Picture Details
Landscape with deodar trees, hillmen and goats
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
WD2805Origin:
Himachal Pradesh, IndiaArtist / Date:
Henry Ambrose Oldfield, c.1847Donor / Date:
Oldfield CollectionDescription:
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Water-colour painting by Henry Ambrose Oldfield (1822-1871), an Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Medical Service, it shows a hillscape in Kanawar with a deodar tree, goats and goatherds. Kanawar, in Himachal Pradesh, is at a high altitude and the terrain mostly precipitous with rocky cliffs, narrow valleys and dense deodar forests. Native to the Himalayas, the deodar or cedar is a graceful, dense, and soft-textured pyramidal tree, valued for its timber and beauty. With age the lower branches tend to droop towards the ground, and the silhouette become very striking. This painting is particularly interesting from the ecological point of view as it captures signs of deforestation in the tree stumps in the foreground where the goats can be seen grazing.
