Artwork Page for Vale of Kashmir

Details / Information for Vale of Kashmir

Vale of Kashmir

1867

Robert S. Duncanson

(American, 1821–1872)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
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.)
Credit Line
Sundry Purchase Fund 2014.12
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
206 American Landscape
Print
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Did You Know?

During the Civil War, Duncanson relocated to Montreal, where he inspired several Canadian landscape painters.

Description

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, Lalla-Rookh (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.
An oil painting depicts a landscape with hazy mountains against a blue sky in the background descending into a valley in green and orange tones. In the lower half of the painting, a river winds toward the lower right corner. In the lower right, minute figures ascend a curved staircase toward a fountain shooting a stream of water straight into the air.

Vale of Kashmir

1867

Robert S. Duncanson

(American, 1821–1872)
America

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