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The Technique

Berann developed a hand-painted method that combined cartographic accuracy with artistic interpretation, creating panoramas that no digital tool has ever replicated.

Overview

H.C. Berann painted his panoramas entirely by hand using tempera on large-format paper, often at 80 × 120 cm or even larger. Every work began as a painterly object, not as a mechanical projection. In an era when most cartography was moving toward photomechanical production, Berann insisted on the painted original — a decision that gave his panoramas their distinctive warmth, depth, and emotional impact.

Over six decades, he refined a technique that married the precision of a surveyor with the eye of a landscape painter. The result was a new form of cartographic art that remains unmatched.

The Process

1. Research and Preparation

Berann began every panorama with intensive study. He collected topographic maps, aerial photographs, geological surveys, and any available reference material for the region. For complex commissions — such as the U.S. National Park panoramas — he visited the sites personally, sketching and photographing from helicopter flights and mountain vantage points.

He compiled this material into a reference dossier that included elevation data, vegetation patterns, settlement locations, road networks, and notable landmarks. This phase could take weeks.

2. Choosing the Viewpoint

The most critical artistic decision was the viewpoint — the imaginary position from which the viewer would see the landscape. Berann chose an oblique bird’s-eye view, typically at an angle of 20–45° from horizontal, and at an altitude that varied depending on the subject.

For ski resorts, the viewpoint was relatively low (perhaps 2,000–3,000 meters), revealing individual slopes and lifts. For continental panoramas like his map of Europe, the viewpoint was hundreds of kilometers high. The angle was never mathematically fixed; Berann adjusted it intuitively to serve the specific commission.

3. Pencil Sketch

Working from his reference material, Berann created a detailed pencil sketch on the final paper. This sketch established the overall composition, the arrangement of mountain ridges, the placement of key landmarks, and the proportional relationships between foreground and background.

At this stage, he made his famous “manipulations” — subtly rotating mountains, widening valleys, and exaggerating vertical relief to improve legibility without sacrificing the viewer’s sense of geographic truth.

4. Layered Painting

Using tempera paints (an egg-based medium that dries quickly and allows fine layering), Berann built the image through successive transparent and opaque layers:

  • Background first: Sky gradients and distant haze, often applied with an airbrush for smooth transitions.
  • Middle ground: Mountain ridges, glacier fields, and broad valleys painted with broad brushwork.
  • Foreground: Detailed forests, settlements, roads, rivers, and terrain textures painted with fine brushes.
  • Final details: Labels, buildings, ski lifts, paths, and snowfields added last with the finest brushes, sometimes under magnification.

5. Color Philosophy

Berann developed a distinctive color palette that prioritized atmospheric depth over literal accuracy:

  • Saturated greens for valley floors and forests, creating a sense of lushness
  • Cool blues and purples for distant ranges, enhancing depth perception
  • Warm ochres and browns for sun-facing rock faces
  • Pure whites for snow and glaciers, carefully modulated with blue shadows
  • Golden light suggesting early morning or late afternoon illumination

This palette gave his panoramas their characteristic “golden hour” feeling — a landscape bathed in warm, inviting light that drew the viewer into the scene.

The Modified Bird’s-Eye View

Berann’s most revolutionary contribution to cartography was his modified bird’s-eye view — a perspective that was neither a strict orthographic map nor a conventional landscape painting.

Key characteristics:

  • Variable vertical exaggeration: Mountains in the foreground were exaggerated more than those in the background, creating dramatic relief while maintaining geographic relationships.
  • Rotated features: Individual peaks and ridges were subtly rotated to show their most recognizable profiles, even when the viewing angle wouldn’t naturally reveal them.
  • Widened valleys: Valley floors were spread open slightly, revealing settlements, roads, and rivers that would otherwise be hidden.
  • Atmospheric perspective: Colors became cooler and less saturated with distance, mimicking natural vision and creating compelling depth.

As Tom Patterson wrote in his analysis: “Berann’s panoramas are not strict geometric projections. They are artistic interpretations that communicate geography more effectively than any technically ‘correct’ rendering could.”

Materials and Tools

Throughout his career, Berann used traditional studio materials:

  • Paper: Heavy, acid-free watercolor paper in large formats (typically 80 × 120 cm, sometimes larger)
  • Paint: Professional-grade tempera paints (egg-based), occasionally supplemented with gouache for opaque passages
  • Brushes: A full range from broad wash brushes to single-hair detail brushes
  • Airbrush: Used for smooth sky gradients, atmospheric haze, and soft snow transitions
  • Magnifying glass: For the finest details — individual buildings, cable cars, trail markers
  • Reference tools: Topographic maps, aerial photographs, stereoscopic viewers

Berann never used a computer or any digital tool. His final panorama (Denali, 1994) was created with the same techniques he had used in 1934.

Comparison with Digital Methods

Modern digital elevation models (DEMs) can generate 3D terrain visualizations in seconds. Yet Berann’s hand-painted panoramas remain preferred for many tourism and educational applications because they offer something algorithms cannot:

Aspect Berann (Hand-painted) Digital DEM
Emotional impact High — invites exploration Low — clinical
Selective emphasis Artist controls focus Uniform rendering
Atmospheric depth Painted light and color Flat or synthetic
Geographic “cheating” Rotated peaks, widened valleys Strictly geometric
Production time Weeks to months Minutes
Uniqueness One-of-a-kind artwork Reproducible data

Tom Patterson, who studied Berann’s technique extensively, concluded that “the best panoramas will always be painted by hand, because the human eye and brain can make compositional decisions that no algorithm can replicate.”

Legacy and Influence

Berann’s technique influenced generations of panoramic cartographers and illustrators. His methods are studied at ETH Zürich’s Institute of Cartography and at cartographic programs worldwide. The U.S. National Park Service continues to use his panoramas — created decades ago — as their primary visitor orientation maps.

No one has successfully replicated Berann’s combination of cartographic precision, artistic atmosphere, and geographic storytelling. His panoramas remain the gold standard against which all landscape visualization is measured.

References