MITRE PEAK / RAHOTU BY JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE

JOHN BARR CLARK HOYTE (1835-1913)

Mitre Peak / Rahotu (1,683m - 5,522 ft) 

New Zealand (South Island)

2. In Mitre Peak from Milford Sound, watercolour, 1870 

About the works
During his years in New Zealand, from 1860 to 1879, John Barr Clark Hoyte travelled around the country searching for dramatic landscapes to paint.
The watercolours of Mitre Peak are thought to date from the 1870s.

The mountain
Mitre Peak/ Rahotu (1,683m - 5,522 ft) is an iconic mountain in the South Island of New Zealand, located on the shore of Milford Sound. It is one of the most photographed peaks in the country. The distinctive shape of the peak in southern New Zealand gives the mountain its name, after the mitre headwear of Christian bishops. It was named by Captain John Lort Stokes of the HMS Acheron.
Part of the reason for its iconic status is its location. Close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park in the southwestern South Island, it is a stunning sight. The mountain rises near vertically from the water of Milford Sound, which technically is a fjord.
The peak is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks, with Mitre Peak not even the tallest one, however from most easily accessible viewpoints, Mitre Peak appears as a single point.
Milford Sound is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site as declared by UNESCO.
The only road access to Milford Sound is via State Highway 94, in itself one of the most scenic roads in New Zealand.
Climbing
Mitre Peak is difficult to climb and not many people do so. The first attempt was made in 1883, but was aborted due to bad weather. The next attempt was on 13 March 1911 by JR Dennistoun from Peel Forest. People did not believe Dennistoun, who claimed to have built a cairn on the peak to which he had fixed his handkerchief. Those facts were confirmed by the next successful climbers in 1914. There are six routes up to Mitre Peak, and most climbers start by getting a boat to Sinbad Bay.

The painter
John Barr Clark Hoyte was born in England, probably in London, the son of Samuel Hoyte, a landowner. His mother's name is not known, nor are any details of his childhood. From 1856 to 1859 he was employed as a planter in Demerara, Guyana, after which he returned to England. On 1860, at Leamington, Warwickshire, he married Rose Esther Elizabeth Parsons, daughter of an iron merchant. Within three months they sailed on the Egmont for Auckland, New Zealand, where they were to live for 16 years. Three daughters were born in Auckland, and the couple may also have had a son. A brother of John Hoyte emigrated to New Zealand, possibly in the 1870s.
Nothing is known of Hoyte's education and artistic training and we are reduced to the obvious deduction that he was heir to the English tradition of topographic draughtsmanship and watercolour painting. Firm drawing underlies his landscapes, making it appropriate to group him with colonial surveyor–architect artists such as Edward Ashworth, Edmund Norman and George O'Brien.
During his years in New Zealand John Hoyte travelled assiduously in search of new scenes to exploit. In January 1866 he exhibited views from Whangarei, Coromandel, Auckland, Waikato, the Wellington region and Nelson, although some of these pictures were not painted from the subject. In the 1870s he travelled each summer, progressively adding the thermal region, Taranaki, Nelson, Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, Banks Peninsula and Otago to his repertoire between 1872 and 1876.
His pictorial exploration of the colony's principal dramatic landscapes was completed when he took a cruise circumnavigating the South Island in early 1877, exploring the coast of Fiordland with particular attention. New Zealand subjects would continue to inspire his production long after he had settled in Australia, where they shared his attention with coastal and mountain views drawn chiefly from the neighbourhood of Sydney.
The success of the art unions of his work shows that the subjects he painted were in harmony with public taste. Despite the exceptional landscapes which appear so frequently in his production – geysers, the Pink and White Terraces, fiords, mountains and lakes – it appears that his preference was for a more gentle, picturesque mode of landscape art rather than the heightened tensions of the sublime. The Otago Guardian in 1876 described 'the aspect of repose which usually characterises Mr Hoyte's illustrations of native landscapes'. A comparison of Fiordland subjects painted by Hoyte and John Gully shows that Hoyte eschewed the manipulation of the viewer's emotions which the latter exploited so regularly. Even in his pastoral subjects Gully could be relied on to introduce an epic element which Hoyte usually avoided. Despite his apparent commercial success, however, Hoyte's standing, like that of George O'Brien, waned in the 1870s: a decade which marked a major shift in New Zealand colonial taste as the Turnerian Romantics such as Gully, J. C. Richmond and W. M. Hodgkins moved into greater prominence. They and their style were to dominate the following decades.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT STANLEY / SAVOIA PEAK PHOTOGRAPHED BY VITTORIO SELLA

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1943)

Mont Stanley / Savoia Peak (4,977 m - 16, 330 ft)

Congo - Uganda border 

In Mt Stanley from lake Bujuku, 1906, The Georgian Museum of Photography

The mountain
Mount Stanley (5,109 m -16,762 ft) is located in the Rwenzori range and is the highest mountain of both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and the third highest in Africa, after Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m -19,340ft) and Mount Kenya (5,199 m - 17,057ft). The peak and several other surrounding peaks are high enough to support glaciers. Mount Stanley is named for the journalist and explorer, Sir Henry Morton Stanley. It is part of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, a UNESCO world Heritage Site.
Mt. Stanley consists of two twin summits and several lower peaks which are :
Margherita Peak (5,109m - 16,763ft), Alexandra Peak (5,091m - 16,703ft), Albert Peak (5,087m - 16,690ft), Savoia Peak (4,977m - 16,330ft), Ellena Peak (4,968m -16,300ft), Elizabeth Peak (4,929m - 16,170 ft), Phillip Peak (4,920m - 16,140ft), Moebius Peak (4,916m - 16,130 ft) and Great Tooth (4,603m - 15,100ft).
Mt. Stanley was first climbed in 1906 by the Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia , Duke of the Abruzzi, (1873-1933), J. Petigax, C. Ollier, and J. Brocherel. He is known as well for his Arctic explorations and for his mountaineering expeditions, particularly to Mount Saint Elias (Alaska–Yukon) and K2 (Pakistan–China). Margherita Peak is named after Queen Margherita of Italy the prince's cousin.
The Rwenzori Mountains National Park is considered a model for integration of cultural values into the Protected Area Management framework as an innovative approach to resource management, the first of its kind in Africa. As a result the local communities have embraced collaborative resource management initiatives. Given its significance as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the Albertine Rift, various local and international NGOs have supported the management and conservation of the property. A General Management Plan guides management operations on-site. Key challenges to address include illegal felling of trees, snow recession due to global warming, human population pressure adjacent to the property and management of waste generated through tourism operations. UWA is addressing the above threats through resource protection, community conservation education, research and ranger-based monitoring, ecotourism and transboundary initiatives with the DRC. The long-term maintenance of the integrity of the property will be achieved through sustainable financing, ecological monitoring, continued collaboration with key stakeholders and regional cooperation.

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

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

JEBEL KSEL PAINTED BY EUGENE FROMENTIN

EUGÈNE FROMENTIN (1820-1876) 

Jebel Ksel (2, 008 m - 6, 588ft )

Algeria 

In Un Campement dans les Montagnes de l'Atlas, oil on canvas, (150 x 190 cm), ca. 1865,

The Walters Art Museum

About this painting 
Prosper Dorbec in "L'Hellénisme d'Eugène Fromentin" in the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts"   (1924)  singled out Fromentin as a classicist among Orientalists. For the painter-writer, according to Dorbec, the desert and the ramparts of Aïn Mahdy became the plains of Ilium. In this spacious view, characteristic of the artist's production in the mid-sixties, the bold silhouettes of the horsemen, their generalized treatment and the essentially static composition reaffirm the classical character of Fromentin's painting. Shown are a group of Arabs examining a horse being displayed for sale.

A rather similar composition, "Horse Market in Algeria" 1867, appeared on the New York art market in 1913. Related studies include a view similar to the group of would-be purchasers in this scene, "Five Standing Arabs" 1874, The William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center; a smaller subject sold in the Verdé-Delisle Collection, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 29, 1879, no. 35; and a three-figured composition sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 12, 1943, no. 26.
The painting above was acquired by William T. Walters, between 1878 and 1884

The mountain 

Jebel Ksel (2.008 m - 6,588ft) ) is the highest of the six peaks of the Amour Range, located in the Algerian Atlas, which are  Guern Arif, Mount Sidi Okba, Mount Gourou,  Oum El Guedour, Kef Sidi Bouzid. Jebel Ksel summit is located 400 km south of Algiers, in the province of El Bayadh, in the north of the country. The largest city  around  is El Bayadh, located 13.2 km west of Djebel Ksel.

The Amour Range is a mountain range in Algeria, which comprises part of the Saharan Atlas of the Atlas Mountain System.
The Amour Range is located in the central area of the Saharan Atlas, with the Ksour Range in the western end and the Ouled-Naïl Rangein the eastern end.
The town of Aflou, one of the highest municipalities in Algeria and also one of the coldest, is located in the range at an elevation of 1,426 m. There are about 35,000 people living in the area of the Amour.  

The painter 

Brilliant student from a bourgeois family of La Rochelle, Eugene Fromentin is moving towards a career as a magistrate. In order not to disappoint paternal ambitions, he studies law in Paris. At the same time, he showed a great interest in the arts, notably painting and literature. In 1845, he even published a brilliant review of the Salon of 1845 in "The Organic Review of the West" a literary journal of his friend Emile Beltremieux, as well as some poems. It then becomes obvious to the young man that law is not his vocation. Assisted by Charles Michel, a family friend, he manages to convince his father to let him follow artistic studies.

He thus enters the studio of Joseph Remond before integrating the following year that of Louis-Nicolas Cabat. Fromentin flourishes beside his new master, who introduces him to landscape painting. However, the young artist who wants to paint more exotic panoramas decides to visit Algeria. He arrived in Algiers in 1846, accompanied by his friend Armand du Mesnil, then went to Blida nicknamed "the city of roses". The artist is captivated by the charm of a warm and colorful nature.

Returning to Paris in 1847, he exhibited for the first time three paintings at the Salon of French Artists "Les  Gorges de la Chiffa", " Une Mosquée près d'Alger" and " Une ferme dans les environs de  La Rochelle" which immediately attract attention of connoisseurs and critics. Two years later, he received his first medal with the "Place de la Breche, Constantine", and in 1850 he exhibited eleven paintings, memories of his trip to Biskra. In 1852, he returned to Algeria accompanied by his wife, and this time he went to the desert to settle in Laghouat. During this stay, he made more than a hundred studies that will be the source of a fruitful production of orientalist works.

In 1857, he published his travelogues "Une année au Sahel" and "Un été au Sahara" in the Revue de Paris. This is the dedication for Fromentin who is recognized as a painter of talent but also as a great writer. After the publication of these two volumes, Theophile Gauthier writes "M. Fromentin has a privilege that I have not yet seen anyone possess to an equal degree! He has two muses: he is a painter in two languages. He is not an amateur in one or the other, he is the artist, conscientious, stern and fine in both ".

The mailings to the Salon of French Artists follow one another so much the work of the painter is prolix. The artist obtained many medals between 1859 and 1867. Classified out of competition and elevated to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1869, Eugène Fromentin is recognized as one of the greatest Orientalist artists of his time.

In a jury report, Mr. Cador said: "M. Fromentin triumphs ... he has created a new genre in painting, as much as to say that he has discovered a world, his paintings falling under no tradition, no school; it is an original talent, in the good sense of the word, full of ardor and brilliance, which attracts and captivates by the powerful charm of its color, the grace of the details, by the poetic sentiment which overflows of all its compositions " .

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

THE POPOCATEPETL PAINTED BY DIEGO RIVERA

DIEGO RIVERA (1886-1957) 

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

Mexico

In   The Threshing Floor (La era), oil on canvas, 100 x 114.6 cm, 1904,  

Museo Casa Diego Rivera, Guanajuato.

The mountain
Popocatépetl (5,426 m - 17,802 ft) is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. The name Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca (it smokes) and tepētl (mountain), meaning Smoking Mountain. It is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) at 5,636 m (18,491 ft).
It is linked to the Iztaccihuatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cortés.
Popocatépetl is 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, from where it can be seen regularly, depending on atmospheric conditions. Until recently, the volcano was one of three tall peaks in Mexico to contain glaciers, the others being Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba. In the 1990s, the glaciers such as Glaciar Norte (North Glacier) greatly decreased in size, partly due to warmer temperatures but largely due to increased volcanic activity. By early 2001, Popocatépetl's glaciers were gone; ice remained on the volcano, but no longer displayed the characteristic features of glaciers such as crevasses.
Magma erupting from Popocatépetl has historically been predominantly andesitic, but it has also erupted large volumes of dacite. Magma produced in the current cycle of activity tends to be a mixture of the two.

The painter
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican mural movement in Mexican art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Rivera had a volatile marriage with fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
In 1926, Rivera became a member of AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, an occult organization founded by American occultist Harvey Spencer Lewis. In 1926, Rivera was among the founders of AMORC's Mexico City lodge, called Quetzalcoatl, and painted an image of Quetzalcoatl for the local temple.  In 1954, when he tried to be readmitted into the Mexican Communist Party from which he had previously been excluded because of his support of Trotsky, Rivera had to justify his AMORC activities. The Mexican Communist Party at that time excluded from its ranks members of Freemasonry, and regarded AMORC as suspiciously similar to Freemasonry.  Rivera answered that, by joining AMORC, he wanted to infiltrate a typical “Yankee” organization on behalf of Communism. However, he also claimed that AMORC was “essentially materialist, insofar as it only admits different states of energy and matter, and is based on ancient Egyptian occult knowledge from Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti.”

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT DISCOVERY (2) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-912)

Mount Discovery (2, 681m - 8,796 ft)

Antarctica

In The Last Sight of Mount Discovery, watercolour on paper (12.1 x 20.6cm.), 1904, Private owner 

About this painting
"And so that night [19 February 1904], running swiftly through the water with a howling gale behind, we saw the last of the McMurdo Sound. It was a fine scene, for although the wind blew with great force, the sky was comparatively clear. Away to the south-west behind the ragged storm clouds could be seen the deep red of the setting sun, against which there stood in sharp outline the dark forms of the western mountains and the familiar cone of Mount Discovery. On our right in a gloomy threatening sky rose the lofty snow-clad slopes of Erebus and the high domed summit of Cape Bird. For the last time we gazed at all these well-known landmarks with feelings that were not far removed from sadness...'
(R.F. Scott, The Voyage of the 'Discovery', London: 1907, II, pp.274-5).

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 Discovery British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) and named for their expedition ship Discovery.

The artist
Edward Adrian Wilson, nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.
Dr. Edward A. Wilson is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper.
Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

FUJIYAMA FROM ISAWA / 富士山 BY KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI / 葛飾 北斎

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI / 葛飾 北斎 (1760 - 1849)

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft) 

Japan 

In  Fuji seen from Isawa, Kai Province at daybreak rising out of the mists.

Woodblock print-  Ashmolean Museum. Oxford University 

The mountain 

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan. 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.

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.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MT ARAGATS PAINTED BY ALEXANDER BOGOMAZOV

ALEXANDER BOGOMAZOV (1880-1930)  

Mount Aragats (4,090 m -13,420 ft)

Armenia 

 In  "Karabakh"  (oil on canvas) 61x 82 cm- ca 1924-25, Private collection 

The mountain 
Mount Aragats (4,090 m -13,420 ft) in Armenian: Արագած, is an isolated four-peaked volcano massif in Armenia. Its northern summit, above sea level, is the highest point of the Lesser Caucasus and Armenia. It is also one of the highest points in the Armenian Highlands. Situated 40 kilometers (25 mi) northwest of Armenian capital Yerevan, Aragats is a large volcano with numerous fissure vents and adventive cones. Numerous large lava flows descend from the volcano and are constrained in age between middle Pleistocene and 3,000 BCE. The summit crater is cut by a 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) long line of cones which generated possibly Holocene-age lahars and lava flows.  The volcanic system covers an area of 5,000 km2 and is one of the largest in the region.  The magmas feeding Aragats are unusually hot for arc-derived magmas, resulting in long and voluminous lava flows.
The Aragats massif is surrounded by Kasagh River on the east, Akhurian River on the west, Ararat plain on the south and Shirak plain on the north.
According to an ancient Armenian legend, Aragats and Mount Ararat were loving sisters who parted after a quarrel and separated permanently. Currently, the mountains are further separated politically, with Mount Ararat being located in Turkey.
Another legend tells that Gregory the Illuminator, who converted Armenia into Christianity in the early 4th century, "used to pray on the peak of the mountain. At nighttime an icon-lamp shone to give light for him, the lamp hanging from heaven using no rope. Some say that the icon-lamp is still there, but only the worthy ones can see it."
Mt. Aragats plays a special role in Armenian history and culture. Along with Ararat, it is considered a sacred mountain for the Armenians.
Aragats is a male first name in Armenia, used especially in areas surrounding the mountain.
Mt. Aragats is often associated with Gyumri, Armenia's second largest city. The mountain is depicted on the coat of arms of Gyumri.  It is also depicted on the obverse side of the 10,000 Armenian dram banknote (in use since 2003) in the background of Avetik Isahakyan, a poet born in Gyumri.

The painter 
Alexander Bogomazov or Oleksandr Bohomazov (Александр Константинович Богомазов) was a Ukrainian painter, known artist and modern art theoretician of the Russian Avant-garde. 

From 1896 to 1902, Aleksander Bogomazov attended the Institute for Agriculture in Kherson. From 1902 to 1905, he attended the Kiev Art School (KKHU), at the same time he had close contact with Alexander Archipenko and Aleksandra Ekster.
In 1905, he participated in political demonstrations and strikes. In the same year he was expelled from the Kiev Art School. In 1906, he studied in the studio of S. Swiatoslavskiy. Bogomazov had an exhibition in Kiev, together with Archipenko. That year he moved to Moscow and became the student of Fyodor Rerberg and Konstantin Yuon.
In 1907, he returned to Kiev. After 1907, he had regular exhibitions in Kiev, including the Association of Russian Artists and the Moscow Society of Independent Artists. In 1908, he participated in the exhibition with the group of artists Zveno (The Link) in Kiev together with David Burliuk, Wladimir Burliuk, Aleksandra Ekster and others.
In 1911, he journeyed to Finland. From 1912 to 1915, he taught at a school for the deaf and mute in Kiev. From 1913 to 1914, he studied the works of the Italian Futurists. At this time he developed art theories, and published his essay The Art of Painting and the Elements. In 1914, he organized the exhibition Kiltse ("The Ring") in Kiev, together with Aleksandra Ekster, Eugène Konopatzky among others.

 In 1915, Bogomazov moved to the Caucasus, where he worked as a teacher and painter.
In 1919, he taught at the First State Studio for Paintings and Decorative art in Kiev. From 1919 to 1920, he was the Head of the Department for Art Education in the Ukrainian Commissariat for Visual Art. At the same time he was the co-founder of the Ukrainian Agitprop Movement, and created designs for the Agitprom movement. From 1922 to 1930, he taught at the Kiev Art Academy (KKHI) together with Vadim Meller, Vladimir Tatlin, Victor Palmov. 

In 1927, he was a founding member of the Association of the Revolutionary Masters of Ukraine (ARMU), together with D.Burliuk, V.Meller, V.Palmov, V. Yermilov and others. In the same year, he participated in the All-Ukrainian Exhibition Ten years October (Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa), together with Tatlin, Meller, Palmov, Epshtein among others.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

PUEBLO PEAK PAINTED BY MARSDEN HARTLEY

MARSDEN HARTLEY (1877-1943)

Pueblo Peak (2,631m - 8,632ft)

United States of America (Oregon / Nevada) 

In Pueblo mountain, crayon conté on paper, 1918

The mountain
Pueblo Peak (2,631m - 8,632ft) or Pueblo Mountain is the highest point of the Pueblo Mountains, a remote mountain range in the United States located mostly in southeastern Oregon and partially in northwestern Nevada.
While there is no designated wilderness area in the Pueblo Mountains, traveling in the mountains can be very challenging. The Desert Trail runs through the mountains; however, it is not a developed hiking trail. The route is simply marked by rock cairns that serve as guideposts. The cairns were built as a cooperative venture between the Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and the Desert Trail Association (a private organization). The Desert Trail Association publishes a topographic map for hikers that gives directions for orienteering from cairn to cairn.
Cattle and sheep grazing in the Pueblo Mountains began when the first ranches were established along the eastern edge of the mountains in the mid-1860s.
Miners were among the first to explore the Pueblo Mountains. There are at least 18 locations where mining took place in the past.
Wind power is now being explored in the Pueblo Mountains. The test allowed a private wind energy company to install, operate, and maintain two meteorological poles.

The painter 
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.
Hartley began his art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art after his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1892.  He won a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art.
In 1898, at age 22, he moved to New York City to study painting at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase, and then attended the National Academy of Design. Hartley was a great admirer of Albert Pinkham Ryder and visited his studio in Greenwich Village as often as possible. His friendship with Ryder, in addition to the writings of Walt Whitman and American transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, inspired Hartley to view art as a spiritual quest.
Hartley first traveled to Europe in April 1912, and he became acquainted with Gertrude Stein's circle of Avant-garde writers and artists in Paris.  Stein, along with Hart Crane and Sherwood Anderson, encouraged Hartley to write as well as paint.
In 1913, Hartley moved to Berlin, where he continued to paint and befriended the painters Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. He also collected Bavarian folk art.  His work during this period was a combination of abstraction and German Expressionism, fueled by his personal brand of mysticism.
In Berlin, Hartley developed a close relationship with a Prussian lieutenant, Karl von Freyburg. References to Freyburg were a recurring motif in Hartley's work, most notably in Portrait of a German Officer (1914). Freyburg's subsequent death during the war hit Hartley hard, and he afterward idealized their relationship. Many scholars believe Hartley to have been gay, and have interpreted his work regarding Freyburg as embodying his homosexual feelings for him.
Hartley finally returned to the U.S. in early 1916. He lived in Europe again from 1921 to 1930, when he moved back to the U.S. for good.  He painted throughout the country, in Massachusetts, New Mexico, California, and New York. He returned to Maine in 1937, after declaring that he wanted to become "the painter of Maine" and depict American life at a local level.  This aligned Hartley with the Regionalism movement, a group of artists active from the early- to-mid 20th century that attempted to represent a distinctly "American art." He continued to paint in Maine, primarily scenes around Lovell and the Corea coast, until his death in Ellsworth in 1943. His ashes were scattered on the Androscoggin River. Most of his mountains paintings of Maine are nowadays in the MET collections.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

EL CHIMBORAZO (2) PAINTED BY RAFAEL SALAS

RAFAEL SALAS (1824-1906),

El Chimborazo (6,263 m -20,548 ft) 

Ecuador 

In Vista del Chimborazo, oil on canvas, ca. 1870-1880 

Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica, Bogota.

The mountain
Chimborazo (6,263 m -20,548 ft) is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes ans the highest mountain in Ecuador and the Andes north of Peru ; it is higher than any more northerly summit in the Americas. Chimborazo is not the highest mountain by elevation above sea level, but its location along the equatorial bulge makes its summit the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center.
Chimborazo is at the main end of the Ecuadorian Volcanic Arc, north west of the town of Riobamba. Chimborazo is in la Avenida de los Volcanes (the Avenue of Volcanoes) west of the Sanancajas mountain chain. Carihuairazo, Tungurahua, Tulabug, and El Altar are all mountains that neighbor Chimborazo. The closest mountain peak, Carihuairazo, is 5.8 mi (9.3 km) from Chimborazo. There are many microclimates near Chimborazo, varying from desert in the Arenal to the humid mountains in the Abraspungo valley.
Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around A.D. 550.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, it was thought that Chimborazo was the highest mountain on Earth (measured from sea level), and such reputation led to many attempts on its summit during the 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1746, the volcano was explored by French academicians from the French Geodesic Mission. Their mission was to determine the sphericity of the Earth. Their work along with another team in Lapland established that the Earth was an oblate spheroid rather than a true sphere. They did not reach the summit of Chimborazo.
In 1802, during his expedition to South America, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by Aimé Bonpland and the Ecuadorian Carlos Montufar, tried to reach the summit. From his description of the mountain, it seems that before he and his companions had to return suffering from altitude sickness they reached a point at 5,875 m, higher than previously attained by any European in recorded history. (Incans had reached much higher altitudes previously; see Llullaillaco). In 1831, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault and Colonel Hall reached a new "highest point", estimated to be 6,006 m.
On 4 January 1880, the English climber Edward Whymper reached the summit of Chimborazo.

The painter
Rafael Salas was an important Ecuadorian landscape and genre painter of nineteenth century South America neoclassicism. He was the last son of the famous Salas artists dynasty among which his half brother Ramon Salas ( 1815-1880), the fist professor a t Academy of fine Arts of Quito and responsive for the taste of Costumbrismo; and above all their father Antonio Salas (1795-1860) a colonial artist specialized in religious themes like La Muerte de San José and La Negacion de San Pedro in the Cathedral of Quito.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes
A blog by Francis Rousseau

POPOCATEPETL & IZTACCIHUATL (4) BYJOSE MARIA VELASCO

JOSE MARIA VELASCO GOMEZ (1840-1912)

Popocatépetl (5, 426 m -17, 802 ft) on left)

Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) (on right)

Mexico

In The volcanic peaks Popocatepetl and behind Iztacchihuatl, oil on canvas,1890 

 National Museum of Art of Mexico 

Other paintings by Velasco of the series representing those volcanoes in this blog

The volcanoes
Popocatépetl (5,426 m - 17,802 ft), on right in this painting, is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico, and lies in the eastern half of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. The name Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words Popōca (It smokes) and Tepētl (mountain), meaning Smoking Mountain. It is the second highest peak in Mexico, after Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) at 5,636 m (18,491 ft).
It is linked to the Iztaccihuatl volcano to the north by the high saddle known as the Paso de Cortés.
Popocatépetl is 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City, from where it can be seen regularly, depending on atmospheric conditions. Until recently, the volcano was one of three tall peaks in Mexico to contain glaciers, the others being Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba.
Iztaccíhuatl (5,230 m - 17,160 ft) is dormant volcanic mountain in Mexico located on the border between the State of Mexico and Puebla. It is the nation's third highest, after Pico de Orizaba 5,636 m (18,491 ft) and Popocatépetl 5,426 m (17,802 ft). The name "Iztaccíhuatl" is Nahuatl for "White woman", reflecting the four individual snow-capped peaks which depict the head, chest, knees and feet of a sleeping female when seen from east or west.The peak is sometimes nicknamed La Mujer Dormida (The Sleeping Woman.) Iztaccíhuatl is to the north of Popocatépetl, to which it is connected by the high altitude Paso de Cortés. Depending on atmospheric conditions Iztaccíhuatl is also visible much of the year from Mexico City some 70 km (43 mi) to the northwest.

The first recorded ascent was made in 1889, though archaeological evidence suggests the Aztecs and previous cultures climbed it previously. It is the lowest peak containing permanent snow and glaciers in Mexico.
In Aztec mythology : Iztaccíhuatl was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, Popocatépetl. The emperor sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca, promising him Iztaccíhuatl as his wife when he returned (which Iztaccíhuatl's father presumed he would not). Iztaccíhuatl was falsely told that Popocatépetl had died in battle, and believing the news, she died of grief. When Popocatépetl returned to find his love dead, he took her body to a spot outside Tenochtitlan and kneeled by her grave. The gods covered them with snow and changed them into mountains.
Popocatépetl became an active volcano, raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.

The painter
José Maria Tranquilino Francisco de Jesus Velasco Gomez Obregуn, generally known as José Marнa Velasco, was a 19th-century Mexican polymath, most famous as a painter who made Mexican geography a symbol of national identity through his paintings. He was both one of the most popular artists of the time and internationally renowned. He received many distinctions such as the gold medal of the Mexican National Expositions of Bellas Artes in 1874 and 1876; the gold medal of the Philadelphia International Exposition in 1876, on the centenary of U.S. independence; and the medal of the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889, on the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution. His painting El valle de Mexico is considered Velasco's masterpiece, of which he created seven different renditions. Of all the nineteenth-century painters, Velasco was the "first to be elevated in the post-Revolutionary period as an exemplar of nationalism."
Velasco's long career elevated Mexican landscape painting to international standing. One of his landscapes of the Valley of Mexico is in the Vatican Museum, a gift to Pope Leo XIII. His scenes of the Mexican landscape are a visual source for environmental historians, since they show the Valley of Mexico before its degradation in the twentieth century, with air pollution and urban sprawl. His landscape art has a wide appeal, since it is more accessible than history paintings that require the viewer to understand a particular event.
Nowadays the Government of the State of Mexico, where Velasco was from, presents an award for artistic merit in his name to painters born in that state. Among the most outstanding winners are Luis Nishizawa, Leopoldo Flores, Ignacio Barrios and Héctor Cruz. The José María Velasco Museum was opened in 1992 in Toluca City with the task of preserving and promoting his paintings.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

 LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970), 

Porcupine mountains or Porkies  (441 m-1,447 ft)

Canada 

In Above Lake Superior, c. 1922, oil on canvas 121.9 x 152.4 cm, 

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. 

The mountain
The Porcupine Mountains or Porkies (441 m -1,447 ft) are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior. The Porcupine Mountains were named by the native Ojibwa people, supposedly because their silhouette had the shape of a crouching porcupine.  They are home to the most extensive stand of old growth northern hardwood forest in North America west of the Adirondack Mountains, spanning at least 31,000 acres (13,000 ha). In these virgin forests, sugar maple, American basswood, eastern hemlock, and yellow birch are the most abundant tree species.  The area is part of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park established since 1972.  This act gave the park the new designation of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

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 

THE WHITES PAINTED BY WINSLOW HOMER

WINSLOW HOMER (1836-1910) 

White Mountains (1,917m - 6,288ft) 

United States of America (New Hampshire) 

In Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, oil on panel, 1868, 40 cm x 21 cm, 

 Portland Museum of Art 

The mountain
The White Mountains also called The Whites are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and, to a lesser extent, New York City and Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Most of the area is public land, including the White Mountain National Forest and a number of state parks. Its most famous mountain is Mount Washington (1,917 m- 6,288-ft)  which is the highest peak in the Northeastern U.S. and for 76 years held the record for fastest surface wind gust in the world (231 miles per hour (372 km/h) in 1934 . 

The White Mountains also include the Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter-Moriah Range and Kinsman Range in New Hampshire, and the Mahoosuc Range straddling the border between it and Maine. In all, there are 48 peaks within New Hampshire as well as one (Old Speck Mountain) in Maine over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), known as the four-thousand footers.
The Whites are known for a system of alpine huts for hikers operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The Appalachian Trail crosses the area from southwest to northeast.

The artist
Winslow Homer was a major American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in American art.
Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations.
Homer never taught in a school or privately, as did Thomas Eakins, but his works strongly influenced succeeding generations of American painters for their direct and energetic interpretation of man's stoic relationship to an often neutral and sometimes harsh wilderness.
American illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle revered Homer and encouraged his students to study him. His student and fellow illustrator, N. C. Wyeth (and through him Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth), shared the influence and appreciation, even following Homer to Maine for inspiration. The elder Wyeth's respect for his antecedent was "intense and absolute" and can be observed in his early work Mowing (1907). Perhaps Homer's austere individualism is best captured in his admonition to artists: "Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems."

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

THE RED RIGI PAINTED BY J.M.W. TURNER

JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775-1851)

The Rigi or Rigi Kulm or Mount Rigi (1, 797m - 5,897ft)

Switzerland

In The red Rigi at Sunrise, 1842, watercolour, Tate Britain

The mountain
The Rigi (1, 797m - 5,897ft)  is a mountain massif of the Alps, located in Central Switzerland.

The whole massif is almost entirely surrounded by the water of three different water bodies: Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and Lake Lauerz. The range is in the Schwyzer Alps, and is split between the cantons of Schwyz and Lucerne, although the main summit, named Rigi Kulm, at 1,798 meters above sea level, lies within the canton of Schwyz.

Technically, the Rigi is not a part of the Alps, and belongs instead to the Swiss plateau. It is mostly composed of molasse and other conglomerate, as opposed to the Bündner schist and flysch of the Alps.
The Rigi Kulm and other areas, such as the resort of Rigi Kaltbad, are served by Europe's oldest mountain railways, the Rigi Railways. Swiss Railways offer a special round-trip excursion, the “Rigi-Rundfahrt”, covering multiple segments by train, cog-railway, gondola (optional) and lake steamer. The whole area offers many activities such as skiing or sledging in the winter, and hiking in the summer.
The name Rigi is from Old High German "rîga" which means "row, stripe, furrow", after the stratification that is clearly visible on the north-side of the mountain. The name is first recorded in 1350 as Riginun. The name was interpreted as Regina montium "queen of mountains" by Albrecht von Bonstetten (1479), who however gives Rigena as alternative form.
Mt. Rigi has been featured in many works of art, including both paintings and literary publications. Perhaps the most famous paintings of the Rigi were the series by J.M.W. Turner , several of which are in the collection of the Tate Britain in London.
Mark Twain also visited Rigi during his tour of Central Europe in the late 1870s, and wrote about his travels in chapter 28 of his "A Tramp Abroad."

The 3 Rigi by J.M.W. Turner
Tate brings together for the first time ever three of J.M.W. Turner’s very greatest watercolour paintings: The Blue Rigi, The Dark Rigi and The Red Rigi. Turner’s groundbreaking use of watercolour, which spanned his career, culminated in the early 1840s with a series of transcendent views of Swiss lakes and mountains.
Chief among these are the three views of Mount Rigi as seen from Lake Lucerne. Each shows the mountain at a different time of day and is characterised by a defining colour or tone: dark, blue or red.
The Blue Rigi was Turner's first attempt at recording the moment before dawn when the sun just perceptibly begins to chase away the cool darkness of night. Using subtly modulated washes of blue, Turner recreates the stillness and wonder of this instant, anticipating by many years the unified tonal approach to image-making of the Aesthetic Movement.

The painter
The english painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence in the history of painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.
In his thirties, Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to Venice. Turner's talent was recognized early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." Turner was recognized as an artistic genius: influential English art critic John Ruskin described him as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature."
Turner's major venture into printmaking was the Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies), seventy prints that he worked on from 1806 to 1819. The Liber Studiorum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. The idea was loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth), where Lorrain had recorded his completed paintings; a series of print copies of these drawings, by then at Devonshire House, had been a huge publishing success. Turner's plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorized the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a museum is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints.
Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking or working or walking in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God – a theme that romanticist artists and poets were exploring in this period. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.
Turner used pigments like carmine in his paintings, knowing that they were not long-lasting, despite the advice of contemporary experts to use more durable pigments. As a result, many of his colours have now faded greatly.
John Ruskin says in his "Notes" on Turner in March 1878 : "His true master was Dr Monro; to the practical teaching of that first patron and the wise simplicity of method of watercolour study, in which he was disciplined by him and companioned by Girtin, the healthy and constant development of the greater power is primarily to be attributed; the greatness of the power itself, it is impossible to over-estimate. "

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

ELBRUS PAINTED BY NICHOLAS ROERICH

NICHOLAS ROERICH (1874-1947)

Mount Elbrus (5,642 m - 18,510 ft)

Russia 

In Elbrus. Caucase. 1933 papier, gouache, et aquarelle, 25,3 x 36,4, 

Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

The mountain
Mount Elbrus (Эльбру́с) also called Karachay-Balkar (Минги таy) is the highest mountain in Europe, and the seven highest summit in the world. The seven summit (which are obviously 8, with 2 in Europe !) are : Mount Everest (8,848m), Aconcagua (6,961m), Mt Denali or Mc Kinley (6,194m), Kilimandjaro (5,895m), Mt Elbrus (5,642m), Vinson Massif (4,892m), Mt Blanc (4,807m) and Mount Kosciuszko (2,228m) in Australia.

While there are differing authorities on how the Caucasus are distributed between Europe and Asia, most relevant modern authorities define the continental boundary as the Caucasus watershed, placing Elbrus in Europe due to its position on the north side in Russia.
Mount Elbrus should not be confused with the Alborz (also called Elburz) mountains in Iran, which also derive their name from the legendary mountain Harā Bərəzaitī in Persian mythology.
A dormant volcano, Elbrus forms part of the Caucasus Mountains in Southern Russia, near the border with Georgia. Elbrus has two summits, both of which are dormant volcanic domes. With its slightly taller west summit, the mountain stands at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft); the east summit is 5,621 metres (18,442 ft). The lower east summit was first ascended on 10 July 1829 by Khillar Khachirov, a Karachayguide for an Imperial Russian army scientific expedition led by General Emmanuel, and the higher in 1874 by an British expedition led by F. Crauford Grove and including Frederick Gardner, Horace Walker, and the Swiss guide Peter Knubel of St. Niklaus in the canton Valais.
While there are differing authorities on how the Caucasus are distributed between Europe and Asia, most relevant modern authorities define the continental boundary as the Caucasus watershed, placing Elbrus in Europe due to its position on the north side in Russia.
The ancients knew the mountain as Strobilus, Latin for 'pine cone', a direct loan from the ancient Greek strobilos, meaning 'a twisted object' – a long established botanical term that describes the shape of the volcano's summit. Myth held that here Zeus had chained Prometheus, the Titan who had stolen fire from the gods and given it to ancient man – likely a reference to historic volcanic activity.
The Soviet Union encouraged ascents of Elbrus, and in 1956 it was climbed en masse by 400 mountaineers to mark the 400th anniversary of the incorporation of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic where Elbrus was located.
From 1959 through 1976, a cable car system was built in stages that can take visitors as high as 3,800 metres (12,500 ft). 

Since 1986, Mt. Elbrus has been incorporated into Prielbrusye National Park, one of the Protected areas of Russia.

The painter
Nicholas Roerich known also as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих) is quite an important figure of mountain paintings in the early 20th century. He was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, perceived by some in Russia as an enlightener, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth was he was quite influenced by a movement in Russian society around the occult and was interested in hypnosis and other spiritual practices. His paintings are said to have hypnotic expression.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he lived in various places around the world until his death in Naggar, Himachal Pradesh, India. Trained as an artist and a lawyer, his main interests were literature, philosophy, archaeology, and especially art. After the February Revolution of 1917 and the end of the czarist regime, Roerich, a political moderate who valued Russia's cultural heritage more than ideology and party politics, had an active part in artistic politics. With Maxim Gorky and Aleksandr Benois, he participated with the so-called "Gorky Commission" and its successor organization, the Arts Union (SDI).
After the October Revolution and the acquisition of power of Lenin's Bolshevik Party, Roerich became increasingly discouraged about Russia's political future. During early 1918, he, Helena, and their two sons George and Sviatoslav emigrated to Finland. After some months in Finland and Scandinavia, the Roerichs relocated to London, arriving in mid-1919. Later, a successful exhibition resulted in an invitation from a director at the Art Institute of Chicago, offering to arrange for Roerich's art to tour the United States. During the autumn of 1920, the Roerichs traveled to America by sea. The Roerichs remained in the United States from October 1920 until May 1923.
After leaving New York, the Roerichs – together with their son George and six friends – began the five-year-long 'Roerich Asian Expedition' that, in Roerich's own words: "started from Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Oyrot region of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam, and Tibet" with a detour through Siberia to Moscow in 1926.
In 1929 Nicholas Roerich was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the University of Paris. He received two more nominations in 1932 and 1935. His concern for peace resulted in his creation of the Pax Cultura, the "Red Cross" of art and culture. His work for this cause also resulted in the United States and the twenty other nations of the Pan-American Union signing the Roerich Pact on April 15, 1935 at the White House. The Roerich Pact is an early international instrument protecting cultural property.
In 1934–1935, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (then headed by Roerich admirer Henry A. Wallace) sponsored an expedition by Roerich and USDA scientists H. G. MacMillan and James F. Stephens to Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and China.
Roerich was in India during the Second World War, where he painted Russian epic heroic and saintly themes, including: Alexander Nevsky, The Fight of Mstislav...
In 1942, Roerich received Jawaharlal Nehru at his house in Kullu. Together they discussed the fate of the new world: "We spoke about Indian-Russian cultural association, it is time to think about useful and creative cooperation ...”.
Gandhi would later recall about several days spent together with Roerich's family: "That was a memorable visit to a surprising and gifted family where each member was a remarkable figure in himself, with a well-defined range of interests." ..."Roerich himself stays in my memory. He was a man with extensive knowledge and enormous experience, a man with a big heart, deeply influenced by all that he observed". During the visit, "ideas and thoughts about closer cooperation between India and USSR were expressed. Now, after India wins independence, they have got its own real implementation[clarification needed]. And as you know, there are friendly and mutually-understanding relationships today between both our countries".
In 1942, the American-Russian cultural Association (ARCA) was created in New York.
Its active participants were Ernest Hemingway, Rockwell Kent, Charlie Chaplin, Emil Cooper, Serge Koussevitzky, and Valeriy Ivanovich Tereshchenko. The Association's activity was welcomed by scientists like Robert Millikan and Arthur Compton. Roerich died on December 13, 1947.
Presently, the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City is a major institution for Roerich's artistic work. Numerous Roerich societies continue to promote his theosophical teachings worldwide. His paintings can be seen in several museums including the Roerich Department of the State Museum of Oriental Arts in Moscow; the Roerich Museum at the International Centre of the Roerichs in Moscow; the Russian State Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; a collection in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; a collection in the Art Museum in Novosibirsk, Russia; an important collection in the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria; a collection in the Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod Russia; National Museum of Serbia ; the Roerich Hall Estate in Nagar village in Kullu Valley, India; the Sree Chitra Art Gallery, Thiruvananthapuram, India; in various art museums in India; and a selection featuring several of his larger works in The Latvian National Museum of Art.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

BEN SLIOCH PAINTED BY JAMES MC INTOSH PATRICK

JAMES MC INTOSH PATRICK ( 1907-1998)

Ben Slioch ( 981m - 3218 ft) 

United Kingdom (Scotland) 

In Ben Slioch and Loch Maree, Private collection 

The mountain
Ben Slioch (981m - 3218 ft) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands situated in Wester Ross, eight kilometres north of the village of Kinlochewe and towers above the south east end of Loch Maree to give one of the best known and most photographed sights (from the A832 road) in the Highlands. VisitScotland, the Scottish national tourist agency, has used video footage of Slioch in its television advertisements.The mountain is composed of Torridonian sandstone on a base of Lewisian Gneiss and has steep crags on three sides and allows easy access for the walker only from the south east where the large open corrie of Coire na Sleaghaich has two ridges on its flanks which the walker can use. The mountain's name comes from the Gaelic word “sleagh” and means “the spear” and this only becomes obvious when Slioch is viewed from Lochan Fada to the west, from here the subsidiary top of Sgurr an Tuill Bhain(Peak of the White Hollow) (933 metres) dominates as a slender peak and gives the mountain its name. Wild goats are often seen on the mountain.

The artist
James McIntosh Patrick was a Scottish painter, celebrated for his finely observed paintings of the Angus landscape and Dundee, Scotland, where he was based for most of his life.
 In 1999 the Patrick family donated his archives to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
To celebrate its victory in the 1983 University Challenge competition, the University of Dundee commissioned Patrick to produce to two paintings of its campus.  Other examples of Patrick's works held as part of the University's fine art collections include portraits of Principal Angus Robertson Fulton and Arthur Alexander Matheson.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MONTE FASCE PAINTED BY RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON

RICHARD PARKES BONINGTON (1802-1828) 

Monte Fasce (834 m - 2,736 ft)

Italy 

In  Boccadasse, Genoa with Monte Fasce in the Background , The Fitzwilliam Museum 

The mountain 

Monte Fasce (834 m - 2,736 ft) or Mount Fascie in the papers of the Military Geographical Institute, is one of the major hills of the city of Genoa. It is a mountain in the Ligurian Apennines and is part of the urban park of Monte Fasce and Monte Moro.

It rises behind the quarters of the eastern city of Quarto dei Mille, Quinto al Mare and Nervi, and protects them from the north wind. 

Nowadays, it is home to numerous television, radio, private and state repeaters. 

On the highest point is an iron cross 14 meters high, heir to the first wooden cross that had been placed around the year 1900. In the wind storm of 10/29/2018 the cross was torn down.

The nearby Prati di Fascia are traditionally a place for outings of the Genoese. From this height you can enjoy an almost total view of the city and on clear days you can admire Corsica, the island of Elba, the island of Palmaria, the Apuan Alps, the Maritime Alps, the Monviso, the Pennine Alps ( in particular the Matterhorn and the Monte Rosa) and the Lepontine Alps.

The Prati di Fascia can be reached along the SP 67 "del Monte Fasce", which joins the Genoese district of Apparizione with Uscio and from which there is a short dirt road that reaches the top of the mountain.

The painter 

Richard Parkes Bonington  was an English Romantic landscape painter, who moved to France at the age of 14 and can also be considered as a French artist, and an intermediary bringing aspects of English style to France.  Becoming, after his very early death, one of the most influential British artists of his time, the facility of his style was inspired by the old masters, yet was entirely modern in its application. His landscapes were mostly of coastal scenes, with a low horizon and large sky, showing a brilliant handling of light and atmosphere. He also painted small historical cabinet paintings in a freely-handled version of the troubadour style.

Eugène Delacroix paid tribute to Bonington's work in a letter to Théophile Thoré in 1861. It reads, in part:
" When I met him for the first time, I too was very young and was making studies in the Louvre: this was around 1816 or 1817... Already in this genre (watercolor), which was an English novelty at that time, he had an astonishing ability... To my mind, one can find in other modern artists qualities of strength and of precision in rendering that are superior to those in Bonington's pictures, but no one in this modern school, and perhaps even before, has possessed that lightness of touch which, especially in watercolours, makes his works a type of diamond which flatters and ravishes the eye, independently of any subject and any imitation."
To Laurence Binyon however, "Bonington's extraordinary technical gift was also his enemy. There is none of the interest of struggle in his painting."
Bonington had a number of close followers, such as Roqueplan and Isabey in France, and Thomas Shotter Boys, James Holland, William Callow and John Scarlett Davis in England. In addition, there were many copies and forgeries of his work made in the period immediately after his death.
The Wallace Collection has an especially large group of 35 works, representing both his landscapes and history paintings.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

FUJIYAMA / 富士山 AND TSUKUBA SAN / 筑波山 BY SUZUKI KIITSZU / 鈴木其

SUZUKI KIITSZU / 鈴木其 (1796 -1858)

Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft)

Mount Tsukuba / 筑波山 ( 877 m - 2,877 ft)

Japan 

 In Mt. Fuji and Mt. Tsukuba (Left Screen), color and gold-leaf on paper, Private collection 

The mountains
Mount Tsukuba / 筑波山 (877 m- 2,877 ft) , located near Tsukuba  is one of the most famous mountains in Japan, particularly well known for its double peaks, Nyotai-san (女体山, female body (877 m -2,877 ft) and Nantai-san (男体山,  male body (871 m-2,858 ft). 

Many people climb the so-called "purple mountain" every year for the panoramic view of the Kantō plain from the summit. On clear days the Tōkyō skyline, Lake Kasumigaura and even Mount Fuji are visible from the summit. Japanese mountains are mostly volcanic, but Mount Tsukuba is non-volcanic granite and gabbroin origin. Renowned beautiful granites are produced in the northern quarries even today. As legend has it, thousands of years ago, a deity descended from the heavens and asked two mountains for a place to spend the night. With its great summit and almost perfect cone, Mt. Fuji refused, believing with pride and arrogance that it does not need the deity's blessings. Mt. Tsukuba, on the other hand, humbly welcomed the honored guest, even offering food and water. Today, Mt. Fuji is a cold, lonely, and barren mountain, while Mt. Tsukuba bursts with vegetation and is filled with colors as the seasons change.
Fujiyama / 富士山 (3, 776 m -12,389 ft) is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain peak in Japan.  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.

The painter
Suzuki Kiitsu / 鈴木其 (1796 – 1858) was a Japanese painter of the Rinpa school. A student of the famous painter Sakai Hoitsu (1761–1828), he was for a long time considered a minor member of Rinpa school of Japanese painting. In recent years his work has been reevaluated and gained recognition, leading to a series of major exhibitions of his art in 2016-2017 in Tokyo, Hyogo and Kyoto.
Kiitsu is best known for his byōbu folding screens, often a reinterpretation of screens by other Rinpa artists, such as his massive Wind God and Thunder God following Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c. 1570 – c. 1640), Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) and Hoitsu. But he has been most acclaimed for his original screens, including his famed Morning Glories and Mountain Stream in Summer and Autumn.
He was also a notable master with many pupils. Although he was not the official successor of Hoitsu's school, he trained himself many of the Edo Rinpa artists. This has sometimes been labeled as the Kiitsu school of Edo Rinpa.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau