Lamayuru

Ernest Stephen Lumsden (1883-1948) was a distinguished painter, noted etcher and authority on etching. He studied at Reading Art School under Frank Morley Fletcher and briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1903. In 1908 he accepted an appointment at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he taught for a few years and remained based there for the rest of his life. He travelled several times to India between 1912 and 1927 and is noted for his prints of Benares on the River Ganges. Between 1905 and 1946 Lumsden produced some 350 etchings and always printed his own plates; more than a third of them (approximately 125) are of Indian imagery.

Lumsden was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1909 and raised to the full membership in 1915. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1923 and a full member in 1933; and he was President of the Society of Artist Printers from 1929 to 1947.

In 1925 Lumsden published what is still regarded as the seminal treatise, The Art of Etching. Here he describes the various techniques of intaglio printing using etching, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint; he describes the history and development of etching through Rembrandt, Goya and the etching revival; and he reproduced personal, illustrated notes from several eminent etchers of the period on their techniques, including Muirhead Bone, D.Y. Cameron and James McBey.

Lamayuru, fondly referred to as the Moon Land, is a major stopover on the Leh-Srinaga highway in Kashmir. Hidden in the folds of the mountains of this mystical land is the 10th century Lamayuru Monastery. One of the oldest gompas in Ladakh and Spiti, this Buddhist monastery is perched atop a cliff at an altitude of well over 3000 metres. According to legend, this region was once under a lake that was made to dry up by a holy man. The main sanctum of the monastery has a cave where Mahasiddha Naropa meditated for years. The entire region is considered sacred owing to the monastery's presence and a visit is believed to liberate people from all their sins. Other than its religious significance, the place looks like a picture postcard that has turned real. Lumsden was immediately struck by its artistic possibilities and this etching is the highly effective outcome.

See:

Times of India, 'Lamayuru Monastery', https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/ladakh/lamayuru-monastery/ps48113164.cms

Wikipedia, 'Ernest Stephen Lumsden', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Stephen_Lumsden

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   June 2018