website of Interalken and Jungfrau.

The Painter 

John Martin was an English Romantic painter, engraver and illustrator. He was celebrated for his typically vast and melodramatic paintings of religious subjects and fantastic compositions, populated with minute figures placed in imposing landscapes. Martin's paintings, and the engravings made from them, enjoyed great success with the general public—in 1821 Lawrence referred to him as "the most popular painter of his day"—but were lambasted by Ruskin and other critics.

His first exhibited subject picture, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (now in the St. Louis Art Museum), was hung in the Ante-room of the Royal Academy in 1812, and sold for fifty guineas. The piece depicts a scene from the Tales of Two Genii" It was followed by the Expulsion (1813), Adam's First Sight of Eve (1813), Clytie (1814), Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon (1816) and The Fall of Babylon (1819). In 1820 appeared his Belshazzar's Feast, which excited much favourable and hostile comment, and was awarded a prize of Ј200 at the British Institution, where the Joshua had previously carried off a premium of Ј100. Then came The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1822), The Creation (1824), the Eve of the Deluge (1840), and a series of other Biblical and imaginative subjects. The Plains of Heaven is thought by some to reflect his memories of the Allendale of his youth.

Martin's large paintings were closely connected with contemporary dioramas or panoramas, popular entertainments in which large painted cloths were displayed, and animated by the skilful use of artificial light. Martin has often been claimed as a forerunner of the epic cinema. These dioramas were tremendous successes with their audiences, but wounded Martin's reputation in the serious art world.The painting The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 1852 is currently at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.

MYTIKAS (MOUNT OLYMPUS) PAINTED BY EDWARD LEAR

EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888) 

Mytikas -Mount Olympus (2, 918 m- 9,573 ft)

Greece

Painted in 1849 - The MET, New York 

The mountain

Mount Olympus or Olympos, or Oros Olympos is the highest mountain in Greece and the second highest mountain in the Balkans.  Mount Olympus has 52 peaks, deep gorges, and exceptional biodiversity.  The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,918 m -9,573 ft. It is one of the highest peaks in Europe in terms of topographic prominence.  It is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km (50 mi) southwest from Thessaloniki. 

There are multiple theories for the origin of the name Olympus. It has been suggested that it means "sky", "bright", "high" or "rock". One theory holds that Olympus is a prehellenic toponym that simply means "mountain". In Ottoman times, the Turkish name for the mountain was "Semavat Evi", meaning "sky house".

Olympus was notable in Greek mythology as the home of the  the Twelve Olympian gods, on the Mytikas peak.   It is the setting of many Greek mythical stories. The Twelve Olympian gods lived in the gorges, where there were also their palaces. Pantheon (today Mytikas) was their meeting place and theater of their stormy discussions. The Throne of Zeus (today Stefani) hosted solely him, the leader of the gods. From there he unleashed his thunderbolts, expressing his godly wrath. The Twelve Olympians were Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, and the twelfth was either Hestia or Dionysus.  In Pieria, on Olympus' northern foot, the mythological tradition had placed the nine Muses, patrons of the Fine Arts, daughters of Zeus and the Titanide Mnemosyne: Calliope (Epic Poetry), Clio (History), Erato (Love Poetry), Euterpe (Music), Melpomene, (Tragedy), Polyhymnia (Hymns), Terpsichore (Dance), Thalia (Comedy) and Urania (Astronomy).

Mount Olympus is also noted for its very rich flora with several species. It has been a National Park, the first in Greece, since 1938. It is also a World's Biosphere Reserve.

Every year thousands of people visit Olympus to admire its fauna and flora, to tour its slopes, and reach its peaks. Organized mountain refuges and various mountaineering and climbing routes are available to visitors who want to explore it. The usual starting point is the town of Litochoro, on the eastern foothills of the mountain, 100 km from Thessaloniki, where, in the beginning of every summer, the Olympus Marathon terminates.

Climbing 

Ancient Greeks likely never tried to climb Olympus' peaks Pantheon and the Throne of Zeus which they considered to be the Gods ' home. But surely they reached the nearest peak, nowadays called Aghios Antonios, from where they had a view of the two peaks and where they left offerings, as recent archaeological findings indicate. 

In the modern era, a series of explorers tried to study the mountain and to reach, unsuccessfully, its summit. Examples include the French archaeologist Leon Heuzey (1855), the German explorer Heinrich Barth (1862), and the German engineer Edward Richter. Richter tried to reach the summit in 1911 but was abducted by klephts, who also killed the Ottoman gendarmes that accompanied him.

On 2 August 1913,  just one year after the liberation of Greece from Ottoman rule,  the until then untrodden summit of Olympus was finally reached. The Swiss Frédéric Boissonnas and Daniel Baud-Bovy, aided by a hunter of wild goats from Litochoro, Christos Kakalos, were the first to reach Greece's highest peak.  Kakalos, who had much experience climbing Olympus, was the first of the three to climb Mytikas.  Afterwards and till his death (1976) he was the official guide of Olympus.

In 1921, he and Marcel Kurz reached the second highest summit of Olympus, Stefani.  Based on these explorations, Kurz in 1923 edited Le Mont Olympe, a book that includes the first detailed map of the summits.

 In 1928, the painter Vasilis Ithakisios climbed Olympus together with Kakalos, reaching a cave that he named Shelter of the Muses, and he spent many summers painting views of the mountain. Olympus was later photographed and mapped in detail by others, and a series of successful climbings and winter ascents of the steepest summits in difficult weather conditions took place.

Climbing Mount Olympus is a non-technical hike, except for the final section from the Skala summit to the Mytikas peak, which is a YDS class 3 rock scramble. It is estimated that 10,000 people climb Mount Olympus each year, most of them reaching only the Skolio summit. Most climbs of Mount Olympus start from the town of Litochoro, which took the name City of Gods because of its location at the foot of the mountain. From there a road goes to Prionia, where the hike begins at the bottom of the mountain.

Reference 

 - Mount Olympus in Encyclopedia Britannica 

The painter 

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.

Lear was already drawing "for bread and cheese" by the time he was aged 16.

In 1842,  Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through

the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.  In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments. Of particular interest in Lear was the Abruzzo, which he visited in 1843, through the Marsica (Celano, Avezzano, Alba Fucens, Trasacco) and the plateau of Cinque Miglia (Castel di Sangro and Alfedena), by an old sheep track of the shepherds.

Among his travels, he visited Greece and Egypt during 1848–49, and toured India and Ceylon during 1873–75. While travelling he produced large quantities of coloured wash drawings in a distinctive style, which he converted later in his studio into oil and watercolour paintings, as well as prints for his books. His landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour.  Between 1878 and 1883 Lear spent his summers on Monte Generoso, a mountain on the border between the Swiss canton of Ticino and the Italian region of Lombardy.  His watercolor Mount Olympus dated 1849 in in the MET in New York City.  His oil painting The Plains of Lombardy from Monte Generoso is in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford (UK).
Reference 

- Edward Lear  /Wikipedia Page 

SCHRECKHORN PAINTED BY JOHN SINGER SARGENT

JOHN SINGER SARGENT  (1856-1925)

Schreckhorn (4,078 m -13,379 ft)

Switzerland

 The MET, New York 

The mountain 

The Schreckhorn (4,078 m -13,379 ft)   is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Berne Eastern Bernese Oberlands Alps, between Grimsel and the Fiescher and Eismeer Glaciers.  It forms with Lauteraarhorn an impressive double-summit. The Schreckhorn is the northernmost Alpine four-thousander and the northernmost summit rising above 4,000 metres in Europe, considered as  the most rugged and hardest 4.000 meter mountain in the Bernese Alps. 

This mountain is hard to approach, regardless from which side. In this point we can compare Schreckhorn with mountains like Aiguille Verte or La Dent Blanche.

The first ascent was on 16 August 1861 by Leslie Stephen, Ulrich Kaufmann, Christian Michel and Peter Michel. Their route of ascent, via the upper Schreck Couloir to the Schrecksattel and then by the south-east ridge, was the normal route for the following fifty years, but is now seldom used.

The peak had been attempted several times before this, most notably by the Swiss naturalist Joseph Hugi in 1828 (the Schreckhorn's Hugisattel is named after him) and the guided party of Pierre Jean Edouard Desor (a Swiss geologist) in 1842. 'The ambition of hoisting the first flag on the Schreckhorn, the one big Bernese summit which was untrodden, was far too obvious for us to resist', Desor later wrote, but they climbed a secondary summit of the Lauteraarhorn by mistake.

The first ascent by the south-west ridge (AD+) – the normal route by which the Schreckhorn is climbed – was made by John Wicks, Edward Branby and Claude Wilson on 26 July 1902. They decided to climb the very steep ridge without the help of local guides and succeeded in reaching the summit. The north-west ridge (the Andersongrat, D) was first climbed by John Stafford Anderson and George Percival Baker, with guides Ulrich Almer and Aloys Pollinger on 7 August 1883.

The painter 

John Singer Sargent  was an American artist who  created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Switzerland, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

He was trained in Paris prior to moving to London. Sargent enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, but  in later life he expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe.  Each destination offered pictorial stimulation and treasure.  Even at his leisure, in escaping the pressures of the portrait studio, he painted with restless intensity, often painting from morning until night.  His hundreds of watercolors of Venice are especially notable, many done from the perspective of a gondola. His colors were sometimes extremely vivid and as one reviewer noted, "Everything is given with the intensity of a dream." In the Middle East and North Africa Sargent painted Bedouins, goatherds, and fisherman. In the last decade of his life, he produced many watercolors in Maine, Florida, and in the American West, of fauna, flora, and native peoples.

With his watercolors, Sargent was able to indulge his earliest artistic inclinations for nature, architecture, exotic peoples, and noble mountain landscapes. And it is in some of his late works where one senses Sargent painting most purely for himself. His watercolors were executed with a joyful fluidness.   His first major solo exhibit of watercolor works was at the Carfax Gallery in London in 1905. In 1909, he exhibited eighty-six watercolors in New York City, eighty-three of which were bought by the Brooklyn Museum. Evan Charteris wrote in 1927: 'To live with Sargent's water-colours is to live with sunshine captured and held, with the luster of a bright and legible world, 'the refluent shade' and 'the Ambient ardours of the noon.'

Although not generally accorded the critical respect given Winslow Homer, perhaps America's greatest watercolorist, scholarship has revealed that Sargent was fluent in the entire range of opaque and transparent watercolor technique, including the methods used by Homer. 

2016 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

TRIGLAV PAINTED BY MARCUS PERNHART

MARCUS  PERNHART (1824-1871)

 Triglav (2,864m - 9,396 ft)  

Slovenia 

1.  In Triglav in the mist, oil on canvas,  Landesmuseum für Kärnten

2. In Triglav in sunset, oil on canvas,  Landesmuseum für Kärnten

The mountain 

Triglav (2,864m - 9,396 ft), is the highest mountain in Slovenia and the highest peak of the Julian Alps. The mountain is the pre-eminent symbol of the Slovene Nation. A stylized depiction of Triglav's distinctive shape with its three peaks  is the central element of the Slovene coat of arms, designed by the sculptor Marko Pogačnik, and is in turn featured on the flag of Slovenia. Slovenia is the only country in Europe and one of the few in the world to feature a mountain on its coat-of-arms. Formerly, it was featured on the coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. The first to depict Triglav as the symbol of the Slovenes was the architect Joћe Plečnik, who in 1934 put it besides other coats-of-arms of the nations of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on the coat of the statue of the Mother of God in front of the parish church in Bled.

During World War II, the stylised Triglav was the symbol of the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation resistance movement. The distinctive three-pronged caps worn by Slovene Partisans during World War II were known as triglavkas. A relief map of the mountain is the design on the national side of the Slovene 50 eurocent coin.

An old map from 1567, referes to Triglav as Ocra mons, whereas Johann Weikhard von Valvasor named it Krma in the second half of the 17th century. According to the German mountaineer and professor Adolf Gstirner, the name Triglav first appeared in written sources as Terglau in 1452, but the original source has been lost. The next known occurrence of Terglau is cited by Gstirner and is from a court description of the border in 1573.  The name is derived from the compound *Tri-golvъ (literally 'three-head' or , 'three peaks'), which may be understood literally because the mountain has three peaks when viewed from much of Upper Carniola. It is unlikely that the name has any connection to the Slavic deity Triglav. 

The painter 
Marcus (or Markus) Pernhart was a Carinthian  / Slovenian / Austrian painter. He is considered the first Slovene realistic landscape painter. He painted several times Triglav.
At  barely 12 years, he painted the guest rooms of Krajcar Restaurant between Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt. The innkeeper made, the bishop's chaplain Henr. Hermann discovered the talented boys. At 15, he trained in painting first with Andreas Hauser in Klagenfurt. Hermann supported him further and introduced him to his patron, the Gorizia Archbishop Francis Xavier Luzhin.  Through this he got contact with the Viennese art scene, particularly to Franz Steinfeld, who taught at the Academy of Fine Arts. It was forwarded to the Munich Academy, but soon returned to Carinthia. There he was promoted by his stage name Pernhart the famous landscape painter of his time.
When Pernharts drawing style had fully developed, he was asked by Max from Moro to draw all Castles Carinthia. The idea was to these buildings if they could often for financial reasons can not be obtained, at least to preserve the picture, thereby preserving from decay. Markus Pernhart does not disappoint its customers and held in pencil drawings smallest details of the well-preserved, but also the already partly decayed plants firmly. Already in 1853, he produced 40 drawings followed by 198 others, he property of the Historical Association for Carinthia. In 1855  he gave the Carinthian estates Empress Elisabeth, an album of 21 drawings to which Max Moro contributed. Entitled images from Carinthia  appeared  in 1863-1868 in deliveries as steel engravings with accompanying. After his death appeared 5 lithographic panoramic images (Klagenfurt in 1875 and 1889).
His entire painted oeuvre consists of approximately 1,200  paintings, drawings and enrgavings that delight even after his death a large appreciation.
Pernhart presented landscapes, preferably lakes and high mountain motifs or castles, but also animals and still life subjects, in an idyllic and pathetic style. His works can be seen against the background of an incipient leisure society, they lead before the regional status objects of his home.

PITON DE LA FOURNAISE BY J- B. BORY DE SAINT VINCENT

JEAN-BAPTISTE BORY DE SAINT VINCENT  (1778-1846)

Le Piton de la Fournaise  (2,632 m -8,635 ft)

 France  (Ile de la Réunion)

 Drawing view"as the crow flies" of the peak of the Furnace after the eruption of 1801

The mountain 

Piton de la Fournaise (Peak of the Furnace) is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Réunion island (a French department) in the Indian Ocean. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world, along with Kilauea in the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Ocean), Stromboli, Etna (Italy) and Mount Erebus in Antarctica. A previous eruption began in August 2006 and ended in January 2007. The volcano erupted again in February 2007, on 21 September 2008, on 9 December 2010, which lasted for two days and on 1 August 2015 A. An other one on 26 May 2016 ... the very last eruption just begun yesterday,  11 Septembre 2016. 

The volcano is located within Réunion National Park, a World Heritage site.

Piton de la Fournaise is often known locally as le Volcan (The Volcano); it is a major tourist attraction on Réunion island.  Due to his activity, the Piton de la Fournaise is constantly monitored by geophysical sensors (tiltmeters, extensometers, differential GPS receivers, etc.).  The data from those various sensors is sent to the Piton de la Fournaise Volcano Observatory, located in Bourg-Murat, northwest of the volcano.  The observatory, founded in 1978 following the Piton-Sainte-Rose flow, is operated by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Global Geophysics Institute of Paris), in association with CNRS ( National Institute of Scientific Resarch)  and the University of Réunion. The OVPF often publishes reports on Piton de la Fournaise's current activity via their website in French. RIGIC (the Réunion Island Geological Information Center) takes this information and translates it into English for distribution to the English-speaking scientific.

Climbing

A high quality forestry road, followed by a track (with lots of bumps), connects the highway of the plains in Bourg-Murat to the Pas de Bellecombe (Bellecombe Pass), where a parking lot and a snack bar are available to visitors.  The Pas de Bellecombe is situated over the caldera rim cliffs and offers a good point of view over the northeast part of the caldera.

A good stairway path descends from the pass to the caldera floor.  This path is closed for safety reasons during seismic events that may precede eruptions and during eruptions. White paint marks over rocks delimit a number of footpaths ascending the lava shield inside the caldera.  Visitors exploring the caldera should be in good physical condition, with hiking shoes and a supply of drinking water and food. They must be prepared to exercise caution, for the weather can change very quickly, moving from bright sunlight and heat (with risks of heatstroke) to dense fog with cold and rain. In dense fog, straying from paths is very risky. Visitors are advised to take the necessary precautions for sun, heat, cold and rain and not to stray from marked paths.  An excellent, albeit expensive, way to get a good sight of the volcano is to ride in the tourist helicopter flights offered by commercial companies on the island The lower parts of the Grand Brûlé can be visited from the N2 highway.  Lava flows that have crossed the road are indicated by signs.

Completely free access during eruptions was permitted until 1998; access has been limited since that date, being virtually banned at present.

The painter  

Jean-Baptiste Genevieve Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent is a French officer, naturalist and geographer, who was mainly interested in volcanology, botany and systematic.

During the las years of the 18th century (particularly agitated in France) , he learned the departure of a scientific expedition organized by the government and gets the job of chief zoologist aboard a participating corvettes then met Bernard Germain de Lacépède. Thus, after leaving the army, Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent left Paris on September 30, arrived in Le Havre on 2 October and leaves town aboard one of the ships that captain Nicolas Baudin took  around the world from 1800 to 1804.  He stopped in Mauritius in March 1801.  From there, he reached l'Ile de la Réunion (ex Bourbon Island) where he performed in October and November 1801 ( "An X" in the Revolutionary Calendar)  the rise and the first general scientific description of the Piton de la Fournaise, the active volcano of the island.  It gives the name of the scientist Dolomieu he just learned the death to  one of the craters he describes as a nipple. It gives its own name to the  crater of the summit.  Back in France in 1802, he published Voyage dans les îles d'Afrique (Travel in african Islands). He continued his scientific career in parallel to a military career: he was elected correspondent of the Museum in August 1803 and the "correspond of  first class" of the Institute de France in the spring of 1808. In 1804, he published  Essais sur les iles fortunées  (Essay on the wealthy islands) et Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d'Afrique (Travel in the four main islands of the African seas). The articles, written by international scientific luminaries, were illustrated by  lithographs printed by Duval Mercourt then Marcellin Jobard.  In 1828, he was appointed to head the commission scientific exploration of Morea, held in 1829-1830. In 1830 he appeared in an election to become a member of the Institute after the death of Lamarck. He died in 1846 а Paris and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery (49th division).