FUJIYAMA / 富士山 BY TAKEUCHI SEIHO / 竹内 栖鳳

TAKEUCHI SEIHO / 竹内 栖鳳 (1864-1942)

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)

Japan

In Mount Fuji from distant hills,  Private collection 

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.... 

Full Wandering vertexes  entry 

The artist 
Takeuchi Seihō (竹 内 栖鳳) is the artist's name of a Japanese dowering painter of the nihonga genre who was active in the Meiji era in the Shōwa era. His work spans half a century and is considered one of the masters of the pre-war circle of Kyoto painters.
His real name is Takeuchi Tsunekichi.
Very young, Seihō, who was born in Kyoto, likes to draw and wants to become an artist. He is then a student of Shijō School of Traditional Painting.
In 1882, two of his paintings were awarded at Naikoku Kaiga Kyoshinkai, one of the first modern painting competitions in Japan, which launched his career.
During the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris, he traveled to Europe where he studied Western art. After returning to Japan, he created a unique style, combining the realistic techniques of traditional Japanese Shijō-Maruyama schools with Western forms of realism borrowed from Turner and Corot techniques. The result of this meeting becomes one of the main styles of modern ni-honga. His favorite subjects are animals, often in fun poses like a monkey riding a horse. He is also noted for his landscapes.
 In 1909, he became a teacher at the Kyoto Municipal Painting College and also founded his own private school, Chikujokai.
In 1913, Seihō was appointed court painter to the Imperial Agency and in 1919 to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (Teikoku Bijutsuin). He is one of the first people to be awarded the Order of Culture when this distinction is made in 1937.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE DENTS DU MIDI BY GUSTAVE COURBET

GUSTAVE COURBET (1819-1877)

 Les Dents du Midi (3,114 m to 3,257 m -10,216 ft to10,685 ft) 

Switzerland 

1. In Le Château de Chillon signed (lower left) oil on canvas (54 x 64.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1874-1875. Private collection (sold by Christie's)
2.  In Le Château de Chillon signed (lower left) oil on canvas
Painted circa 1874-1875. Private collection.

About  the paintings 

Gustave Courbet painted many times the Castle of Chillon by which he was fascinated. He has painted it from different angles which, as in these two examples, show the Dents du Midi in the distance ... or not. In all these representations, a common element: a sailboat on the lake passing near the castle. During his exile in Switzerland, Courbet repeated the variations on the same themes, panicked by the threat of having to pay the exorbitant costs of rebuilding the Column Vendôme in PAris. This bulimia of production prompted many counterfeiters to take advantage of the situation and, already during the artist's lifetime, the art market was invaded by works attributed to Courbet, whose originality is difficult to appreciate.

In this unfavorable context, Courbet nevertheless has the strength to produce landscapes largely painted  like Le Leman au coucher de soleil (Jenisch Museum in Vevey and the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Gallen), a good dozen of Château de  Chillon (including  the two above and the one in the Gustave-Courbet Museum in Ornans). His health deteriorated at the end of 1876.
 In 1877, he sat down in anticipation of the World Expo the following year, to a Grand Panorama of the Alps (The Cleveland Museum of Art) remained partially incomplete.
Courbet still refused to return to France. His will was respected, and his body was buried in La Tour-de-Peilz in Switzerland on January 3, 1878, after his death on December 31, 1877, during New Year's Eve, his heart having let go.

The painter 

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lifes. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death.

Courbet  painted a few mountains in his life : the Juras mountains around Ornans ( France) and a few  mountains in Switzerland during his exil. Like many painters of the 19th Century, Courbet didn't name the mountain he painted; he liked to give a description of the general atmosphere rather than  a precise geographical location.  

 "I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty."

The mountain 

See  The Dents du midi already posted in this blog...

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MIHARA-YAMA / 三原山 BY SHINSUI ITO / 新水伊藤

SHINSUI  ITO  / 新水伊藤 (1898-1972)

Mihara-yama / 三原山  (764 m - 2,507 ft) 

Japan 

In Mihara-yama in Summer, Block print,  1937, Private collection 

The volcano 

Mihara-yama / 三原山  (764 m - 2,507 ft)  is an active volcano on the Japanese isle of Izu Ōshima. Although the volcano is predominantly basaltic, major eruptions have occurred at intervals of 100–150 years. Mihara-yama's major eruption in 1986 saw lava fountains up to 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) high. The eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 3, and involved a central vent eruption, radial fissure eruption, explosive eruption, lava flows, and a lava lake eruption. There was also a 16 km high subplinian plume. All of the island's 12,000 inhabitants were evacuated by dozens of vessels consisting of both the military and civilian volunteers.

In the novel Ring by Koji Suzuki and its subsequent film adaption, Shizuko Yamamura, the mother of Sadako, predicted that Mount Mihara would someday erupt using her psychic abilities. After a failed psychic demonstration which resulted in Sadako psychically murdering a reporter, Shizuko became depressed and ultimately insane and committed suicide by leaping into the crater of Mount Mihara.

From a vantage point near the top of the cone it was once possible to leap into the crater. As a result, the volcano became a popular venue for suicides. Beginning in the 1920s, several suicides occurred in the volcano every week; more than six hundred people jumped in 1936. Authorities eventually erected a fence around the base of the structure to curb the number of suicides.

The artist

Shinsui Itō / 伊東 深水 was the pseudonym of a Nihonga painter and ukiyo-e woodblock print artist in Taishō - and Shōwa-period Japan. He was one of the great names of the shin-hanga art movement, which revitalized the traditional art after it began to decline with the advent of photography in the early 20th century. His real name was Itō Hajime (伊東 一).

Itō's early landscape series, Eight Views of Lake Biwa inspired Kawase Hasui.

In the post-war period Itō came to be regarded as one of the best known and respected personalities in Japanese society, and received several important honors during his lifetime. In 1952 the "Commission for the Protection of Cultural Properties" (Bunkazai Hōgō Iinkai) declared his woodblock designing talent to be of "intangible cultural properties" (mukei bunkazai) which was then the equivalent of being declared a Living National Treasure. In 1958, he became a member of the Japan Art Academy. In 1970, he received the Order of the Rising Sun.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

AORAKI / MOUNT COOK BY EDWYN TEMPLE

EDWYN TEMPLE (1835-1921)

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

New Zealand

 In Mount  Cook and the Old Hermitage, watercolor, Private Collection 

The mountain 

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

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

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

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT SPEKE BY VITTORIO SELLA

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1943), 

Mount Speke  (4,890m -16, 040ft)  

Uganda

In Mount Speke from Edward Peak, gelatine photo, 1908,  from the book  Ruwenzori, 

The Library  of Santa Barbara  College of The University of California  

The mountain

Mount Speke (4,890m -16, 040ft) lies in the Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and is the second highest mountain in this range. Together with Mount Stanley and Mount Baker, it forms a triangle enclosing the upper Bujuku Valley. The nearest peak is Mount Stanley, which is 3.55 kilometres (2.21 mi) to the south-southwest.  

The mountains lie within an area called 'The Mountains of the Moon'.

All mountains in this range consist of multiple jagged peaks. Mount Speke's summits are Vittorio Emanuele (4,890 m -16,040 ft); Ensonga  (4,865 m - 15,961 ft); Johnston (4,834 m -15,860 ft); and Trident (4,572 m- 15,000 ft). The names were chosen in respect for the Italian royal family in the memory of the  Duke of the Abruzzi  (future King of Italy) who climbed all the peaks in the Rwenzori range.

The people living on the mountains call the 'Rwenzori', which means 'rain maker' or 'rain mountains' in the Bakonjo language. The Baganda, who could see the mountains from far, used to call them 'Gambaragara', which means 'My Eyes Pain', a reference to the shining snow. The Bakonjo had their own names for the peaks in the Rwenzori range, however, as they had never climbed them, it was difficult to clarify which peak was which. For example, they had names for the three main peaks: Kiyanja, Duwoni and Ingomwimbi. The fact is that for the Bakonjo the high Rwenzori is the home of Kitasamba, the god who resides at the high altitudes and cannot be accessed.

Early European explorers visited the region in the search for the source of the Nile. This mountain was named after John Speke. While he never climbed this peak, Speke mapped the source of the White Nile in 1862.  All the mountain in this region are named after similar early explorers.

Due to the large amount of rainfall Mount Speke receives, it is criss-crossed by many rivers and streams. The vegetation tends to be quite thick. There is also a variety of wildlife, including elephants, chimpanzee, monkeys, leopards and antelope.

The photographer

Vittorio Sella is a mountain italian climber and photographer who took his passion for mountains from his uncle, Quintino Sella, founder of the Italian Alpine Club.  He accomplished many remarkable climbs in the Alps, the first wintering in the Matterhorn and Mount Rose (1882) and the first winter crossing of Mont Blanc (1888).

He took part in various expeditions outside Italy:

- Three in the Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896 where a summit still bears his name;

- The ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska in 1897

- Sikkim and Nepal in 1899

- Possibly climb Mount Stanley in Uganda in 1906 during an expedition to the Rwenzori

- Recognition at K2  and Mustagh Tower in 1909

- In Morocco in 1925.

During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2-Chogolisa), he accompanied the Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia.

Full Wandering Vertexes entry  =>

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MILNER PEAK BY HUGO NAUDÉ

HUGO NAUDÉ (1869-1941)  

Milner peak  (1,995 m- 6,545ft)  

South Africa

In Audensberg, Worcester, oil on canvas, 1911

The mountain 
 Milner Peak (1,995 m) is on of the  two peaks of  the Hex River Mountains,  the second highest mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa and are located 120 kilometres (75 miles) north-east of Cape Town. They form part of a large anticline in the Cape Fold Belt mountain system and form a north-east, south-west trending mountain system forming the core of the Cape Syntaxis between the towns of Worcester and De Doorns. They are mostly composed of Table Mountain sandstone and most peaks reach 2,000 metres (6,562 feet) in height or more. The highest mountain is Matroosberg (2,249 m -7,379 ft), making it the second tallest peak in the province after Seweweekspoort Peak in the Swartberg Mountain Range.
The vegetation is primarily montane fynbos and the mountains fall within the Cape's Mediterranean climate. The mountains provide some rudimentary snow-skiing opportunities in winter, with the Western Cape's heaviest snowfalls occurring in and around these ranges. The surrounding valleys support intensive deciduous fruit cultivation, mostly in the form of cherries and table grapes.
Block streams and terraces found in the near the summit of Matroosberg evidences past periglacial activity, which occurred likely during the Last Glacial Maximum.

 The painter

Hugo Naudé was South Africa’s pioneer impressionist painter. He received his professional art education at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1889 -1890) and the Kunst Akademie in Munich (1890 -1894) and spent a year amongst the Barbizon painters in Fontainebleau near Paris.

Born and raised in the Boland town of Worcester, Naudé became South Africa’s first professional artist, establishing “Cape Impressionism”, an adaptation of European Impressionism, in conjunction with the artists Pieter Wenning, Nita Spilhaus, Ruth Prowse and Strat Caldecott. After his European training, Naudé had to adapt to the sunlit brilliance of the African landscape and as “plein-airste” gradually loosened the bonds of his formal training - pioneering a truly South African style which has been maintained by a second and third generation of artists.

When Hugo Naudé returned to South Africa in 1896, after 6 years of formal art training and study in Europe (1889-1895) he initially tried to establish himself as a portrait painter for which he had received expert training from the great Franz von Lenbach in Munich. The prevailing artistic climate proved this idea to have been too optimistic, and thus began a gradual transition in subject matter from portrait to landscape.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

BARRE DES ECRINS BY CHARLES-HENRI CONTENCIN

CHARLES-HENRI CONTENCIN (1898-1955)

The Barre des Écrins (4,102 m - 13, 458ft)

France (Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur)

 In The Barre des Ecrins seen from above the Glacier Blanc Massif des Ecrins, France- 46 x5 6cm, oil on canvas, Courtesy John Mitchell Gallery London 

The mountain,

The Barre des Écrins (4,102 m) is a mountain in the French Alps with a peak at 4102m altitude. It is the highest peak of the Massif des Écrins and the Dauphiné Alps and the most southerly alpine peak in Europe that is higher than 4,000 m. It is the only 4,000 m mountain in France that lies outside the Mont Blanc Massif. Before the annexation of Savoy in 1860 it was the highest mountain in France.

The Barre des Écrins is the highest peak in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region including all of Occitania and the Southern Alps. It is located in the commune of Pelvoux and is situated near the Drainage divide between the Durance and the Vénéon. This divide passes 250 metres west of the summit, along the ridge that leads to the summit of the sub-peak Dôme des Écrins (4,088 m). The south face of the mountain is rocky while the north face is ice as it is the starting point of the Glacier Blanc. The mountain is surrounded by four glaciers: to the north-west is the Bonne Pierre glacier, to the north-east the Glacier Blanc, to the south-west the Glacier du Vallon de la Pilatte, and finally in the south-east the Glacier Noir. It is separated from the Snow Dome of Écrins (4,015 m) by the Lory Gap (3974 m) to the west, the Barre Noir (3,751 m) by the Écrins Gap (3, 661 m) to the north-east and by Fifre (3,699 m) via the Col des Avalanches (3,499 m) to the south.

The Écrins were discovered by geographers belatedly in the 19th century when they were the highest point in France.

The Englishmen A. W Moore, Horace Walker, and Edward Whymper, guided by Michel Croz from Chamonix and Christian Almer from Switzerland, made the first ascent of the Barre des Écrins on 25 June 1864. They cut steps on the north face of the Barre until they reached the top of the eastern edge via the Whymper corridor. They then reached the top of this high ridge which was composed of very unstable rocks. Edward Whymper described the ascension in his book Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69.

William Auguste Coolidge made the first direct climb up the north face of the Barre des Ecrins in July 1870 by cutting 500 steps.

The first ascent without a guide is credited to Frederick Gardiner in 1878 accompanied by Charles and Lawrence Pilkington.

The southern face was climbed for the first time in 1880 by Pierre Gaspard together with Henri Duhamel. The south pillar, a part of the Black glacier ending at the top, was climbed for the first time in 1944 by the famous couple of climbers Jeanne and Jean Franco.

The painter 

Charles-Henri Contencin (1898-1955), is a French painter who painted many landscapes of mountain and high mountain of the great Alpine peaks, Mont Blanc and Massif and the Écrins mainly. His palette is characteristic. He particularly used the effects of sunrise or sunset over snow or glaciers.

Raised in the Bernese Oberland to the age of 10-12 years, it was a lifelong mountain lover. Good climber, he was a member of the French Alpine Club, where he made the connection with the Mountain Painters Society (SPM). He made the First World War in the infantry and he received the War Cross. He then worked in an architectural office and at the Compagnie des chemins de Fer du Nord before joining the french national railways company, the SNCF, where he was responsible for engineering structures.
In addition to his professional designs it is also author of posters and handbills for the railways under the pseudonym "Charles-Henri." He is best known for its mountain paintings and leaves an important work.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MALIGNE MOUNTAIN BY LAWREN S. HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Maligne Mountain  (3,200m -10,500-ft)  

Canada (Alberta)

 In Mountains East of Maligne Lake, Maligne Mountain,  oil on canvas, 1925

The mountain 
Maligne Mountain  (3,200m -10,500-ft)  is multi-peak massif located east of Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Maligne Mountain is surrounded by glaciers, and its nearest higher peak is Monkhead, 7.83 kilometres (4.87 miles) to the south.
The peak was first named by Mary Schäffer in 1911 because she thought one peak should bear the name of Maligne Lake. Mary "discovered" Maligne Lake and she named many of the mountains around it, including Mount Charlton, Mount Unwin, and Mount Warren. The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1946 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.
The first ascent of Maligne Mountain was made in 1930 by W.R. Hainsworth, J.F. Lehmann, M.M. Strumia, and N.D. Waffl.
Based on the Köppen climate classification, Maligne Mountain is located in a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers.Temperatures can drop below −20 degrees Celsius (−4 degrees Fahrenheit) with wind chill factors below −30 °C (−22 °F).

The painter 

Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.

In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)

In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

CERRO ESCORIAL BY PEDRO LIRA

 PEDRO LIRA (1845-1912) 

Cerro Escorial  (5,451m - 17, 884ft)

Argentina / Chile border

 In  Paisaje Cordillerano, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Chile   

The mountain 
Cerro Escorial  (5,451m - 17, 884ft) is a stratovolcano at the border of Argentina and Chile. It is part of the Corrida de Cori volcanic group and its youngest member. A well-preserved 1-kilometre-wide (0.6 mi) crater forms its summit area. Lava flows are found on the Chilean and smaller ones on the Argentinian side, the former reaching as far as 3–4 kilometres (1.9–2.5 mi) from the volcano. One of these is dated 342,000 years ago by argon-argon dating.
A Plinian eruption on Escorial was the source of the dacitic Escorial ignimbrite.  Pulsed changes in the magma supply during the eruption generated a radial ignimbrite structure which was deposited in various flows. The source magma underwent significant crustal contamination and contains quartz veins, indicating that the ignimbrite interacted with a buried hydrothermal system. Lithic clasts including basement material are also present. The ignimbrite has a volume of about 0.6 cubic kilometres (0.14 cu mi) and was erupted 460,000±10,000 years ago.
A sulfur mine lies 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) southwest of Escorial. Mining ceased about 1983.

The painter 
Pedro Francisco Lira Rencoret known as Pedro Lira  was a Chilean painter and art critic,  best known for his eclectic portraits of women ans a few landscapes.
He lived in France from 1873 to 1884 and was influenced by Eugène Delacroix, many of whose paintings he copied. Later, he received an "honorable mention" at the Salon, where little recognition was generally given to Latin American artists. But, despite his successes, he decided to return to Chile, as the time appeared ripe to create an artistic milieu comparable to that in Paris.
Soon after his arrival, he organized the first exposition devoted exclusively to Chilean painters. Together with the sculptor José Miguel Blanco, he founded the "Unión Artística", an organization devoted to promoting more exhibitions and, ultimately, creating the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Chile, which was originally located on the second floor of the National Congress Building. He also created a Salon, similar to the one in Paris, and helped establish a museum in the Quinta Normal, where expositions were held until 1910.
In 1892, he was appointed Director of the "Escuela de Bellas Artes", a position he held until his death. While there, he was a mentor for promising new artists. Among the best known painters whose careers he supported are Pablo Burchard, Pedro Reszka Moreau and Celia Castro, the first Chilean woman to become a notable artist. He also compiled Chile's first "Biographical Dictionary of Painters" and translated Hippolyte Taine's Philosophy of Art. Several historical paintings of his have been used on Chilean banknotes.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

EAGLE PEAK BY ABBY WILLIAMS HILL

ABBY WILLIAMS HILL (1861-1943)

Eagle Peak (2,372 m - 7,783ft) 

United States of America  

 In  Eagle Peak, Yosemite park, oil on canvas,  University of Puget Sound 

The peak
Eagle Peak is the highest of the Three Brothers (Eagle Peak  the uppermost "brother"-,  Middle and Lower Brothers), a rock formation, above Yosemite Valley in California.
Eagle peak is an independent peak is located just east of El Capitan. John Muir considered the view from the summit to be "most comprehensive of all the views" available from the north wall.
Eagle Peak can be reached by following the Upper Yosemite Falls and Eagle Peak trails. The hike is 6.0 miles (9.7 km) one way with a climb of over 3,500 feet (1,100 m). The trailhead is at Camp 4 near Yosemite Village. It passes near Yosemite Falls and affords many views of the valley.
The peak can also be reached form the Tamarack Flat Campground located off the Tioga Pass Road. The hike, which follows the El Capitan trail most of the way, is 7.7 miles (12.4 km)  but the trailhead is at about 6,400 feet (2,000 m). Another route starts at Yosemite Creek Campground at an elevation of 7,200 feet (2,200 m). This trailhead is at the end of a very rough, single lane, 4-mile (6.4 km) road.

The Painter 
Abby Williams Hill was an American plein-air painter most known for her landscapes of the American West. Hill also advocated for children's rights, attended the 1905 Congress of Mothers in Washington, D.C., and founded the Washington (state) Parent-Teacher Association.
In the early 1900s, the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway commissioned Hill to paint landscapes of the northwestern United States to promote tourism. The commission required that Hill produce 22 paintings in just 18 weeks, and that she produce them en plein air.  Accompanied by her four children, Abby Hill took prolonged camping trips for the purpose of painting scenery in places such as Yosemite National Park and Yellowstone National Park.  Her works were exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland. Over the course of her career, Hill achieved her goal of painting in every national park in the Western United States.
Her husband became incapacitated by psychotic depression in 1911, so the family moved to the small isolated community of Laguna Beach, California, for the benefit of the mild, sunny climate.
Abby Hill was one of several early-20th-century American artists who built studios in Laguna Beach and transformed it into an artist community. She became a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association.
Following the death of her husband in 1938, Abby Hill became bedridden. She died in Laguna Beach in 1943.
A permanent collection of her works and papers is held by the University of Puget Sound.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

THE BLUEMLISALPHORN BY P. VON THUN

P. VON THUN (19th century)

Blüemlisalphorn (3,661m -12,011 ft) 

Switzerland

In  Kandersteg with the Blümlisalp range in the background Bernese Oberland.-Oil on  canvas, 56x79 cm  Courtesy John Mitchell Gallery, London 

The mountain
 Blüemlisalphorn (3,661 m) is the highest peak of the Blüemlisalp  massif in the Bernese Alps, in the territory of the municipalities of Kandersteg and Reichenbach im Kandertal.
The Blüemlisalp forms a ridge of great height, cut away in precipices on the southeast side, surmounted by four principal peaks, in the following order, reckoning from east to west: Morgenhorn (3,623 m), Wyssi Frau (3,648 m), the Blüemlisalphorn (3,661 m) and the Oeschinenhorn (3,486 m). To the southwest of the last peak, and between it and the Doldenhorn, is a minor summit — the Fründenhorn (3,369 m). In front of the main ridge, as seen from the northwest, e. g. from the Dündenhorn, are seen three minor peaks which project as steep islets of rock from the great glacier-fields that cover that side of the mountain. These are the Wildi Frau (3,260 m), the Ufem Stock (3,221 m), and the Blümlisalp Rothhorn (3,297 m).
The two main feeders of the Blüemlisalp Glacier  flow downwards through the openings between the three last-named summits, but a short branch from the ice-stream that descends between the Wildi Frau and the Ufem Stock turns to the north, and flows into the head of the Kiental.
The highest peak was ascended in 1860 by Leslie Stephen, accompanied by R. Liveing and J.K. Stone, with Melchior Anderegg and Pierre Simond of Argentière as guides.

The Painter
Not a lot of details about the life and work of P. von Thun who appears to be  a Swiss artist born in
XIX th century. The oldest auction result ever registered  for an artwork by this artist is a painting sold in 2010, at Dobiaschofsky Auktionen AG (Bern), and the most recent auction result is a painting sold in 2016. Artprice.com's price levels for this artist are based on 2 auction results.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

IZALCO VOLCANO IN VINTAGE STAMPS 1890

VINTAGE STAMPS 1890 

 Izalco Volcano (1,950m - 6,398ft)

El Salvador

In Volcan de Izalco, faro de la America Central, 1 cents stamp, 1890,  

Columbian Bank Note Company 

The volcano
The Izalco Volcano (1,950m -  is the youngest of the volcanoes in El Salvador and one of the youngest in the Americas.   The name of Izalco has its origin in the Nahuatl language (Itshalco) and means: "Place in the obsidian sands or Place in the black sands".
According to the popular version, it originated in the year 1770 when a hole in the skirt of the Santa Ana Volcano began to emit smoke and ashes. However, the historian Jorge Lardé and Larín indicates that its origins go back to March 19, 1722 when "a new crater was formed where it vomited fire, lava and ashes", 1 which made an important eruption in 1745 .
For 196 years the volcano erupted almost ceaselessly, so much that its flames could be seen until the ocean , this gave rise to that it was known with the nickname of Lighthouse of the Pacific . Its activity was such that a cone of 650 meters was formed on the neighboring plain (1,952 msnm), with a crater of 250 meters in diameter. Its last regular eruption occurred in 1958 , although in 1966 it awoke from its inactivity with a small lateral eruption. 2 Since then, there has been a gradual decrease in activity and temperature of its fumaroles.

The stamps
Correos de El Salvador is a dependency of the Ministry of the Interior in charge of offering postal services with national and international coverage. By constitutional mandate, it is up to the Salvadoran State to provide these services by itself or through autonomous institutions, and to monitor this activity when it is provided by private companies.
On March 1, 1867 stamps were mandatory in the country. These stamps were oval in shape and showed the figure of the San Miguel volcano surrounded by eleven stars representing the eleven departments in which the republic was divided at that time.
The Philatelic Society of El Salvador was founded in the city of San Salvador on January 5, 1940, at the initiative of Enrique Patiño, Antonio Pinto Lima and Ciro Rusconi. Patiño was its first president and the first meeting of the society brought together sixteen philatelists. Also in the United States The El Salvador Collectors Club was formed on May 3, 1975, which was incorporated into the Jack Knight Collectors Club, and later changed its name to Associated Collectors of El Salvador .
Both associations joined in 2004 to create the Philatelic Society of El Salvador - ACES , dedicated to the online study of stamps and postal history of El Salvador.
The institution has a quarterly online magazine called El Salvador Filatélico - El Faro.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MONTE CORNETTO BY SALVADOR SALI

SALVADOR DALI (1904-1989)

Monte Cornetto  (2, 179m - 7, 149 ft)

Italy

In  Lago de Garda, 1949, watercolour, Private collection 

The mountain 

Monte Cornetto   (2, 179m - 7, 149 ft) is part of the fifteen mountains  that surrounds Lake Garda and forms a Southern Eastern Alps massif whose Mont Caldria  is the highest point.  They rise in Italy (border between Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy and Veneto).The mountains are oriented north-south around the basin formed by Lake Garda and are surrounded by the Adamello-Presanella massif to the west, the Brenta massif to the north and the Vicentine Prealps to the east.

The climate of the mountains around Lake Garda is very mild because of its southern location within the Alps and the influence of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Sarche Valley and on the shores of the lake, snow rarely falls during the spring and fall, when temperatures are often measured between 15 and 20 ° C.

The massif is bordered by the Adige (including Val Lagarina) to the east.

The painter 

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Púbol, known professionally as Salvador Dalí, was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.
Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work,  The Persistence of Memory (above) was completed in August 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors. Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MONTE SAN VALENTIN BY ANTONIO SMITH

ANTONIO SMITH (1832-1877)

Monte San Valentin  (4,058 m - 13,314 ft)

Chile

 In  Paisaje cordillerano y laguna, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca Universidad de Concepción,  Chile 

The mountain 
Monte San Valentin  (4,058 m - 13,314 ft) , also known as Monte San Clemente, is the highest mountain in Chilean Patagonia  and the highest mountain south of 37°S outside Antarctica. It stands at the north end of the North Patagonian Icefield.
There is some confusion about the elevation. It was originally estimated at 3,876m by Nordenskjold in 1921 but later thought to be 4,058m. The latter is the most commonly quoted elevation and is quoted here. A French group that climbed the San Valentin in 1993 included two surveyors, who calculated an elevation of 4,080±20 m by using a GPS.  In 2001 a Chilean group measured 4,070±40 m, also using GPS.  SRTM and ASTER GDEM data also support an elevation in excess of 4,000 metres. However, Chilean IGM mapping gives only 3,910 metres. ChIGM maps are usually accurate and reliable,[citation needed] but the summit is uniformly white, which may have created problems for the cartographers.
Monte San Valentin can be climbed from Lago Leones, to the south east, or from Laguna San Rafael, to the west. The ascent is long and is particularly subject to bad weather. The accident and fatality rate is high.

The painter 
Painter and caricaturist Chilean, Antonio Smith is  considered the first satirico-politico artist of his country and one of the first truly contemporary painters, mainly cultivated the romantic landscape and exerted a considerable influence on later artists like Pedro Lira.
Son of an English father and Spanish mother, Antonio Smith studied at the National Institute of the Chilean capital, and then entered the Academy of fine arts, directed at that time by the Italian Alejandro Ciccarelli. During this time, the lessons taught in the Centre were subordinate to the rigid rules of pictorial academicism, inspired in turn by neoclassicism; This environment wasn't the young artist, who because of his disagreements with Ciccarelli, became the first student that would disappear from the Academy before the end of the studies. His eternal spirit of rebellion also led him to abandon the military career (1857), which had initiated in the cavalry squadron of grenadiers, to begin a life of dissident and 'Bohemian' artist, and frequent the most critical intellectual circles with the ruling classes of the country; then dedicated themselves to publishing cartoons in the pages of the literary mail that ridiculed to various public figures of the era, including, as not, the own Ciccarelli. The increasingly critical tone that was acquiring finally forced him to leave the country and go to Europe; This European stage, during which he/she worked in several Italian and French, painting workshops was crucial in defining its pictorial style and the definitive removal of academicism. In 1866 he/she returned to Chile, where he/she developed the rest of his career.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT EARNSLAW / PIKIRAKATAHI BY JOHN TURNBULL THOMSON

EDWYN TEMPLE (1835-1921)

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

New Zealand

 In  Mount Earnslaw-Lake Wakatipu 1883 oil on canvas - Private collection New Zealand 

The Mountain 

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

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

The painter 
 Edwyn Temple, or 'The Captain' as he was referred to by his friends and family, was born in England in 1835, the son of Lieutenant Colonel John Temple and the grandson of Grenville Temple-Temple 9th Baronet of Stowe.  Educated at Rugby School, he entered the military services in 1853. During a brief period in Italy a relative, Princess Pondalfina, recognised his ability and engaged a tutor to teach him the rudiments of painting.
Temple was ensigned in 1854 and became a Captain in the 55th Foot (Westmoreland) Regiment in 1858. He later served in the Crimea and in India from 1864 to 1866. By that time he had married and the first of a family of nine children had been born. It was more than nine years after retiring from the army that he decided to emigrate with his wife and family to New Zealand, arriving in Lyttelton on 25 October 1879.
Within a very short time of his arrival, he was established and developed a network of ex-military friends in Christchurch. Some of these were among the group that got together in June 1880 to form the Canterbury Society of Arts. Temple's role in its formation cannot be overstated and, in acknowledgment of this, he was elected to the key role of Secretary/Treasurer of the Society.
In 1882 he moved to Geraldine to a property, 'Castlewood', which he had purchased the previous year. There he lived and farmed for almost three decades, a Justice of the Peace from 1883, but mostly concentrating on painting before retiring to live in Timaru in the 1900s.
There is no question that Temple had an inner drive. He was a compulsive sketcher who drew on any piece of paper readily at hand as the mood took him; letters, ledgers, telegrams, envelopes, even wrapping paper were all targets for his pen, pencil or brush. His imagination was fertile and, coupled with a sardonic wit, resulted in many lively and amusing drawings and paintings. Though he was not considered to be a professional artist in the accepted sense, he was serious in his endeavours with painting and his approach was nothing short of professional. To have spent the time to produce such a quantity of work, of which those in this exhibition are only a small representation, shows that he was not just engaged in a diverting pastime.
Between 1880 and 1892, which was his most active period as an artist in New Zealand, Temple made many trips over the South Island with his relative and friend James Dupré Lance of Horsley Down Station. He also travelled with the government Surveyor John H. Baker. It was during these trips that he made sketches that were later developed into more major paintings, many of which he regularly showed at either the Canterbury Society of Arts, or the Otago Art Society annual exhibitions where they often received favourable notice from contemporary reviewers.
Temple also exhibited beyond New Zealand, first in 1880 in Melbourne, then in 1886 at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition London. He was also represented at the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition in Wellington in 1885 and the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition held in Dunedin in 1889–90.
He made return trips to England in 1892 and 1909 during which he made many landscape paintings.
Although the landscape was dominant in Temple's work, it was the alpine region of the South Island that particularly interested him and made him recognised in Canterbury as a specialist in this genre. Lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu were of special interest and these locales formed the backdrop to his imagery. From an early age Temple had visited Switzerland and the Lake District where several of his uncles had established themselves as gentry around Lake Ullswater and, in a sense, he had found a New Zealand equivalent to this experience. At the time of his death in 1920 Temple had amassed a considerable body of work that included paintings and drawings from his imagination that were pure fantasy as well as landscape, caricature and narrative subjects. Today, many hundreds of works are held by Temple's descendants scattered throughout the world but he is also represented in collections held by the National Library of Australia, Canberra; Hocken Library, Dunedin; Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington; Centre of Contemporary Art (incorporating Canterbury Society of Arts) Christchurch; as well as the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.
=> Courstesy Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna o Waiwhetū
___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT TACOMA/ MOUNT RAINIER BY ABBY WILLIAMS HILL

ABBY WILLIAMS HILL (1861-1943) 

Mount Tacoma / Mount Rainier (4,392 m-14,411 ft)

United States of America  (Washington State)

In Mount Rainier from Eunice Lake, 1904, University of Puget Sound 

The mountain
Mount Rainier,  Mount Tacoma, or Mount Tahoma (4,392 m-14,411 ft) is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a large active stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) south-southeast of Seattle. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
Mount Rainier was first known by the Native Americans as Talol, or Tacoma or Tahoma. One hypothesis of the word origin is  ("mother of waters"), in the Lushootseed language spoken by the Puyallup people. Another hypothesis is that "Tacoma" means "larger than Mount Baker" in Lushootseed: "Ta", larger, plus "Koma", Mount Baker. Other names originally used include Tahoma, Tacobeh, and Pooskaus.
The current name was given by George Vancouver, who named it in honor of his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. The map of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 refers to it as "Mt. Regniere".
With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq mi (93 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft (300 m) in diameter, with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters, with nearly 2 mi (3.2 km) of passages. A small crater lake about 130 by 30 ft (39.6 by 9.1 m) in size and 16 ft (5 m) deep, the highest in North America with a surface elevation of 14,203 ft (4,329 m), occupies the lowest portion of the west crater below more than 100 ft (30 m) of ice and is accessible only via the caves. The Carbon, Puyallup, Mowich, Nisqually, and Cowlitz Rivers begin at eponymous glaciers of Mount Rainier. The sources of the White River are Winthrop, Emmons, and Fryingpan Glaciers. The White, Carbon, and Mowich join the Puyallup River, which discharges into Commencement Bay at Tacoma; the Nisqually empties into Puget Sound east of Lacey; and the Cowlitz joins the Columbia River between Kelso and Longview.

The Painter 
Abby Williams Hill was an American plein-air painter most known for her landscapes of the American West. Hill also advocated for children's rights, attended the 1905 Congress of Mothers in Washington, D.C., and founded the Washington (state) Parent-Teacher Association.
In the early 1900s, the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway commissioned Hill to paint landscapes of the northwestern United States to promote tourism. The commission required that Hill produce 22 paintings in just 18 weeks, and that she produce them en plein air.  Accompanied by her four children, Abby Hill took prolonged camping trips for the purpose of painting scenery in places such as Yosemite National Park and Yellowstone National Park.  Her works were exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland. Over the course of her career, Hill achieved her goal of painting in every national park in the Western United States.
Her husband became incapacitated by psychotic depression in 1911, so the family moved to the small isolated community of Laguna Beach, California, for the benefit of the mild, sunny climate.
Abby Hill was one of several early-20th-century American artists who built studios in Laguna Beach and transformed it into an artist community. She became a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association.
Following the death of her husband in 1938, Abby Hill became bedridden. She died in Laguna Beach in 1943.
A permanent collection of her works and papers is held by the University of Puget Sound.

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

EL CAYAMBE BY RAFAEL TROYA

RAFAEL TROYA (1845-1920) 

Cayambe  (5,790 m -19,000 ft)

 Ecuador

In Vista tomada de Sannicolas, Pva. de Imbabura,  oil on canvas ,1913, 75 x 95 cm. 

Courtesy Colección Alicia Troya-Kennedy

The mountain 
Cayambe or Volcбn Cayambe (5,790 m -19,000 ft) is the name of a volcano located in the Cordillera Central, a range of the Ecuadorian Andes. It is located in Pichincha province some 70 km (43 mi) northeast of Quito. It is the third highest mountain in Ecuador.
Cayambe, which has a permanent snow cap, is a Holocene compound volcano which last erupted in March 1786. At 4,690 metres (15,387 ft) on its south slope is the highest point in the world crossed by the Equator and the only point on the Equator with snow cover. The volcano and most of its slopes are within the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve.  Studies conducted since 1995 by a joint team of Ecuadorian and French researchers have shown that during the last 4000, the Cayambe has experienced periods of intense eruptive activity about 700 years alternating with rest periods of 500 to 600 years. The resumption of eruptions must be considered.
Moreover, the region is home to numerous flower plantations for export; however, the non-secure management and toxic effects of these crops have caused serious damage to the environment and create health problems among employees of the plantations.

The painter 
Rafael Troya (1845-1920)  was an Ecuadorian painter born, the son of the painter Vicente Troya. Being a teenager, he is taken to the Colegio de la Compañia de Jesus in Quito, but he soon abandons the clerical career to dedicate himself to what was his true vocation: painting. With the painter Luis Cadena, he learns the technique of colors. In 1872, he definitely choose the landscape and accompanied  Reis and Stübel on their study trips in Ecuador on Nature and Archeology. Troya becomes the portraitist of nature, painting compositions full of color and life. In 1890 he came back in the capital of Imbabureña, and decided to be completely dedicated to his art. There he made several masterpieces, such as the paintings on the Apostles, which today are admired in the Ibarra Cathedral, the Ibarra Foundation, preserved in the Hall of the city of Ibarra; Allegory of love, panoramic view of Ibarra; The earthquake of Imbabura, and several religious canvases that are conserved in some churches of Quito, in the church of Caranqui and in the Museum of the Central Bank of Quito. In his paintings, green and bluish tones predominate, characteristic of his native land. He painted a lot of mountains of the Andes and  the most famous volcanoes of the Cordillera.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE WATZMANN BY EDWARD T. COMPTON

EDWARD T. COMPTON (1849-1921) 

The Watzmann (2, 713m - 8, 901ft) 

Germany 

In The Watzmann seen from the Hotel Post in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, watercolour, 26 x 23, 5cm) 

Courtesy William Mitchell Gallery, London 

The mountain
The Watzmann (2,713m - 8,901ft) is a mountain in the Bavarian Alps south of the village of Berchtesgaden. It is the third highest in Germany, and the highest located entirely on German territory. Three main peaks array on a N-S axis along a ridge on the mountain's taller western half: Hocheck (2,651 m), Mittelspitze (Middle Peak, 2,713 m) and Sьdspitze (South Peak, 2,712 m).
The Watzmann massif also includes the 2,307 m Watzmannfrau (Watzmann Wife, also known as Kleiner Watzmann or Small Watzmann), and the Watzmannkinder (Watzmann Children), five lower peaks in the recess between the main peaks and the Watzmannfrau.
The entire massif lies inside Berchtesgaden National Park.
The Watzmann Glacier is located below the famous east face of the Watzmann in the Watzmann cirque and is surrounded by the Watzmanngrat arête, the Watzmannkindern and the Kleiner Watzmann. The size of the glacier reduced from around 30 hectares (74 acres) in 1820 until it split into a few fields of firn, but between 1965 and 1980 it advanced significantly again and now has an area of 10.1 hectares (25 acres). Above and to the west of the icefield lie the remains of a transport-bomber that crashed in October 1940.
Amongst the other permanent snow and icefields the Eiskapelle ("Ice Chapel") is the best known due to its easy accessibility from St. Bartholomä. The Eiskapelle may well be the lowest lying permanent snowfield in the Alps. Its lower end is only 930 metres high in the upper Eisbach valley and is about an hour's walk from St. Bartholomä on the Königssee. The Eiskapelle is fed by mighty avalanches that slide down from the east face of the Watzmann in spring and accumulate in the angle of the rock face. Sometimes a gate-shaped vault forms in the ice at the point where the Eisbach emerges from the Eiskapelle. Before entering there is an urgent warning sign that others have been killed by falling ice.
In the east face itself is another icefield in the so-called Schöllhorn cirque, called the Schöllhorneis, which is crossed by the Kederbach Way (Kederbacher-Weg). The cirque and icefield are named after the Munich citizen, Christian Schöllhorn, who was the first victim on the east face. On 26 May 1890 he fell at the upper end of the icefield into the randkluft and was fatally injured. Another small nameless snowfield is located several hundred metres below the Mittelspitze also in the east face.


The painter
Edward Theodore Compton, usually referred to as E. T. Compton was an English-born, German artist, illustrator and mountain climber, not to be confused with his son Edward Harrison Compton, also a mountain painter. He is well known for his paintings and drawings of alpine scenery, and as a mountaineer made 300 major ascents including no fewer than 27 first ascents.

Initially painting in the English romantic tradition, Compton later developed a more realistic representation of nature, being guided by his true artistic ideas while retaining topographical accuracy. Even his early watercolors show the great importance of brightness and light and his work is also remarkable for its portrayal of the elements such as water and air, including ascending mist and fog. He can be regarded as an impressionist.
He attended various art schools, including, for a time, the Royal Academy in London, but otherwise he was mainly self-taught in art. In 1867, wanting the best education for their artistically-talented son, and due to the high cost of schooling in England, the family decided to emigrate to Germany settling in Darmstadt. The city at that time was the seat of the Grand Duchy of Hesse under Grand Duke Ludwig III, and a community of artists had sprung up there. Entries in Compton's diary show that both he and his father were art teachers - Alice, the Princess of Hesse numbered amongst Edward's students.
_________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

USHAS MONS BY NASA MAGELLAN MISSION

MAGELLAN MISSION (1989-1994)

Ushas Mons (2,000 m / 2 km - 6,561ft/1.25 mile)  

VENUS

The mountain 
Ushas Mons (2,000 m / 2 km - 6,561ft/1.25 mile) is a volcano in the southern hemisphere of Venus at 25 degrees south latitude, 323 degrees east longitude. Its name is derived from vedic goddess of dawn Ushas .The volcano is marked by numerous bright lava flows and a set of north-south trending fractures, many of which appear to have formed after the lavas were erupted onto the surface. In the central summit area, however, younger flows remain unfractured. An impact crater can be seen among the fractures in the upper center of the image. The association of faulting and volcanism is common on this type of volcano on Venus, and is believed to result from a large zone of hot material upwelling from the Venusian mantle, a phenomenon known on Earth as a "hotspot."


The mission
Magellan was launched on May 4, 1989, at 18:46:59 UTC by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from KSC Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis during mission STS-30. Once in orbit, the Magellan and its attached Inertial Upper Stage booster were deployed from Atlantis and launched on May 5, 1989 01:06:00 UTC, sending the spacecraft into a Type IV heliocentric orbit where it would circle the Sun 1.5 times, before reaching Venus 15 months later on August 10, 1990.
Originally, the Magellan had been scheduled for launch in 1988 with a trajectory lasting six months. However, due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, several missions, including Galileo and Magellan, were deferred until shuttle flights resumed in September 1988. Magellan was planned to be launched with a liquid-fueled, Centaur-G upper-stage booster, carried in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle. However, the entire Centaur-G program was canceled after the Challenger disaster, and the Magellan probe had to be modified to be attached to the less-powerful Inertial Upper Stage. The next best opportunity for launching occurred in October 1989.
Further complicating the launch however, was the launching of the Galileo mission to Jupiter, one that included a fly-by of Venus. Intended for launch in 1986, the pressures to ensure a launch for Galileo in 1989, mixed with a short launch-window necessitating a mid-October launch, resulted in replanning the Magellan mission. Weary of rapid shuttle launches, the decision was made to launch Magellan in May, and into an orbit that would require one year, three months, before encountering Venus.
On August 7, 1990, Magellan encountered Venus and began the orbital insertion maneuver which placed the spacecraft into a three-hour, nine minute, elliptical orbit that brought the spacecraft 295-kilometers from the surface at about 10 degrees North during the periapsis and out to 7762-kilometers during apoapsis
On September 9, 1994, a press release outlined the termination of the Magellan mission. Due to the degradation of the power output from the solar arrays and onboard components, and having completed all objectives successfully, the mission was to end in mid-October. The termination sequence began in late August 1994, with a series of orbital trim maneuvers which lowered the spacecraft into the outermost layers of the Venusian atmosphere to allow the Windmill experiment to begin on September 6, 1994.

___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

KILIMANDJARO (2) BY ROBERT MC LELLAN-SIM

ROBERT MC LELLAN-SIM  (1907-1985)

Kilimandjaro (5,885m - 19,340ft) 

Tanzania

The mountain 
Mount Kilimanjaro (5,885m - 19, 340ft) is a dormant volcano in Tanzania composed of three volcanic cones, "Kibo", "Mawenzi", and "Shira.  The Kilimandjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. The first recorded ascent to the summit  was by Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller in 1889.
The mountain is part of the Kilimanjaro National Park and is a major climbing destination. The mountain has been the subject of many scientific studies because of its shrinking glaciers, especially since 200.
The origin of the name "Kilimanjaro" is not precisely known, but a number of theories exist. European explorers had adopted the name by 1860 and reported that "Kilimanjaro" was the mountain's Kiswahili name. The 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia also records the name of the mountain as "Kilima-Njaro", as well as the title of the watercolor above. Johann Ludwig Krapf wrote in 1860 that Swahilis along the coast called the mountain Kilimanjaro. Although he did not support his claim, he claimed that "Kilimanjaro" meant either "mountain of greatness" or "mountain of caravans". Under the latter meaning, "Kilima" meant "mountain" and "Jaro" possibly meant "caravans". Jim Thompson claimed in 1885, although he also did not support his claim, that the term Kilima-Njaro "has generally been understood to mean" the Mountain (Kilima) of Greatness (Njaro). Though not improbably it may mean the "White" mountain. "Njaro" is an ancient Kiswahili word for "shining". Others have assumed that "Kilima" is Kiswahili for "mountain".
In the 1880s, the mountain became a part of German East Africa and was called "Kilima-Ndscharo" in German following the Kiswahili name components.
On 6 October 1889, Hans Meyer reached the highest summit on the crater ridge of Kibo. He named it "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze" ("Kaiser Wilhelm peak").
That name apparently was used until Tanzania was formed in 1964, when the summit was renamed "Uhuru", meaning "Freedom Peak" in Kiswahili.The mountain
Mount Kilimanjaro (5,885m - 19, 340ft) is a dormant volcano in Tanzania composed of three volcanic cones, "Kibo", "Mawenzi", and "Shira.  The Kilimandjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. The first recorded ascent to the summit  was by Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller in 1889.
The mountain is part of the Kilimanjaro National Park and is a major climbing destination. The mountain has been the subject of many scientific studies because of its shrinking glaciers, especially since 2000....
Full wandering Vertexes entry  =>


The painter 
Robert McLellan-Sim (also known as RMS) was a prolific artist, and during his time in East Africa (he travelled throughout Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar) he completed as many as 40 paintings a year. His work was in great demand, and over a period of some fifteen years he held ten One Man Exhibitions, mostly in Kenya, but at least one in England while on leave.
His work was purchased by many eminent people and was extremely popular as an official gift or a farewell present. The Colony of Kenya presented a McLellan-Sim painting to HM The Queen on the occasion of her Coronation in 1953, and HM The Queen Mother was presented with another to commemorate her Visit to Kenya in 1959. Many a departing dignitary at the time of independence received a McLellan-Sim painting as a farewell gift. Both Jake Fletcher and Amoeba Walker took McLellan-Sim works of art home with them to England when they left the Prince of Wales School. The Kenya Regiment presented a McLellan-Sim painting to Sir Patrick Renison as their departing Commander-in -Chief when he retired as Governor of Kenya in 1961.
RMS was a successful commercial artist, with his clients including the East African Tobacco Company, the East African Standard and the Uganda Tourist Board. His public works included the murals for the Kenya Agricultural Stand in the Rhodes Centenary Exhibition of 1952 in Bulawayo, the Nakuru Railway Station murals of 1957 and the 1960 mural for the National Assembly Building in Nairobi.
RMS designed the 1954 blue 10 shilling postage stamp depicting the Royal Lodge at Sagana, a signed mint copy of which has been presented by the McLellan-Sim family to The British Library. This is the one that caught my eye and got me started on this article in the first place.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau