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This Article first appeared in
AAC(UK) Newsletter 187
published Autumn 2010

Erzherzog-Johann-Hütte
from the Hofmannskees

Bischofswiesen-hochkalter

Drei Türme from the Gauertal

Aiguille de Bionnassay
from the Bosses du Dromadaire

Mischabelhütte

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A very special artist: E T Compton

by Irene Oakes

Last July, on the wall of a dark upstairs corridor adjoining my Zimmerlager in an Austrian Alpine Club hut, hung a picture. Unmistakeably by E T Compton – and there was his signature in the corner! The Hut Warden said the picture was a present from the Sektion many years ago. An AAC(UK) Newsletter article, also many years ago, initiated my own interest in E T Compton, and it’s time he got another mention. So here (summarised from material in a 1996 edition of Alpenverein, predecessor of Bergauf) it comes:-

Edward Theodore Compton began painting when young. Born in London, his family moved to Germany when he was eighteen in 1867, at a time when the Alps were a European barrier, an unexplored land of overwhelming extent. ETC became very enthusiastic about this artistically unconquered terrain and decided to become a mountaineer and mountain painter. When the family returned to the UK In 1869, he stayed behind to continue his studies in the arts metropolis of Munich and be near his beloved Alps.

Within two years he had exhibited at an international art exhibition. His painting “Bavarian Messenger Sleigh” was so successful he had to repeat it a dozen times. Either from such successes or with financial help from his affluent family, by 1872 he could afford to marry, take a two-year honeymoon and build his own house by the Starnberger See in Bavaria.

Around this time he began mountaineering, not only in the Alps but also in the Pyrenees, Corsica, Lofoten Islands and Scotland. He climbed with some of the most famous mountaineers of his day (Ludwig Purtscheller, Karl Blödig, Frido Kordon, and Emil Zsigmondy), leaving records of about 300 tours including 27 first ascents, mostly guideless. As a member of DuOeAV and The Alpine Club, his alpinist achievements were so well-regarded that the 1883 DuOeAV yearbook included his illustrated report on the Brenta Dolomites. Similar reports appeared almost every year until 1912.

ETC came to Germany at a time of a new alpine club culture, requiring communication between members. Magazines and yearbooks became important, as did ETC’s many illustrations therein. Exact representation was sought after for the new alpine magazines and ETC was one of the first artists to not only observe mountains from below but also to involve his own mountaineering experience. Only a mountaineer can fully appreciate the circumstances under which ETC’s picture outlines were done. When he reached a resting place or summit, he would sketch tirelessly in order to hold the fresh impression of the scene while his companions relaxed. Then back at the hut these sketches were processed with photographic precision. His work found wide recognition through his estimated 1700 paintings & drawings for alpine magazines. His productivity was remarkable.

However it would be wrong to regard ETC as merely an illustrator, since his mountain activities and reports played an important role in the development of the alpine movement. For example his Brenta Dolomites report provided detailed knowledge of the area and corrections to the DuOeAV map were based on his triangulation and height measurements. His descriptions of mountains are fascinating, like descriptions of architectural structures and his illustrations are no mere reproductions of landscapes but rather represent the soul of the mountains. Arguably there may have been greater painters of mountains but none who have so fully conveyed the experience of mountains.

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Last updated 29 July 2010

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