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T.H. Somervell (1890-1975) Theodore Howard Somervell, the eldest son of William Henry Somervell, was born in Kendal in 1890. He was educated at Rugby, Caius College, Cambridge and University College Hospital, London. He qualified as a doctor in 1915 and saw almost continuous service as a surgeon on the Western Front. In spare moments he sketched with William Rothenstein, an official war artist. In 1923, having completed his surgical training, he was offered an appointment as a Consultant Surgeon at University College Hospital. To the surprise of many, he turned down this appointment and all it had to offer and accepted instead a post as a Missionary Surgeon in the town of Neyyoor, South India. Thenceforth, he devoted his professional life to the welfare of some of the most impoverished people on earth. Somervell first climbed in the Alps in 1913 and returned there in 1920 to climb the Matterhorn as well as other peaks. After a further season in 1921, he was selected for the 1922 and 1924 Everest expeditions. In 1924, he climbed to 28,000 feet without supplementary oxygen, a record that was only surpassed 54 years later. He married Margaret Hope Simpson in 1925 and in 1926 they walked and climbed to the east and north of Nanda Devi, then the highest peak in the British Empire. He was one of the first to see the tremendous north face of Nanda Devi. In 1928 and 1943 he made excursions around the Kangchenjunga massif, the third highest peak in the world and one he first saw whilst en route to Everest in 1922. His first drawings and paintings were of Kendal and his family describe him as an almost compulsive sketcher and painter. He exhibited at the New English Art Club, the Redfern Gallery, the Alpine Club and, in retirement, almost every year at the Lake Artists Society annual exhibitions. His favourite medium in Tibet and the Himalayas was watercolour or gouache, often on Ingres paper. The oft-repeated tale that he used nothing more than 'cheap wrapping paper' must be apocryphal: he would have taken no more chances with his materials than any other artist. About one third of his total output was inspired by the Everest expeditions and most of the remaining paintings are of mountain scenes in the Alps or Lake District. Somervell was however one of the first to paint in southern India. Of some 700 or so identified titles possibly less than a third survive. Somervell developed his own style, distantly influenced by Cubism and a minimalist approach to his art. This was in contrast to the naturalistic and grander works of the likes of E.T. Compton or Gabriel Loppe. A fellow artist he particularly respected was Nicholas Roerich whom Somervell described in 1946 as '... the greatest mountain artist alive'. They shared a similarity in style although Roerich often developed a mysticism in his paintings which Somervell did not. Somervell wrote in his autobiography After Everest, 'people at home will say my sketches are hard, lacking poetry or mystery but that is where they are true records of this extraordinary clarity'. Somervell died in Ambleside in 1975. Noel Odell, who had been on Everest with him in 1924, wrote in his obituary notice of Somervell that 'No one has so faithfully caught the moods and subtleties of the Tibetan landscape and atmosphere'. Yet as an artist he remains unknown except to those with an interest in mountain art. David Seddon (djseddon@btinternet.com) VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Theodore Howard Somervell (1890-1975)

On the way to Everest

Details

Theodore Howard Somervell (1890-1975)
On the way to Everest
dated 'Gautsa. 1922.' (lower right) and signed and titled 'On the way to Everest T.H. Somervell.' on the backing board
pencil and watercolour on paper
11¼ x 8 1/8in. (28.6 x 20.6cm.)

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Lot Essay

'Travelling in Tibet is unlike most other travelling. The weather is nearly always fine and sunny, but miserably cold, with a strong west wind continually blowing little dust-devils over the sandy plain. There is "no tree, nor leaf of green," hardly any flowers, and no visible grass. ... But the country is almost all beautiful. The limestone and granite crags with rolling sandy slopes exhibit a variety of colour -- greys, reds, yellows, and even greens, unhelped by any vegetation: it has to be seen to be believed.' (T.H. Somervell, After Everest, London, 1950, pp.55)

This watercolour shows the Gautsa defile, a gorge about 12,000 feet above sea level in the Chumbi Valley in Sikkim. All the pre-war Everest expeditions reached the Tibetan plateau through this pass, stopping at the bungalows and rest-houses where they could acclimatize. Painted on the ribbed (Ingres) paper that he favoured, Somervell probably painted this view as a 'one-off' on the journey to Everest as he returned through Sikkim via a different route.

We are grateful to David Seddon for his help in preparing the above catalogue entry.

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