Description

Samivel
Les dix commandements de la montagne

Lithograph
80 x 61 cm

Les dix commandements de la montagne: [The Ten Commandments of the Mountain]
1. Lire, marcher, grimper, apprendre le métier. [Read, walk, climb, learn the profession.]
2. S’équiper comme il faut et former bonne équipe. [Equip yourself properly and work as a team.]
3. S’entraîner peu à peu, ne pas courir la poste. [Train yourself little by little, don’t run before you can walk.]
4. Respecter la nature, le silence et les gens. [Respect the nature, the silence and the other people.]
5. Laisser en paix les bêtes, et le refuge propre. [Leave the animals alone and the area tidy.]
6. Ne pas vouloir monter plus haut que sa culotte. [Don’t get in over your head.]
7. S’engager sans compter sur l’hélico sauveur. [Get involved without relying on the rescue helicopter.]
8. Descendre sans tarder si le temps se détraque. [Descend the mountain without delay if the weather turns.]
9. Être serviable. Aider les copains dan l’ennui. [Be obliging. Help friends in trouble.]
10. Admirer. Retenir la leçon des montagnes. [Take it all in. Learn from the mountains.]

Samivel was a writer, an artist, a photographer, an explorer, and more. In 1948 he accompanied Paul Émile Victor on the first French Greenland expedition, making three documentary films in the process. His friends included Théodore Monod and Gilbert André – the latter the mayor of Bonneval-sur-Arc and one of the founders of the Vanoise National Park – and with them and others he spent his whole life aiming for the protection of the imperilled countryside. The graphic artist side of him had a life-long fascination with high mountains, and his illustrated books and series of posters of the French Alps have long been popular