Trying to identify a mountain range in an old painting

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

It’s overdramatised whatever it is… 

Not that many long, narrow, level ridges in the British Isles. could be the Aonach Eagach? With some mostly invented distant hills to make the background more interesting?

or gars bheinn end of the cuillin on Skye? Again, with some creative licence on various points, including background 

Post edited at 11:24
4
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Beenkeragh is a bit of a stretch.

The pointy bit could with poetic license and a squinty eye be a very dramatised take on An Teallach, or Cir Mhor. The AE idea has some appeal as well, looking west the lie of the ridge has that sort of sinuous shape. But clearly the sharp peak is nonsense.

The light peak in middle ground looks like Beinn Airigh Charr

The distant skyline could at a push be Y Garn and Pen yr Ole Wen

Vegetation in the foreground suggests not Britain

If it's not somewhere overseas I'm inclined to say it's just made up

 Wally 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Looks smaller than those suggested so far. Knowing a few paintings which have some SERIOUS dramatisation my first thought was Helm crag as viewed from Grasmere or somewhere up the slopes of Heron pike / Rydal fells. Totally OTT I agree but sort of fits...

 Toccata 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

My first thought was Parkhouse Hill/ Chrome Hill with a fictitious addition in the foreground.

 maxsmith 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

definitely agree with the Y Garn and Pen yr Ole Wen suggestion, maybe the artist began with the background and had to make up the rest once Tryfan was obscured by cloud?!

 profitofdoom 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

My first thought was Tryfan from the Glyders, with the Carneddau in the background. But what do I know. That jagged ridge behind doesn't fit either

 Bulls Crack 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Any signature? 

could be a highly stylised Borrowdale but a lack of lake. Helm a good call I think

Post edited at 12:24
 DaveHK 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Bulls Crack:

> Any signature? 

> could be a highly stylised Borrowdale 

That was my first thought.

 deepsoup 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Toccata:

> My first thought was Parkhouse Hill/ Chrome Hill with a fictitious addition in the foreground.

Ha ha - I thought you were joking but then...
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f4/65/10/f46510f4af363e1ab787ca4d6b2110e5.jp...

As Bob Ross undoubtedly would have told the painter, "it's your world, you can make it anything you want it to be".

Edit to add:
I just spotted this - Windgather!
https://www.clareallanart.com/shop/prints/windgather-rocks/

Post edited at 12:55
 Bob Aitken 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I'm in the Helm Crag support group.  Grossly exaggerated as No_More_Scotch_Eggs suggests, but the lighting would suggest we're looking west or north, and the scrub foreground would seem to show that the viewpoint's quite low-altitude and the extraordinary pinnacle top isn't nearly as high or far off as first appears.  That dramatic arete heading left can then be Gibson Knott, the white hump to the right a Dolomitic rendering of the pale scree face on Steel Fell.  Beyond that, quite realistically, the dip is Dunmail Raise with Helvellyn on the right.
Heaton Cooper will be rotating in his grave ...

 wercat 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Bob Aitken:

All you'd need to do to achieve artistry based on the view you describe would be to use the curved window  of the Sligachan Hotel (in a portable miniature version) to produce a reflection of monstrous peaks, as of Sgurr nan Gillean from the hotel.  It could easily be Lauvellen.

Were such distorting glasses ever used by artists to produce drama?

Post edited at 14:10
 subtle 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Unidentified hill - if its in Scotland it must be a view of Schiehallion then!

Or its a made up view

1
 RedWing 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Nowhere in Britain. Do you have any further information: artist, date, etc?

1
 CantClimbTom 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Snowdon horse shoe (Crib Goch/ Carnedd Ugain) with a heap of artistic license and possible indications of drug use?

Sorry to ask the obvious, but I can't see an artist's sig, which makes me wonder if something is pencilled on the back of the canvas or perhaps painted, but in an area under the frame edge, maybe that says something?

Post edited at 14:45
 Ridge 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Bulls Crack:

> Any signature? 

> could be a highly stylised Borrowdale but a lack of lake. Helm a good call I think

I thought that, a very exaggerated Castle Crag (or maybe Catbells 😉).

 Bulls Crack 18 Nov 2021
In reply to RedWing:

I think the hills in the background and the foreground vegetation are very British - they just seemed to lose it in the middle when the laudanum took hold. 

 felt 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Most probably abroad, Spain or Italy.

 Sean Kelly 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Wally:

Yes Helm was what came to mind for me too.

Sheep obviously absent with all that foliage present.

Post edited at 16:08
 profitofdoom 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Enlarging allows a glimpse of a road in the lower third of the picture, if I'm not mistaken: one glimpse on the left, one on the right. Could be a clue?

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I immediately think that it has to be Clach Glas seen from some way up the final bit of Blaven (i.e. not from the summit). But the background doesn't look right. I still think it's very likely CG, as an artist/hillwalker remembered it, done from memory rather than from any sketch.

 Mike Peacock 18 Nov 2021
In reply to CantClimbTom:

> Snowdon horse shoe (Crib Goch/ Carnedd Ugain) with a heap of artistic license and possible indications of drug use?

I quite like this suggestion, and Dan's suggested background of Y Garn and Pen yr Ole Wen almost looks right. But then I wondered if it's the horseshoe from Gallt y Wenallt (so Lliwedd centre, Snowdon left, and Crib Goch right). The hill on the back right could be Glyder Fawr above Cwmffynnon and the Pen y Gwryd, and the hill at the back left could be Moel Cynghorion (with some twisting to the fabric of reality, obviously).

 mattsccm 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Mike Peacock:

Snowdon horseshoe (somewhat dumbed down from the Capel Pinnacles and the latter very stylised.

 Pete Pozman 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

I think it's supposed to be Crib Goch from Crib y Ddysgl. With Glyders behind and Moel Siabod flank on the right. Maybe created from a rough sketch enhanced by supercharged memory. There seem to be trees growing up the side of it? Artistic licence?

In reply to Pete Pozman:

I find that very far-fetched, because why on earth would the absolutely horizontal arete of Crib Goch sag down so much like that? And the pinnacles of Crib Goch are nothing like as pronounced as that. I still think Clach Glas is far more likely, simply because there is at least some resemblance rather than none! The Crib Goch theory is further demolished by the depiction of another main (sunlit) summit down and to the right, behind it. Whereas in the Snowdonian reality, there's nothing there.

Post edited at 03:33
Andy Gamisou 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Could be anywhere really (well, probably not Norfolk).  Don't know why the couple of suggestions for abroad have been pooh poohed as they are just as likely as anywhere else, if not more so (if you view the hills, for example, where I live in Cyprus then they look very similar from certain aspects.  There's even the pointy hill in the foreground).

Might even be imaginary.

If you really want to identify its location then I would think identifying the artist would be the first step.

Good luck

 Toccata 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

There’s two parts to the picture. A keenly observed range in the background where the form, light and colour looks natural and familiar. Then there is the foreground where there is a hotchpotch of unlikely forms, wildly different coloured rock and inconsistencies in the light and shade. 
Could it even be a later addition to an existing painting by another painter?

 Greenbanks 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Clear to me that it’s something from D.J. Viper’s middle period.

 Mike Peacock 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

It's far-fetched but not a ridiculous suggestion. Whilst the arete part of Crib Goch may be fairly horizontal, the Crib Goch-Crib y Ddysgl ridge as a whole does sag down.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1017759

Obviously if that is the location it's considerably dramatised.

 Maggot 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

It’s obviously half dome in Yosemite.

In reply to Mike Peacock:

There's also a small hill/outcrop in the valley on the right that could well be Dolbadarn castle. 

 bouldery bits 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Roseberry topping.

In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Many thanks for all your replies - unfortunately, I don't think we are any closer to knowing for certain where it is.

 McHeath 21 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

You could try contacting this guy:

https://www.bris.ac.uk/media/experts/jsp/public_view/expertDetails?personKe...

 Bulls Crack 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

So no signature? Not that that would necessarily help 

 smally 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

What about a highly dramatized version of Lonscale Fell and Blencathera from Thirlmere, with High Rigg and Low Rigg on steroids?

 Red Rover 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

Looks like an artist's impression of the Romsdalshorn, with the steepness of Vengedal and Romsdalen exaggerated a bit. 

 Red Rover 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Red Rover:

But the background looks a lot like Y Garn and Pen Yr Olewen with Llyn the lake as well. It's as if the Romsdalshorn was in Ogwen.

 Bulls Crack 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Bulls Crack:

Speaking of artistic license : https://www.staggallery.com/f-e-jamieson

 L.A. 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Bulls Crack: Good to see that he captured the quadruple buttress of Coire Mhic Fhearchair there Many people miss that view of it from the A82

Post edited at 17:48
 AtLargesse 22 Nov 2021
In reply to Stephen Reid - Needle Sports:

This thread is getting me through the devastating period in between Isabel Dalhousie novels. 


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...