Kangchenjunga from Darjeeling

Kangchenjunga from Darjeeling

Edward Lear, 1879

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Artist: Edward Lear (British, 1812–1888)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 47 1/8 x 72 inches (119.7 x 182.9 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

When Lear traveled to the Himalayan mountains in 1873, he wondered whether he could capture the grandeur of Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world, in a painting. To accurately render the details, he made numerous sketches and purchased tourist photographs for reference. His composition conveys a sense of scale by juxtaposing a steeply declining avenue of trees with the soaring mountains beyond.

The tea pickers gathered in the foreground by the Buddhist shrine hint at the cultivation of tea in Darjeeling by the British East India Company in the early nineteenth century. Lear painted this third and final version of his scene for Thomas Baring, Lord Northbrook, viceroy of India between 1872 and 1876, who sponsored the artist’s expedition.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.

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