Ernest Stephen Lumsden was born in London on 22 December 1883. Lumsden initially intended to pursue a naval career, but that aspiration was curtailed due to poor health, which continued to plague him throughout his life. He studied at Reading Art School from 1889 under Frank Morley Fletcher and briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1903. He drew inspiration from the work of Haden and Whistler. In 1908 he accepted a teaching appointment at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he taught printmaking. In the 27 January 1910 edition of the The New Age Huntly Carter observed, ‘And there is Mr Ernest S Lumsden’s series of etchings at the Dowdesdell Galleries, very careful and delicate and revealing a nice feeling and sentiment. They should be seen.’ He also appears to have diversified into book illustration. He illustrated James Bone’s book The Perambulator in Edinburgh (1911). In 1913 Lumsden married the Slade-trained artist Mabel Allington Royds (1874-1941), who worked in woodcuts (most of her work appears to have been cut on sixpenny Woolworth’s breadboards). Together, they travelled in Europe, the Middle East and India. Some noted artists studied with them at one time or another, including the American Norma Bassett Hall. Lumsden travelled out to India between several times 1912 and 1927 and is noted for his prints of scenes of the Hindu holy city of Benares and of his depictions of life on the banks of the River Ganges. During the Great War, he saw service as an officer with the Indian Army. In the period 1924-31 The Studio published 26 volumes titled Modern Masters of Etching. Volume 17 featured the work of Lumsden. In 1925 he published what is still regarded as a seminal treatise on the subject of etching, titled The Art of Etching – described within as: ‘The Art Of Etching A Complete & Fully Illustrated Description Of Etching, Drypoint, Soft-Ground Etching Aquatint & Their Allied Arts, Together With Technical Notes Upon Their Own Work By Many Of Our Leading Etchers Of The Present Time.’ In it, Lumsden described the various techniques of intaglio printing using etching, drypoint, mezzotint and aquatint; he provided a whirlwind tour of the history and development of etching from the time of Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya and the etching revival; and the last 60 pages comprise personal, illustrated notes from several eminent etchers of the period on their techniques including: Marius Bauer, Frank Benson, Muirhead Bone, George Clausen, David Young Cameron, Frank Short, Augustus John, Frank Brangwyn, James McBey, Edmund Blampied, Percy Smith, Christopher Nevinson, Dame Laura Knight, and John Everett. The book was published as a trade edition, which is still in print, and had a limited edition of 150 copies containing four original etchings by Lumsden. He taught his etching techniques to the American Arthur W Hall (1889-1981), who took that knowledge back to Kansas and became active in a circle of artists in the Wichita area, which later evolved into the Prairie Printmakers. In 1931 Lunsden illustrated Herbert Read’s book The Place of Art in a University. Lumsden also travelled widely in Europe and North America. He specialised in depicting topographic views, particularly of architectural scenes. When the market for etchings collapsed in the late 1920s, he took up his palette and found work as a portrait painter. In 1931 he purchased several of Edgar Holloway’s etchings and invited the 17-year-old to become a member of the Society of Artist Printers in Edinburgh. Lumsden was elected Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1909 and full member in 1915; he was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1923 and a full member in 1933. He served as President of the Society of Artist-Printers in the period 1929 to 1947. In 1936 J M Dent and Sons published The Later Etchings of E S Lumsden With: Chronological List of Lumsden’s Etchings, 1905-1935 by John Copley. Between 1905 and 1946 Lumsden produced some 336 etchings, mostly inspired by his travels to Paris, British Columbia, Korea, China, Burma, Tibet and India. Lumsden died on 29 September 1948 at Edinburgh. There remains a lively trade in his work, with many etchings finding their way into collections in America. His etchings The Pier (1920) and The Scales (1922) may be found in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio and his Pekin Shops (1911) Idle Craft (1928) in the University of Michigan, Museum of Art at Ann Arbor.