Howard Somervell - Artist

Artist

Somervell painted many hundreds if not thousands of paintings and has been described as a compulsive sketcher and painter. The Himalyan Club identified some 600 titles, 200 plus of which were representations of the Himalaya or Tibet. One hundred and twenty six of these relate to the 1922 and 1924 expeditions, many of which were exhibited at The Royal Geographical Society in April 1925 and at the Redfern Gallery, London in 1926. He exhibited almost annually at the Lake Artists Society (LAS) exhibitions in the English Lake District after his return to England.

Many of his watercolours are painted on what has been described as no more than ‘cheap’ brown or off-white wrapping paper. However, given that Somervell was a sometime commercial artist this oft repeated tale is largely apocryphal. He used this style of paper as early as 1913 and was still using it in the 1970s. It particularly lends itself to the dun colours of the Tibetan landscape. Other artists such as John Sell Cotman and Edith Collingwood used a similar paper. He often used watercolour and body colour in preference to watercolour alone. He also used pastel either alone or with watercolour. Watercolour seems to have been his favoured medium in Tibet, the Himalaya and India.

The Alpine Club in London possesses thirty paintings by Somervell Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal, England has thirteen Somervell watercolours and one oil painting whilst The Royal Geographical Society hold a large watercolour, Gaurisankar from the North West, dated 1924 although this may in fact be a painting of Menlungtse.

Somervell’s paintings of the Himalaya and of Westmoreland were exhibited at the Abbot Hall Gallery in April 1979.