Gunga (Primary Title)
Third Indian and Ladaki Set (Set Title)
Ernest Stephen Lumsden, English, 1883–1948 (Artist)
Ernest Stephen Lumsden, English, 1883–1948 (Printer)
One of Lumsden’s most monumental pictures of Benares, this view from the water shows the western bank of the Ganges (locally “Gunga”) at a great distance. The success of the print’s design is owed largely to what is not there: more than half the composition’s lower portion is left almost entirely blank. This glass-like surface of the river’s water is broken only by two boats in the middle distance. Far beyond them lies the busy city, its buildings piled high upon the ghats, the towering minarets of Aurengzeb’s Mosque piercing the sky. Lumsden’s care when printing his plates is evident in the delicacy of his application of ink, creating depth even from the plate’s smooth surfaces.
ed. 50
Signed in graphite "Lumsden imp" at bottom center along plate line; also "35 50" [?]
Title and "S7817" inscribed in graphite by Harold Wright on recto.
Gift of Frank Raysor
Light and Line: E. S. Lumsden's Visions of India, VMFA South Asian Galleries, April 11, 2016 - April 4, 2017
Copley, John. “The Later Etchings of E. S. Lumsden”, The Print Collector’s Quarterly, July 1936. Includes a chronological list, 1905-1935, compiled by E. S. Lumsden.
©artist or artist’s estate
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