An exhibition celebrating an artist whose work ranged from the Lake District to Everest is being held in Grasmere.
The Heaton Cooper Studio archive gallery is hosting a show of work by Kendal-born Howard Somervell, a member of two Everest expeditions in the 1920s.
As well as being an accomplished artist and mountaineer, he was a doctor who spent nearly 40 years working in India, after serving as a surgeon on the Western Front during the First World War.
A regular participant at the Lake Artists Society’s annual exhibitions, his work often stood out from the usual Lakeland landscapes because the subject-matter might well be of of the Himalayan, Alpine or Tatra mountains.
They were also distinguished by their strong and simplified forms, reminiscent of cubism, and influenced by Nicholas Roerich and Ferdinand Hodler.
The exhibition is curated by Julian Cooper whose father, William Heaton Cooper, had known Howard for many years both as a fellow painter and as a climber; they were both longstanding members of The Lake Artists Society and the Fell & Rock Climbing Club.
Julian said: “He was an important and distinctive figure in the club and the society, with the Everest reputation adding to his aura.
“He was a familiar figure in our family and would come round to tea after the annual Lake Artists preview.
“Howard’s oil painting of the Matterhorn stood above our mantelpiece at home, and I grew up admiring the powerful way he had of simplifying mountain forms, similar in vision to my father’s watercolours, but by using body colour and oil his paintings had more physical presence.”
This exhibition has been several years in the planning.
Before and After Everest: The Art of Howard Somervell runs until Sunday November 23 at the Archive Gallery, Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere.
