Before and After Everest by Howard Somervell

About

Howard Somervell was born in Kendal in 1890 and is best known for his role as a mountaineer, and was one of the leading climbers on the 1922 and 1924 British expeditions to Everest. He was also an acclaimed artist, especially of mountain scenes and other landscapes. He developed his art practice while serving as a surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the Western Front in 1916-18, when he went out sketching with William Rothenstein, who had a strong influence on his technique. He carried a sketchbook almost everywhere he went, and would later use the sketches as a basis for his oil paintings.

After leaving the RAMC in 1920, Somervell established his climbing reputation in the Alps and in Scotland, resulting in him being selected for the 1922 Everest Expedition. Many of his paintings are based on sketches he made on his climbing expeditions to Everest, other Himalayan mountains, and the Alps. Following this expedition he chose to leave his promising medical career and decided to spend his working life helping the poor in what is now Tamil Nadu. As a talented surgeon he devoted the rest of his life to the people of South India as a medical missionary, alongside his wife, in the medical mission field working at Neyyoor until 1949 and thereafter at Vellore until 1961.

After he retired to the Lake District in 1961, he painted prolifically in the studio of his home in Ambleside until his death in 1975.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 23rd November 2025, at the Archive Gallery, Heaton Cooper Studio, Grasmere, LA22 9SX