Light and Line: E. S. Lumsden’s Visions of India

Thanks to a heads-up from Waynor Rogers at Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Art & Antiques, I recently learned about a new exhibition that will be of interest to some of my readership.   The show, Light and Line: E.S. Lumsden's Visions of India, recently opened at the South Asian Gallery at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, for an indefinite run.  It features 19 prints, recent gifts to the museum from the Frank Raysor Collection.

Self-Portrait, No. 1 (1905) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Burnaby Art Gallery

(drypoint)

The English-born artist Ernest Stephen Lumsden (1883-1948) began his art studies at age 15 at Reading School of Art under Frank Morley Fletcher in 1899 and later briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1903.  In 1908, he accepted an appointment at the Edinburgh College of Art.   According to the VMFA's press release, while visiting Rangoon in 1912, Lumsden "chanced upon a tourist guide containing a small photograph of the Ganges River at Benares.  Inspired, the master etcher rushed to the holy city, commencing a decades-long fascination with India."  Lumsden would ultimately make approximately 125 etchings featuring Indian imagery—more than a third of his  lifetime output—as a result of four trips he made to the former British colony between 1912 and 1927. 

 

 Benares No. 2 (1912) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

The Pagoda Platform (1912) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Lumsden married woodblock print artist Mabel Royds in 1913, and the pair visited India between December 1913 and the Spring of 1914 as the tail end of a long honeymoon trip.  The pair returned in 1915 for an extended stay.  Lumsden's heart condition made active war service in Europe impossible, but he had heard that the Indian Army was less particular, although it ultimately rejected him as well.  A pregnant Mabel Royds returned to the U.K. in 1917, but Lumsden was able to get a military job as a Second Lieutenant (Infantry Branch)  of the India Army Reserve Officers censoring telegrams in Calcutta and remained there until discharged in 1919.  His fourth and final trip to India took place in 1927.

Worshippers (1919) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

 

Shiva's Bull (1919) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Lumsden was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1909 and was raised to  full membership in 1915.  He was elected  an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1923 and made a full member in 1933.  From 1929 to 1947, he was President of the Society of Artist Printers.  In 1925, Lumsden authored The Art of Etching, a seminal treatise on the subject of etching.

Ragged Sails (1925) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

The Upper Reach (1928) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

(etching)

Most, perhaps all, of Lumsden's Indian and Tibetan prints were based on paintings he appeared to have composed on site.  On the two examples I have shown below, the etchings are the mirror images of the designs depicted in his watercolors.

Triksé on the Tibetan Border 1916 (August 23, 1916) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(pencil and watercolor heightened with white)

Triksé Monastery (1920) (first state #1/1) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Barnaby Art Gallery

(etching)

 

The Pipal Tree (March 21, 1927) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(watercolor)

   

The Sacred Tree (1929) (fourth state #18/52) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Personal Collection

(etching)

 
The VMFA's press release notes that, unlike many of his predecessors, Lumsden seemed to resist the impulse to romanticize and exoticize: "While undeniably enchanted by the country, he nonetheless offers a relatively sober vision of India, one that suggests an easy, contented interaction with its places and peoples.  Praised by his contemporaries, Lumsden’s technical virtuosity includes an economy of line, carefully built compositions, and, above all, a command over depicting India’s intense light."

Self-Portrait (1923) by Ernest S. Lumsden

Courtesy of the Burnaby Art Gallery

(drawing)

 
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