MOUNT MONADNOCK BY ABBOTT HANDERSON THAYER

ABBOTT HANDERSON THAYER (1849 -1921)

Monadnock  mountain  (965m - 3, 125ft) 

United States of America  (New Hampshire)  

1. In Mount Monadnock- Winter Sunrise, 1919

2.  In Mount Monadnock- Winter , 1904

The mountain 
Mount Monadnock (965m - 3, 125ft)  or Grand Monadnock is a mountain in the New England state of New Hampshire. It is the most prominent mountain peak in southern New Hampshire and is the highest point in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. It has long been known as one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world. The word "monadnock" is an Abenaki-derived word used to describe a mountain. Loosely translated it means "mountain that stands alone", although the exact meaning of the word (what kind of mountain) is uncertain. The term was adopted by early settlers of southern New Hampshire and later by American geologists as an alternative term for an Inselberg or isolated mountain. Mount Monadnock is often called Grand Monadnock, to differentiate it from other Vermont and New Hampshire peaks with "Monadnock" in their names. Its official name on federal maps is "Monadnock Mountain".
Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau visited the mountain and wrote fondly of it. Emerson was a frequent visitor, and made the mountain the subject of "Monadnoc", one of his most famous poems. Thoreau visited the mountain four times between 1844 and 1860 and spent a great deal of time observing and cataloging natural phenomena. He is regarded as having written one of the first serious naturalist inventories of the mountain. A bog near the summit of Mount Monadnock and a rocky lookout off the Cliff Walk trail are named after him; another lookout is named after Emerson.
Mount Monadnock is nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) higher than any other mountain peak within 30 miles (48 km) and rises 2,000 feet (610 m) above the surrounding landscape. Mount Monadnock, 62 miles (100 km) northwest of Boston and 38 miles (61 km) southwest of Concord, is located within the towns of Jaffrey and Dublin, New Hampshire.
Monadnock's bare, isolated, and rocky summit provides expansive views. A number of hiking trails ascend the mountain, including the 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and the 50-mile (80 km) Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway.
The earliest recorded ascent of Mount Monadnock took place in 1725 by Captain Samuel Willard and fourteen rangers under his command who camped at the top and used the summit as a lookout while patrolling for Native Americans. Before the practice came to be frowned upon, many early hikers carved their names in the summit; the earliest such engraving reads "S. Dakin, 1801" and is attributed to a local town clerk. Notable "power hiking" records associated with the mountain include that of Garry Harrington, who hiked to the summit 16 times in a 24-hour period, and Larry Davis, who claimed to have hiked to the summit daily for 2,850 consecutive days (7.8 years).
Monadnock is often claimed to be the second-most frequently climbed mountain in the world, after Mount Fuji in Japan. Monadnock is climbed by 125,000 hikers yearly, while Mount Fuji sees 200,000-300,000 hikers yearly.  However, according to UNESCO, neither mountain comes close in climbing popularity to Tai Shan in China, with more than 2 million visitors a year.

The painter 
Abbott Handerson Thayer was an American artist, naturalist and teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, and his paintings are represented in the major American art collections. He is perhaps best known for his 'angel' paintings, some of which use his children as models.
During the last third of his life, he worked together with his son, Gerald Handerson Thayer, on a major book about protective coloration in nature, titled Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom. First published by Macmillan in 1909, then reissued in 1918, it may have had an effect on military camouflage during World War I. However it was roundly mocked by Theodore Roosevelt and others for its assumption that all animal coloration is cryptic. Thayer also influenced American art through his efforts as a teacher, training apprentices in his New Hampshire studio.
Thayer is sometimes referred to as the "father of camouflage". While he did not invent camouflage, he was one of the first to write about disruptive patterning to break up an object's outlines, about masquerade, as when a butterfly mimics a leaf (though here he was anticipated by Bates, Wallace, and Poulton), and especially about countershading.

THE KRIPPENSTEIN PAINTED BY JOSEF THOMA

JOSEF THOMA (1828-1899)

 The Krippenstein  (2,108 m - 6,916 ft) 

Austria 

In view from the  Pfaffengföll over Lake Hallstätt, with the Krippenstein in the background.

The mountain 
The Krippenstein (2,108 m - 6,916 ft) is a popular mountain on the northern edge of the Dachstein mountain range in Upper Austria. The Krippenstein has the form of a double summit: the high Krippenstein is located at a distance of 500 meters (1,640ft)  from a very rocky summit of 2,034 m, (667 3ft) which hosts a mast and a pioneer cross. Not far from the main peak, a mountain chapel has been built. The lime floor of the mountain rises directly above Lake Hallstatt (508 m), with a difference in altitude of 1600m over the lake. It was the first of the 2 thousands peaks in Austria where a cable car was developed(in 1947;  the center station of the cable car  going from Obertraun to the southern part of the Dachstein range. In 2007, the two sections between Obertraun and the Krippenstein (Mittelstation Schönbergalm) were renewed for a cost of 10 million euros. The official opening of the renewed Dachstein-Krippensteinbahn took place on 12 January 2008.
In connection with the appointment of the Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut region as an UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, some new facilities were also built on the Krippenstein. The view over the Dachstein peaks was declared as "World Heritage Views". At the top of the main peak of the Krippenstein, an observation deck was built with a spiral staircase, the "World Heritage Spiral". It has the shape of a ship and is surrounded by sun loungers.

The painter 
Not a lot of  biographical details about this Austrian painter who used to signed his paintings Josef Thoma the Younger or  Josef the Younger Thoma. Josef Thoma was born in 1828 and died in 1899. Many works by the artist have been sold at auction,  at Christie's New York ($15,000), in France, Austria and all over Europe. A pupil of his father and at the Vienna Academy, Josef Thoma was a painter of scenes of hunting, animated landscapes, urban landscapes and mountain. He likes to include water in his compositions. Many of his works, typical of the 19th century Austrian academic style are in the Vienna Museum.

Dear reader of this blog, you can suggest a biography if you know one,  by using the contact form. 

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 (n°33 f) BY HOKUSAI

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAÏ (1760-1849) 

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)
Japan

Red Fuji 1829-33, n°33  from the series 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, early print
Ritsumeikan University, Japan

About the 36 Views of Mt Fuji 

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) is a series of landscape prints　created by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760?1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions. The original thirty-six prints were so popular that Hokusai expanded the series by ten.
The earliest impressions appear faded when compared to the versions usually seen, but are closer to Hokusai's original conception. The original prints have a deliberately uneven blue sky, which increases the sky's brightness and gives movement to the clouds. The peak is brought forward with a halo of Prussian blue. Subsequent prints have a strong, even blue tone and the printer added a new block, overprinting the white clouds on the horizon with light blue. Later prints also typically employ a strong benigara (Bengal red) pigment, which lent the painting its common name of Red Fuji. The green block colour was recut, lowering the meeting point between forest and mountain slope.
Red Fuji is a second impression of  凱風快晴, South Wind Clear Sky. 

The artist
Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎)  was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.
Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji " both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. In this series, Mt Fuji is painted on different meteorological conditions, in different hours of the days, in different seasons and from different places.

The mountain 
This is the legendary Mount Fuji or Fujiyama (富士山).
It is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). Several names are attributed to it:  "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Usually Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san".  The other Japanese names for Mount Fuji,  have become obsolete or poetic like: Fuji-no-Yama (ふじの山 - The Mountain of Fuji), Fuji-no-Takane (ふじの高嶺- The High Peak of Fuji), Fuyō-hō (芙蓉峰 - The Lotus Peak), and Fugaku (富岳／富嶽), created by combining the first character of 富士, Fuji, and 岳, mountain.
Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day.
Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
Mount Fuji is one of Japan's Three Holy Mountains (三霊山) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.
It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013. As per UNESCO, Mount Fuji has “inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries”. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mt. Fuji locality. These 25 locations include the mountain itself, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Shrine and six other Sengen shrines, two lodging houses, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Kawaguchi, the eight Oshino Hakkai hot springs, two lava tree molds, the remains of the Fuji-kō cult in the Hitoana cave, Shiraito Falls, and Miho no Matsubara pine tree grove; while on the low alps of Mount Fuji lies the Taisekiji temple complex, where the central base headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism is located.

MONT COUDON PAINTED BY OTHON FRIESZ

OTHON FRIESZ (1879 -1949) 

Mont Coudon  (702 m - 2, 303 ft) 

France (Var) 

The mountain 

Mont Coudon (702 m - 2, 303ft) is one of the three main mountains of a range called Monts Toulonnais in the Var region in the south of France, near the city harbour of Toulon and La Valette-du-Var.  The Monts Toulonnais are the general appellation of the numerous mountains around Toulon. The highest is Mount Caume (804 m-2,638ft), the least high is the massif of Cape Sicié (358 m) -1,174ft). The Monts toulonnais are also composed of the Baou de Quatre Oures, the Gros-Cerveau (The Big Brain), Mount Faron, which is the best known, and finally Mount Coudon. 

The summit of Mont Coudon is banned from access because it houses at its summit the Fort Girardon, a very important military base of the "Mediterranean" Navy. The Alps are visible for many days in the year, especially on strong Mistral wind days during which the weather is clear.  In November and only during one and three days in the year, it is possible to see the Corsican peaks by atmospheric reverberation. The panorama is hidden to the west by Mount Faron and Mount Caume.

The Coudon represents the end of the range of the Monts Toulonnais, which begin in the vicinity of Bandol to finish in a peak on the town of La Valette-du-Var. It is of calcareous constitution. 

The writer George Sand ascended  Mount Coudon on May 21, 1861, and mentions it in his diary, Voyage dit du Midi, as well as in the work Tamaris. The ascent is 6.1 km long and has a vertical drop of 438 meters for an average slope of 7.2%.

The painter 

Achille-Émile Othon Friesz who later called himself Othon Friesz, and used to sign his paintings E. Othon Friesz, a native of Le Havre, was a French artist of the Fauvist movement.  While he was at the Lycée, he met his lifelong friend Raoul Dufy. He and Dufy studied at the Le Havre School of Fine Arts in 1895-96 and then went to Paris together for further study. In Paris, Friesz met Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault. Like them, he rebelled against the academic teaching of Bonnat and became a member of the Fauves, exhibiting with them in 1907. The following year, Friesz returned to Normandy and to a much more traditional style of painting, since he had discovered that his personal goals in painting were firmly rooted in the past. He opened his own studio in 1912 and taught until 1914 at which time he joined the army for the duration of the war. He resumed living in Paris in 1919 and remained there, except for brief trips to Toulon and the Jura Mountains, until his death in 1949. During the last thirty years of his life, he painted in a style very far from that of his earlier colleagues and his contemporaries. Having abandoned the lively arabesques and brilliant colors of his Fauve years, Friesz returned to the more sober palette he had learned in Le Havre from his professor Charles Lhuillier and to an early admiration for Poussin, Chardin, and Camille Corot. He painted in a manner that respected Paul Cézanne's ideas of logical composition, simple tonality, solidity of volume, and distinct separation of planes. A faint baroque flavor adds vigor to his  landscapes, still lifes, and figure paintings.

MOUNT UGO PAINTED BY FERNANDO AMORSOLO

FERNANDO AMORSOLO (1882-1972)

Mount Ugo (2, 150m - 7, 053 ft)

Philippines 

The mountain 

Mount Ugo (2, 150m - 7, 053 ft) sometimes called Mount Ugu, is a mountain located in Province of Nueva Vizcaya, Cagayan Valley, Philippines.  The name “Ugo” was derived from an Ibaloi word “Ugo-an” (“to cut the neck”). This is probably because the mountain was an area where the indigenous used to killed the invading Spaniards by cutting their neck. Contrary to the brutal origin of its name, Mount Ugo can be perceived as a landmark that showcases the people’s culture and beliefs.

Mount Ugo is one of the picturesque mountains of this mountain range. It is one of the most known climbing destinations in the country. Ugo is said to be one of the higher mountains in the Cordillera. At the peak, it presents a spectacular view of other Cordillera mountains, including the 2 of the highest peaks in Luzon (Mt. Pulag and Mt. Tabayoc).

Many mountain-enthusiasts and adventure-seekers have proven that Mt. Ugo is unquestionably a great hiking destination. The climb to Mount Ugo usually takes 2 – 3 days depending on how much you would like to enjoy your trekking. During our time, we allotted 3 days for the entire climb.

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...
- More about Fernando Amorsolo 

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE SASSOLUNGO IN VINTAGE POSTCARD 1930

VINTAGE POSTCARDS

The Sassolungo (3, 181m - 10,436 ft)

  Italy 

 Photo by Fotografia Ghedina, Cortina d'Ampezzo. Circa 1930's.

The Mountain

The Sassolungo (3, 181m - 10,436 ft) which means literally "Long Stone", also known as Langkofel in German is a summit of the Alps, in the Dolomites (Trentino-Alto Adige). The Sassolungo is a complex mountain with high slopes and many secondary summits : Sasso Levante or Punta Grohmann (3,126 m -10,256 ft) ;  Punta delle Cinque Dita or Fünffingerspitze (2,998 m - 9,8360 ft) ; Sasso Piatto  or Plattkofel (2,958 m - 9,7080 ft) and Campanile Comici.
Climbing
- 1869 - First climb by Paul Grohmann, Franz Innerkofler and Peter Salcher
- 1890 - First ascent of the Punta delle Cinque Dita by Robert Hans Schmitt and Johann Santner
- 1936 - North face by Gino Soldá and Augusto Bertoldi
- 1940 - North Pillar by E. Esposito and G. Butta
- 1940 - Ascension of Campanile Comici by Emilio Comici and Severino Casara
- 1959 - South Face of Torre Innerkofler by Dietrich Hasse and Sepp Schrott

Vintage postcards
Postcards became popular at the turn of the 20th century, especially for sending short messages to friends and relatives. They were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories.
Postcards were an international craze, published all over the world. The Detroit Publishing Co. and Teich & Co. were two of the major publishers in the U.S, and sometimes individuals printed their own postcards as well. Yvon were the most famous in France. Many individual or anonymous publishers did exist around the world and especially in Africa and  Asia (Japan, Thailand, Nepal, China, Java) between 1920 and 1955. These photographer were mostly local notables, soldiers, official guides belonging to the colonial armies (british french, belgium...) who sometimes had rather sophisticated equipment and readily produced colored photograms or explorers, navigators, climbers (Vittorio Sella and the Archiduke of Abruzzi future king of Italy remains the most famous of them).
There are many types of collectible vintage postcards.
Hold-to-light postcards were made with tissue paper surrounded by two pieces of regular paper, so light would shine through. Fold-out postcards, popular in the 1950s, had multiple postcards attached in a long strip. Real photograph postcards (RPPCs) are photographs with a postcard backing.
Novelty postcards were made using wood, aluminum, copper, and cork. Silk postcards–often embroidered over a printed image–were wrapped around cardboard and sent in see-through glassine paper envelopes; they were especially popular during World War I.
In the 1930s and 1940s, postcards were printed on brightly colored paper designed to look like linen.
Most vintage postcard collectors focus on themes, like Christmas, Halloween, portraits of movie stars, European royalty and U.S. presidents, wartime imagery, and photos of natural disasters or natural wonders. Not to mention cards featuring colorful pictures by famous artists like Alphonse Mucha, Harrison Fisher, Ellen Clapsaddle, and Frances Brundage.

NU'UANU PALI PAINTED BY JULES TAVERNIER

JULES TAVERNIER (1844-1889) 

Nuʻuanu Pali ( 356 m - 1,168ft)

United States of America  (Hawaii)

 In View of the Pali', 1886, Honolulu Museum of Art 

The mountain

Nuʻuanu Pali is a section of the windward cliff (Pali in Hawaiian) of the Koʻolau mountain located at the head of Nuʻuanu Valley on the island of Oʻahu. It has a panoramic view of the windward (northeast) coast of Oʻahu. The Pali Highway (Hawaii State Highway 61) connecting Kailua/Kāneʻohe with downtown Honolulu runs through the Nuʻuanu Pali Tunnels bored into the cliffside. The area is also the location of the Nuʻuanu Freshwater Fish Refuge and the Nuʻuanu Reservoir  in the jurisdiction of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The Nuʻuanu Pali State Wayside is a lookout above the tunnels where there is a panoramic view of the Oʻahu's windward side with views of Kāneʻohe, Kāneʻohe Bay, and Kailua. It is also well known for strong trade winds that blow through the pass (now bypassed by the Nuʻuanu Pali Tunnels).

Two large stones near the back of Nuʻuanu Valley, Hapuʻu and Ka-lae-hau-ola, were said to represent a pair of goddesses who were guardians of the passage down the pali. Travellers would leave offerings of flowers or kapa (bark cloth) to ensure a safe trip, and parents buried the umbilical cords of newborns under the stones as a protection against evil. It is said there is a moʻo wahine (lizard woman) who lingers around the pass. A moʻo wahine is mythical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman and leads male travelers to their deaths off the cliff.

The painter 
Jules Tavernier was a French painter, illustrator, and an important member of Hawaii’s Volcano School.  He studied with the French painter, Félix Joseph Barrias (1822–1907). he left France in the 1870s and never  return. Tavernier was employed as an illustrator by Harper's Magazine, which sent him, along with Paul Frenzeny, on a year-long coast-to-coast sketching tour in 1873....
- More informations aboutJules Tavernier life and works 

IAPETUS RIDGE BY NASA CASSINI MISSION

NASA CASSINI MISSION (1997-2017)

Iapetus equatorial ridge (20,000 m - 65,6168 ft)  or (20 km - 12, 43 mi)

Saturn planet (Iapetus moon) 

1. Iapetus equatorial ridge on 10/09/2007 

2. Photomosaic of the Iapetus moon  from NASA Cassini Spacecraft  on 31/12/2004

Assembled by Matt McIrvin  

The mountain 

Iapetus is one of the numerous Saturn's moon which has a 10 to 20 kilometers high (20,000 m - 65,6168 ft)  ridge above the surrounding plains, running along most of its equator, making them some of the tallest mountains in the Solar System.  Iapetus's equatorial ridge was discovered when the NASA Cassini spacecraft imaged Iapetus on 31 December 2004, during the NASA Cassini Mission to Saturn.  The ridge forms a complex system including isolated peaks, segments of more than 200 km and sections with three near parallel ridges. There are bright areas on the sides of the equatorial ridge near Iapetus's bright trailing hemisphere, which were already visible in Voyager Missions images appearing like mountains and were nicknamed the "Voyager Mountains". Within the bright regions there is no ridge, but there are a series of isolated 10 km (6 miles) peaks along the equator. The ridge system is heavily cratered, indicating that it is ancient. 

The prominent equatorial bulge gives Iapetus a walnut-like appearance. 

It is not clear how the ridge formed. One difficulty is to explain why it follows the equator almost perfectly. There are at least four current hypotheses, but none of them explains why the ridge is confined to Cassini Regio.

1. A team of scientists associated with the Cassini mission have argued that the ridge could be a remnant of the oblate shape of the young Iapetus, when it was rotating more rapidly than it does today.  The height of the ridge suggests a maximum rotational period of 17 hours. 

2. The ridge could be icy material that welled up from beneath the surface and then solidified. 

3. Iapetus may have had a ring system during its formation due to its large Hill sphere, and the equatorial ridge could have then been produced by collisional accretion of this ring.

4. The ridge and the bulge could be the result of ancient convective overturn. This hypothesis states that the bulge is in isostatic equilibrium typical for terrestrial mountains. 

Source:

- NASA Cassini mission Page at Iapetus  

The Mission

Cassini sails low over the surface of Iapetus on approach to its close encounter with the enigmatic moon on Sept. 10, 2007. Its flight takes it over the rugged, mountainous ridge along the moon's equator, where ancient, impact battered peaks - some topping 10 kilometers (6 miles) in height -- are seen rising over the horizon and slipping beneath the spacecraft as it flies.
Frames used in this movie were acquired with the Cassini wide-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, as the intrepid robot soared past Iapetus (1,468 kilometers - 912 miles across), within a few thousand kilometers of the surface. Additional simulated images were inserted between the Cassini images in this movie in order to smooth the appearance of the movement, a scheme called interpolation.
The Cassini mission was launched on  October 15, 1997 at 8:43 UTC. This 20 years mission was programmed to end on September 15, 2017 by what is called The Grande Finale.
Source:
- NASA Cassini mission Page at Iapetus  

FITZ ROY / CERRO CHALTEN BY RAMOS CATALAN

RAMOS CATALAN (1888-1961) 

Fitz Roy / Cerro Chalten  (3,405m- 11, 171 ft)

Chile - Argentina border

The mountain 
Fitz Roy / Cerro Chalten  (3,405m- 11, 171 ft) is a mountain located near El Chaltèn village, in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile. First climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone, " The Fitz Roy " remains among the most technically challenging mountains for mountaineers on Earth. Mount Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia clothing logo following Yvon Chouinard's ascent and subsequent film in 1968.
Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno first saw the mountain on 2 March 1877. He named it Fitz Roy, in honour of Robert FitzRoy, who, as captain of the HMS Beagle had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted large parts of the Patagonian coast.
Cerro is a Spanish word meaning mountain, while Chaltèn comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak. Fitz Roy, however, was only one of a number of peaks the Tehuelche called Chaltèn.
It has been agreed by Argentina and Chile that their international border detours eastwards to pass over the main summit, but a large part of the border to the south of the summit, as far as Cerro Murallуn, remains undefined.

The painter 
Benito Ramos Catalán (1888-1961) was a chilean  painter who used to sign "Ramos Catalan". Known for his marines and landscapes of the Andes and Chile, and most particularly for his mountains paintings. Most of them have the same title: "Mountains of Chile" or  "Mountains landscapes of Andes", making quite difficult to know which mountain was exactly depicted, in a country which has quite a lot of summits ! To add to the difficulty, he used to paint the most famous mountains of his country under very unusual angles or with proportions that do not correspond exactly to their real size... making even more difficult to recognize and identify them for experts ! That is why today, 55 years after his death, some of these mountains paintings are not clearly identified and presented, in the public sales, as 'possibly' a particular summit of Chile or Andes...
His works are in many Chilean institutions like Viña del Mar Fine Art  Museum, O'Higginiano Fine Art Museum in Talca, Valparaiso Fine Art Museum, and Navy  Schools in Valparaiso and Talcahuano. Ranos

MACHU PICCHU BY HIRAM BINGHAM III

 HIRAM BINGHAM III (1875-1956) 

Machu Picchu (2,430 m -7,970 ft) 

Peru

Photo made in 1912 - original ruins before modern reconstruction 

The mountain and site 

Machu Picchu  is a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge 2,430 m -7,970 ft above sea level. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru, above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Machu Picchu lies in the southern hemisphere, 13.164 degrees south of the equator. It is 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Cusco, on the crest of the mountain Machu Picchu, located about 2,430 m-7,970 feet above mean sea level, over 1,000 m-3,300 ft lower than Cusco, which has an elevation of (3,600 m -11,800 ft. As such, it had a milder climate than the Inca capital. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in South America, one of the most visited tourist attractions in Latin America  and the most visited in Peru.

The city sits in a saddle between the two mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back.

Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often mistakenly referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas" (a title more accurately applied to Vilcabamba), it is the most familiar icon of Inca civilization. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was not known to the Spanish during the colonial period and remained unknown to the outside world until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored[4] and restoration continues. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

The photographer - explorer

Hiram Bingham III was an American academic, explorer and politician. He made public the existence of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911 with the guidance of local indigenous farmers. Later, Bingham served as a member of the United States Senate for the state of Connecticut.
Bingham was not a trained archaeologist. Yet, it was during Bingham's time as a lecturer – later professor – in South American history at Yale that he re-discovered the largely forgotten Inca city of Machu Picchu. In 1908, he had served as delegate to the First Pan American Scientific Congress at Santiago, Chile. On his way home via Peru, a local prefect convinced him to visit the pre-Columbian city of Choquequirao. Bingham published an account of this trip in Across South America; an account of a journey from Buenos Aires to Lima by way of Potosí, with notes on Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.
Bingham was thrilled by the prospect of unexplored Inca cities, and organized the 1911 Yale Peruvian Expedition with one of its objectives to search for the last capital of the Incas. On July 24, 1911, Melchor Arteaga led Bingham to Machu Picchu, which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley, possibly including two local missionaries named Thomas Payne and Stuart McNairn whose are supposed to have already climbed to the ruins in 1906. Also the Cusco explorers Enrique Palma, Gabino Sanchez and Agustín Lizarraga are said to have arrived at the site in 1901. Bingham returned to Peru in 1912, 1914 and 1915 with the support of Yale and the National Geographic Society. In The Lost City of the Incas (1948), a bestseller upon its publication in 1948, Bingham related how he came to believe that Machu Picchu housed a major religious shrine and served as a training center for religious leaders. Modern archaeological research has since determined that the site was not a religious center but a royal estate to which Inca leaders and their entourage repaired during the Andean summer.
Machu Picchu has become one of the major tourist attractions in South America, and Bingham is recognized as the man who brought the site to world attention, although many others helped to bring this site into the public eye. The switchback-filled road that carries tourist buses to the site from the Urubamba River is called the Hiram Bingham Highway.
Bingham has been cited as one possible basis for the "Indiana Jones" character.
Peru has long sought the return of the estimated 40,000 artifacts, including mummies, ceramics and bones, that Bingham had excavated and exported from the Machu Picchu site. On September 14, 2007, an agreement was made between Yale University and the Peruvian government for the return of the objects. On April 12, 2008, the Peruvian government stated that it had revised previous estimates of 4,000 pieces up to 40,000.

MOUNT ETNA BY AKSELI GALLEN-KALLELA

AKSELI GALLEN-KALLELA (1865-1931)

 Mount Etna or Mongibello (3,329 m - 10,922ft) 

 Italy (Sicily) 

In  Mount Etna in 1900 

The mountain 
Mount Etna (3,329 m - 10,922ft) or Mongibello, Mungibeddu in Sicilian, Aetna in Latin is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, in the Province of Catania, between Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 (459 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide in Tenerife surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus, the god of the sky and thunder and king of gods, and the forges of Hephaestus were said to also be located underneath it.
Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south.
Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations. In June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Volcanic activity first took place at Etna about 500,000 years ago, with eruptions occurring beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily.[ About 300,000 years ago, volcanism began occurring to the southwest of the summit (center top of volcano) then, before activity moved towards the present centre 170,000 years ago. Eruptions at this time built up the first major volcanic edifice, forming a stratovolcano in alternating explosive and effusive eruptions. The growth of the mountain was occasionally interrupted by major eruptions, leading to the collapse of the summit to form calderas.
From about 35,000 to 15,000 years ago, Etna experienced some highly explosive eruptions, generating large pyroclastic flows, which left extensive ignimbrite deposits. Ash from these eruptions has been found as far away as south of Rome's border, 800 km (497 mi) to the north.
Thousands of years ago, the eastern flank of the mountain experienced a catastrophic collapse, generating an enormous landslide in an event similar to that seen in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The landslide left a large depression in the side of the volcano, known as 'Valle del Bove' (Valley of the Ox). Research published in 2006 suggested this occurred around 8000 years ago, and caused a huge tsunami, which left its mark in several places in the eastern Mediterranean. It may have been the reason the settlement of Atlit Yam (Israel), now below sea level, was suddenly abandoned around that time. The steep walls of the valley have suffered subsequent collapses on numerous occasions. The strata exposed in the valley walls provide an important and easily accessible record of Etna's eruptive history. The most recent collapse event at the summit of Etna is thought to have occurred about 2,000 years ago, forming what is known as the Piano Caldera. This caldera has been almost entirely filled by subsequent lava eruptions, but is still visible as a distinct break in the slope of the mountain near the base of the present-day summit cone.

The painter 
Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Swedish-speaking Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work was considered very important for the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallen to Gallen-Kallela in 1907. In 1884 he moved to Paris, to study at the Académie Julian and became friends with the Finnish painter Albert Edelfelt, the Norwegian painter Adam Dörnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg.
In December 1894, Gallen-Kallela moved to Berlin to oversee the joint exhibition of his works with the works of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Here he became acquainted with the Symbolists.
On his return from Germany, Gallen studied print-making and visited London to deepen his knowledge, and in 1898 studied fresco-painting in Italy.
For the Paris World Fair in 1900, Gallen-Kallela painted frescoes for the Finnish Pavilion. In these frescoes, his political ideas became most apparent.Gallen-Kallela officially finnicized his name to the more Finnish-sounding Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1907.
In 1909, Gallen-Kallela moved to Nairobi in Kenya with his family, and there he painted over 150 expressionist oil paintings and bought many east African artefacts. But he returned to Finland after a couple of years, because he realized Finland was his main inspiration. Between 1911 and 1913 he designed and built a studio and house at Tarvaspää, about 10 km northwest of the centre of Helsinki.
From December 1923 to May 1926, Gallen-Kallela lived in the United States, where an exhibition of his work toured several cities, and where he visited the Taos art-colony in New Mexico to study indigenous American art. In 1925 he began the illustrations for his "Great Kalevala". This was still unfinished when he died of pneumonia in Stockholm on 7 March 1931, while returning from a lecture in Copenhagen, Denmark
His studio and house at Tarvaspää was opened as the Gallen-Kallela Museum in 1961

MOUNT ELGON PAINTED BY RAY NESTOR

RAY NESTOR  (1888-1989)

Mount Elgon (4,321 m -14,177 ft)

Uganda  - Kenya

In Mount Elgon in the far 

The mountain 

Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of eastern Uganda and western Kenya,  north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai" (4,321 m -14,177 ft), is located entirely within the country of Uganda. Elgon is the seventeenth-highest mountain of Africa. Its vast form, 80 kilometres (50 mi) in diameter, rises 3,070 metres (10,070 ft) above the surrounding plains.  Its cooler heights offer respite for humans from the hot plains below, and its higher altitudes provide a refuge for flora and fauna.
Mount Elgon consists of five major peaks: Wagagai (4,321 m -14,177 ft), in Uganda ; Sudek (4,302 m -14,114 ft)) on the Kenya/Uganda border ; Koitobos (4,222 m -13,852 ft), a flat-topped basalt column in Kenya ; Mubiyi (4,211 m- 13,816 ft) in Uganda ;  Masaba (4,161 m - 13,652 ft) in Uganda.
Although there is no verifiable evidence of its earliest volcanic activity, geologists estimate that Mount Elgon is at least 24 million years old, making it the oldest extinct volcano in East Africa.
Other features of note are: The caldera  (Elgon's is one of the largest intact calderas in the world) ;
the warm springs by the Suam River ; Endebess Bluff (2,563 m - 8,409 ft) ; Ngwarisha, Makingeny, Chepnyalil, and Kitum caves . The cave contains salt deposits and it is frequented by wild elephants that lick the salt exposed by gouging the walls with their tusks. It became notorious following the publication of Richard Preston's book The Hot Zone in 1994 for its association with the Marburg virus after two people who had visited the cave (one in 1980 and another in 1987) contracted the disease and died. The mountain soils are red laterite. The mountain is the catchment area for the several rivers such as the Suam River, which becomes the Turkwel downstream and drains into Lake Turkana, and the Nzoia River and the Lwakhakha River, which flow to Lake Victoria. The town of Kitale is in the foothills of the mountain. The area around the mountain is protected by two Mount Elgon National Parks, one on each side of the international border.
Mount Elgon and its tributaries are home to four tribes, the Bagisu, the Sapiinjak, the Sabaot and the Ogiek, better known in the region under the derogatory umbrella term Ndorobo.

The watercolorist

Ray Nestor was born in India in 1888. He came to Kenya in 1912 as a surveyor and was between 1932 and 1950 farmed at Kipkarren where he did most of his paintings. Ray Nestor modesty as a printer stood between him and the wider recognition of his work. He never courted publicity being content to record his impressions of a fascinating country and its diverse peoples for his own satisfaction and that of his friends. In all his time in Africa, Ray Nestor was seldom without his paints and sketch book, alert to capture the fugitive moment : an old woman in her beads and bangles drawing on her long pipe ; a dhow in full sail beyond the coral reef outside Mombasa harbour ; the stupendous view from his farm house over down and forest, rolling away towards Mount Elgon;

a pair of rhinos threading their way through the bush under the snows of Kilimandjaro.  These sketches are what they claim to be, with all their freshness sponteneity. Ray Nestor died in England in June 1989. 

MOUNT DISCOVERY PAINTED BY DAVID ROSENTHAL

 DAVID ROSENTHAL (bn. 1953)

Mount Discovery  (2, 681m - 8,796 ft)

Antarctica 

1.  Mount Discovery in Summer

2. Mount Discovery at Sunset 

3. Mount Discovery in Twilight 

The mountain 

Mount Discovery  (2, 681m - 8,796 ft) is a conspicuous, isolated stratovolcano, lying at the head of McMurdo Sound and east of Koettlitz Glacier, overlooking the NW portion of the Ross Ice Shelf. It forms the center of a three-armed mass of which Brown Peninsula is one extension to the north; Minna Bluff is a second to the east; the third is Mount Morning to the west.  It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) and named for their expedition ship Discovery.

The artist 
David Rosenthal is known as an Antarctic Painter, Painter of Ice, Arctic Artist, Alaskan Artist and an Extreme Artist. He has been lured to cold climates regularly to record snow, ice, and landscapes. Davids paintings of glaciers and icebergs are astoundingly realistic and at the same ethereal at the same time. However his work also includes much more than ice, icebergs and glaciers... Cordova, Alaska is the place David Rosenthal calls home. As an artist and art teacher David has taught and continues to teach many students in Alaska. While teaching art in Alaska, David has instructed students and artist in many programs including the Alaska Artists in the Schools Program, Prince William Sound Community College and University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions. Alaskan artist David Rosenthal makes it a priority to travel around Alaska as much as possible to continue to capture the incredible beauty in his artwork of Alaska.
Having spent over sixty months on the Ice, including four austral winters and six austral summers, David became an Antarctic artist and has created art images from a large variety of places in every season. David has completed paintings of the antarctic landscape from all across Antarctica. Time in Antarctica included travel as a participant in the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program during a summer and a winter at McMurdo Station as well as most of a winter at Palmer Station. David has also worked for the NSF contractor for two winters and four summers in various job capacities as a way to spend time and become familiar with the landscape.
Rosenthal's work also includes many water colors, oil paintings, sketches and small studies. The paintings seem to magically reflect the intensity of nature's colors and the atmospheric phenomena that David witnesses. David really is a master of Extreme Art!
Source:
David Rosenthal website  

 

_______________________________
2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOAB MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY JOHN SINGER SARGENT

JOHN SINGER SARGENT (1856-1925)  

Mountains of Moab  (910 m -3,000 ft) - (1,300 m - 4,300 ft)

Jordan

Painted in 1905 

The mountain

Moab mountains occupied a plateau about  (910 m -3,000 ft) above the level of the Mediterranean, or  1,300 m - 4,300 ft above the Dead Sea, and rising gradually from north to south.

It was bounded on the west by the Dead Sea and the southern section of the Jordan River; on the east by Ammon and the Arabian desert, from which it was separated by low, rolling hills; and on the south by Edom. The northern boundary varied, but generally is represented by a line drawn some miles above the northern extremity of the Dead Sea.

In Ezekiel 25:9 the boundaries are given as being marked by Beth-jeshimoth (north), Baal-meon (east), and Kiriathaim (south). That these limits were not fixed, however, is plain from the lists of cities given in Isaiah 15-16 and Jeremiah 48, where Heshbon, Elealeh, and Jazer are mentioned to the north of Beth-jeshimoth; Madaba, Beth-gamul, and Mephaath to the east of Baalmeon; and Dibon, Aroer, Bezer, Jahaz, and Kirhareseth to the south of Kiriathaim. The principal rivers of Moab mentioned in the Bible are the Arnon, the Dimon or Dibon, and the Nimrim.

The limestone hills which form the almost treeless plateau are generally steep but fertile. In the spring they are covered with grass and the table-land itself produces grain.

In the north are a number of long, deep ravines, and Mount Nebo, famous as the scene of the death of Moses. The rainfall is fairly plentiful and the climate, despite the hot summer, is cooler than the area west of the Jordan river, snow falling frequently in winter and in spring.

The plateau is dotted with hundreds of dolmens, menhirs, and stone circles, and contains many ruined villages, mostly of the Roman and Byzantine periods. The land is now occupied chiefly by Bedouin, though it contains such towns as al-Karak.

The territory occupied by Moab at the period of its greatest extent, before the invasion of the Amorites, divided itself naturally into three distinct and independent portions: the enclosed corner or canton south of the Arnon (referred to as "field of Moab"); the more open rolling country north of the Arnon, opposite Jericho and up to the hills of Gilead (called the "land of Moab"); and the district below sea level in the tropical depths of the Jordan valley.

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.

2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

K2 BYJORGE RODRIGUEZ-GERADA

JORGE RODRIGUEZ-GERADA (bn. 1966)

 K2 peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft) 

China - Pakistan border

The mountain
K2 peak (8,611m - 28,251 ft)  also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest. It is located on the China-Pakistan border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.
The name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labeling them K1 and K2.
The policy of the Great Trigonometric Survey was to use local names for mountains wherever possible and K1 was found to be known locally as Masherbrum. K2, however, appeared not to have acquired a local name, possibly due to its remoteness. The mountain is not visible from Askole, the last village to the south, or from the nearest habitation to the north, and is only fleetingly glimpsed from the end of the Baltoro Glacier, beyond which few local people would have ventured. The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ("big") and ri ("mountain")  has been suggested as a local name, but evidence for its widespread use is scant. It may have been a compound name invented by Western explorers or simply a bemused reply to the question "What's that called?" It does, however, form the basis for the name Qogir (simplified Chinese: 乔戈里峰; traditional Chinese: 喬戈里峰; pinyin: Qiбogēlǐ Fēng) by which Chinese authorities officially refer to the peak. Other local names have been suggested including Lamba Pahar ("Tall Mountain" in Urdu) and Dapsang, but are not widely used.
Lacking a local name, the name Mount Godwin-Austen was suggested, in honor of Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer of the area, and while the name was rejected by the Royal Geographical Society, it was used on several maps, and continues to be used occasionally.
The surveyor's mark, K2, therefore continues to be the name by which the mountain is commonly known. It is now also used in the Balti language, rendered as Kechu or Ketu (Urdu: کے ٹو‎). The Italian climber Fosco Maraini argued in his account of the ascent of Gasherbrum IV that while the name of K2 owes its origin to chance, its clipped, impersonal nature is highly appropriate for so remote and challenging a mountain. He concluded that it was ...
K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram range and the highest point in both Pakistan and Xinjiang.
For more about K2 peak :
- Mountain paintings  first  K2 peak post

The Painter 
Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada is a Cuban-American contemporary artist,  born in Cuba on 1966, and raised in the United States. He predominantly creates his work in urban spaces on a large scale ; he designed series on such a spectacular scale that they may be viewed through Google Earth or even photographed by passing satellites. He was a founding member of the early ‘90s New York Culture Jamming movement working first with the group ‘Artfux’ and later with the 'Cicada Corps of Artists', during this period he launched interventions upon billboards and public advertising. By 1997 he was beginning to move towards working solo. In 2002 Rodríguez-Gerada moved to Barcelona where he focused on the large-scale ephemeral charcoal drawings of his Identity Series. He then developed the Terrestrial Series; ephemeral earthworks so large that they can be visible from space. Other ongoing projects include the Identity Composite Series, and smaller artworks he calls Fragment Series, Urban Analogies, and Memorylythics. Since 2009 he has curated the annual AvantGuard Urbano Festival; a small Urban Art Festival with big names, held in Tudela, Navarre, in Northern Spain.  He also takes part in numerous shows and exhibitions.

GUNUNG LAMONGAN BY FRANZ WILHELM JUNGHUHN

FRANZ WILHELM JUNGHUHN  (1809-1864)

Gunung Lamongan (1,651m - 5, 417 ft) 

Indonesia - Java

Painted in 1853-1854 

 Leiden University Library 

The mountain

Gunung Lamongan or Mount Lamongan  (1,651m - 5, 417 ft) is a small stratovolcano located between the massif Tengger caldera complex and Iyang-Argapura volcano complex in East Java, Indonesia. The volcano is surrounded by maars and cinder cones. The volcano's high point is locally named as Gunung Tarub. Lake-filled maars including Ranu Pakis, Ranu Klakah and Ranu Bedali, located on the eastern and western flanks. The northern flanks are dominated by dry maars.

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 . 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.  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.
Source: 
- Wandering Above Silent Vertexes blog

MOUNT ASPIRING / TITITEA PAINTED BY JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON

JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON (1821-1884)

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

New Zealand 

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

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

MOUNT PELEE SKETCHED IN THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE

 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE (MAY 27, 1902) 

The mount Pelée (1, 397m - 4,583 ft)  

France (Martinique) 

The mountain 

Mount Pelée (1, 397m - 4,583 ft)  in French, Montagne Pelée (meaning "peeled mountain") is a semi-active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island of French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava. The volcano is currently in a quiescent state, which means it is not active, but is registering seismic activity. The stratovolcano is famous for its eruption in 1902 and the destruction that resulted, dubbed the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The eruption killed about 30,000 people. Most deaths were caused by pyroclastic flows which completely destroyed the city of Saint-Pierre (at that time, the largest city on the island), within minutes of the eruption.

The eruption left only two survivors in the direct path of the flows: Louis-Auguste Cyparis survived because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell; Léon Compère-Léandre, living on the edge of the city, escaped with severe burns. Havivra Da Ifrile, a young girl, reportedly escaped with injuries during the eruption by taking a small boat to a cave down shore, and was later found adrift 3 km (1.9 mi) from the island, unconscious. The event marked the only major volcanic disaster in the history of France and its overseas territories.

As of 2013, the volcano currently lies quiescent above Saint-Pierre and Martinique. Before the 1902 eruption—as early as the summer of 1900—signs of increased fumarole activity were present in the Étang Sec crater. Relatively minor phreatic (steam) eruptions that occurred in 1792 and 1851 were evidence that the volcano was active. Signs of unrest will almost certainly precede any future eruptive activity from Mount Pelée, and its past activity (including the violent eruptions uncovered by carbon dating) is an extremely important factor for hazard assessment.
A few volcanic earthquakes occur on Martinique every year, but Mount Pelée is under continuous watch by geophysicists and volcanologists (IPGP). As researcher Jean-Pierre Viode states, the volcanic observatory on Martinique would be able to observe activity months before an actual eruption. The city of Saint-Pierre was never fully rebuilt, though some villages grew up in its place. The estimated population of Commune of Saint-Pierre in 2004 was 4,544.
The 1902  memorable  eruption inspired  quite a few writers amoung whose
 Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts (The Day The World Ended  - Stein and Day, 1969) ;
Patrick Chamoiseau (Texaco, Gallimard, 1992. Trans. Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokurov, Vintage International, 1998) and Jean Rhys (Heat).

BEN LOMOND PAINTED BY JOHN GLOVER

JOHN GLOVER  (1767-1849) 

Ben Lomond or Tudema tura (1,572m - 5,157ft) 

Australia (Tasmania)

In Mr Talbot’s Property- four men catching opposums

National Gallery of Australia

The mountain 

Ben Lomond  (1,572m - 5,157ft) or Turbunna or Tudema Tura in Tasmanian Aboriginal Palawa langage, not to be confused with Ben Lomond eponymus name of the mountain in Scotland, is a mountain in the north of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is composed of a central massif with an extensive plateau high outlier peaks projecting from the mountain. The highest feature on the plateau is the unimposing summit of Legges Tor, at 1572 m, on the northern aspect of the plateau. The southern end of the plateau is dominated by Stacks Bluff, which is an imposing feature that drops away above the surrounding foothills. The prominent outlier peaks of Ragged Jack, Mensa Moor  and Tower Hill surround the plateau. Ben Lomond is east of Launceston in the Ben Lomond National Park. Tasmania's premier Alpine skiing operations are located at Ben Lomond with downhill skiing facilities in the State. Its accessibility from Launceston, together with the existence of a ski village on the plateau make Ben Lomond an all year round favourite for tourists and hikers. Access to the village and summit can be made via several walking tracks or via a zig-zag road known as "Jacobs Ladder".

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Palawa name for Ben Lomond was usually recorded as Turbunna, Toorbunna or Toorerpunner. It is said to mean 'Rain Tail'. Modern etymological researchers of the Palawa lexicon assert that, in addition to turbunna, there were several names for Ben Lomond:

Parndoke,  Parndokenne, Loonder, Tritterer, Tudema tura  (a name for Ben Lomond recorded by John Glover).
Although the mountain was seen by Flinders on his circumnavigation of Tasmania, the modern name was given by Colonel Paterson, who founded the first settlement in northern Tasmania in 1804, and is taken from the eponymous Scottish mountain. There is no isolated peak named Ben Lomond but instead the name may refer to the plateau, massif, bioregion or national park in which it is situated. In colonial times 'Ben Lomond' referred to both the southern extremity of the massif and the country around the southern escarpment.  The toponym does not appear cartographically in reference to the entire massif until the 1900s; when Stacks Bluff also appeared on modern maps.

The painter
John Glover  was an English-born Australian artist during the early colonial period of Australian art. In Australia he has been dubbed "the father of Australian landscape painting".
In his youth, the Countess of Harrington helped establish his practice as an art instructor, and may have taken lessons from him herself. Removed to London in 1805, became a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and was elected its president in 1807.  In the ensuing years he exhibited a large number of pictures at the exhibitions of this society, and also at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. He had one-man shows in London in 1823 and 1824. He was a very successful artist and, although never elected a member of the Academy, his reputation stood very high with the public. He became known in both England and France as the English Claude. This phrase was making comparison with Glover and the French seventeenth century artist Claude Lorrain, whose works collected by eighteenth century English "grand tourists", strongly influenced the evolution of the English style, in both painting and the layout of landscape gardens.
On his 64th birthday in 1831,Glover decided to move to Australia and arrived in Tasmania  He brought with him a strong reputation as a landscape painter. From April 1831 until early 1832 he lived in Hobart on a property named "Stanwell Hall", which can be seen in his work Hobart Town, taken from the garden where I lived.  In 1832 he acquired one of the largest grants of land in Van Diemen's Land at the time at Mills Plains, Deddington.
Glover is best known now for his paintings of the Tasmanian landscape.  He gave a fresh treatment to the effects of the Australian sunlight on the native bushland by depicting it bright and clear, a definite departure from the darker "English country garden" paradigm. Note this example Patterdale Farm (circa 1840).  His treatment of the local flora was also new because it was a more accurate depiction of the Australian trees and scrubland. Glover noted the "remarkable peculiarity of the trees" in Australia and observed that "however numerous, they rarely prevent your tracing through them the whole distant country".
Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen’s Land (1838) is "informed by European notions of an Antipodean Arcadia, with Indigenous people living in a landscape unsullied by European contact."  John Glover's last major work was painted on his 79th birthday.
The John Glover Society was established on Aug 22, 2001 to honor and promote Glover's memory and his contribution to Australian art. The society commissioned a life-size statue of Glover, unveiled in February 2003 in Evandale, Tasmania. It also runs the annual Glover Prize, which is held in Evandale.
John Glover's work features in many prominent art galleries throughout Australia (and the world). His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and a symposium in Australia.
From 2004, The John Glover Society has awarded the Glover Prize for depictions of Tasmanian landscapes. It is the richest art prize in Australia for landscape painting.
Source: 
- John Glover at the Art Gallery of New South Wales 

SNEEUBERG PAINTED BY ANDREW COOPER

ANDREW COOPER (bn. 1967) 

 Sneeuberg (2,026 m - 6, 647 ft) 

South Africa 

The mountain 
The Sneeuberg (2,026 m - 6, 647 ft)  is a mountain  located in the Cederberg mountains range, South Afirca.  The Sneeuberg is the Highest point of the Cederberg mountains, the second one being Tafelberg (1,969 m) which should not be confused with the Table Mountain in Cape Town.  The Cederberg mountains and nature reserve are located near Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town. The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam cedar (Widdringtonia cedarbergensis), which is a endemic tree of the area. The mountains are noted for dramatic rock formations and San rock art. The Cederberg Wilderness Area is administered by CapeNature.
The dominating characteristic of the area is sharply defined sandstone rock formations (Table Mountain Group), often reddish in colour. This group of rocks contains bands of shale and in recent years a few important fossils have been discovered in these argillaceous layers. The fossils are of primitive fish and date back 450 million years to the Ordovician Period.
As a wilderness area, the primary activity is eco-tourism, including camping, rock climbing and hiking. The main campsite, Algeria, is operated by CapeNature, while others such as Sanddrif, Driehoek, Jamaka and Kromrivier are privately operated.
The Cederberg is renowned for its quality of rock climbing routes particularly around the Krakadouw and Tafelberg peaks. The Table Mountain Sandstone creates ideal conditions for spectacular routes. There are numerous day and overnight hikes including the popular and spectacular Wolfberg Arch, Wolfberg Cracks and the Maltese Cross. The area is also home to an amateur astronomical observatory, which regularly hosts open evenings for the public.

The artist
South African artist Andrew Cooper is a contemporary mountains and landscape  painter.  Born in Cape Town, South Africa in November, 1967, Andrew is a gifted, self taught fine artist, who started painting professionally in 1987. He prefers to work on large scale landscape paintings and seascape paintings allowing the viewer to experience "the grandeur and depth of the scene".
Living in a region rich in breathtaking scenery, he has created a spectacular body of contemporary South African paintings that has been exhibited throughout South Africa and elsewhere around the world.  The 2004 International Art Expo in New York City marked his premiere major American exhibition. His  paintings have also been exhibited in the United Kingdom, most recently in June 2012 (Westcliffe Gallery in Norfolk). Andrew Cooper is devoted to painting much as he is devoted to exploring the vast and spectacular countryside of South Africa. His paintings of the mountainside, seaside, wine country, and the rich grasslands are a testament to his sincere appreciation of nature. . His sharp eye and keen memory for detail caught every nuance of the scenes which played out in glorious colours before him. It was not long before he took paint to canvas and duplicated the glory of nature in its heights of beauty, thereby creating a lasting legacy of Nature's finest moments.
Source:
- Andrew Cooper website