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Vale of Kashmir

Robert S. Duncanson1867

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

Cincinnati-based Duncanson was the first African American artist to achieve recognition both nationally and abroad. This panoramic painting, one of his grandest, was inspired by an episode in Thomas Moore’s then-popular epic poem, <em>Lalla-Rookh</em> (1817), which describes a Persian princess’s journey to the Indian subcontinent to be married. In Duncanson’s conception, members of a courtly entourage depart a quasi-Islamic palace, arriving by boat onto a scrim of land where they ascend a monumental staircase to a plaza with a fountain spraying an impressive plume of water. Despite these substantial storytelling details, the human elements remain subordinate to the overwhelming splendor of the natural landscape in and of itself.

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  • Title: Vale of Kashmir
  • Creator: Robert S. Duncanson (American, 1821–1872)
  • Date Created: 1867
  • Physical Dimensions: Framed: 94.9 x 154.6 x 12.1 cm (37 3/8 x 60 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 73 x 132.4 cm (28 3/4 x 52 1/8 in.)
  • Provenance: Mary Elizabeth Jergens. Los Angeles; Spanierman Gallery, New York [1980]; Richard and Jane Manoogian, Grosse Pointe Park, MI, purchased 1980.
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2014.12
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Inscriptions: Inscribed at lower right: Duncanson. / 1867. / Cinti O
  • Fun Fact: During the Civil War, Duncanson relocated to Montreal, where he inspired several Canadian landscape painters.
  • Department: American Painting and Sculpture
  • Culture: America, 19th century
  • Credit Line: Sundry Purchase Fund
  • Collection: American - Painting
  • Accession Number: 2014.12
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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