Vale of Kashmir

Duncanson imagined this valley from Thomas Moore's poem Lalla Rookh. A courtly entourage accompanies the Persian princess's journey. Based in Cincinnati, he became one of the first African American painters recognized internationally. During the Civil War he lived in Montreal and contributed to Canadian landscape painting.

A pale mountain rises beyond the valley. Its scale greatly exceeds the architecture and human figures below.

Still water reflects the banks. Its broad surface leaves an open interval between the near land and the distant palace.

Tall trees form a dark border. Beyond them, the view opens onto the light center of the imagined landscape.

The buildings beside the water belong to the imagined Kashmir of Thomas Moore’s poem Lalla Rookh. Duncanson, who never visited India, created a landscape for the story of a travelling princess.

A clear pale sky opens above the valley. Its broad area preserves the landscape's extent around the small narrative details.

Duncanson was born free into a family of housepainters and carpenters. Cincinnati patrons, many of them abolitionists, supported him. Their help enabled his professional career and the production of large literary landscapes.