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Ernest Stephen Lumsden

1883 - 1948

Chien Gate from without by Ernest Stephen Lumsden
 

Chien Gate from without   1911

  Original etching.
Signed in pencil.
Ref: Lumsden 113 ii/ii
SOLD
 
Very good signed proof impression printed by E.S. Lumsden himself, from the only edition of 48 signed proofs (there were 2 proofs printed in the first state).

Chien Gate from without is one of only six original etchings of China which E.S.Lumsden made on his first trip to the orient in 1910. He had travelled first to Canada in pursuit of the girl who was later to become his wife, the artist Mabel Royds. Royds was committed to her new post as an art teacher in Toronto; so, when leaving Toronto to return to Scotland, E.S.Lumsden decided to voyage from Canada across the Pacific to Tokyo, travelling on to Korea, across China, and eventually returning to Edinburgh via the Trans-Siberian Railway. The fourteen individual plates which resulted from this Asian journey were loosely classed by Malcolm Salaman as E.S.Lumsden’s ‘Far East Set’.

The Chien Men gate is the principal entrance to the ancient city of Peking (now Beijing), in China. The gate is situated in Beijing's historic city wall to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guarded the southern entry into the Inner City.

On fine simile Japan paper; full sheet with narrow margins. Slight scattered foxing, otherwise generally good condition.