Who painted The Scales?

The Scales was painted by Ernest Stephen Lumsden in 1925.

Where can I see The Scales?

The Scales is held by Cleveland Museum of Art.

Can I buy a print of The Scales?

Museum-quality prints of The Scales are available made-to-order from Artifact World Gallery.

Artwork

The Scales

Ernest Stephen Lumsden , 1925

The Scales is a print by Ernest Stephen Lumsden. It dates from 1925 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Accession no.: 1922.242
Credit line: Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

About this work

Overview

Its composition centers on a pair of scales held by a figure on the floor, surrounded by three individuals engaged in quiet, unspoken activity.

Created around 1925 by Ernest Stephen Lumsden, The Scales is a black-and-white print depicting an intimate, cluttered interior. The work is part of the collection at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Its composition centers on a pair of scales held by a figure on the floor, surrounded by three individuals engaged in quiet, unspoken activity. The scene is rendered with careful tonal contrasts, emphasizing texture and spatial depth without color.

Subject & Meaning

The scene portrays ordinary domestic labor, with figures interacting around a set of scales, likely used for weighing goods or provisions. The presence of stacked jars, baskets, and ambiguous objects suggests a space used for storage or trade. No narrative is overt, but the quiet concentration of the figures implies routine, perhaps economic necessity. The scales serve as both literal tool and symbolic anchor in the composition.

Technique & Style

Lumsden employs chiaroscuro to model form and depth, using sharp contrasts between light and shadow to define the room’s rough surfaces and the figures’ postures. The light source, a high window, casts narrow beams that illuminate specific details, tools, fabric folds, the scales, while leaving corners in deep gloom. Lines are restrained, and detail is suggested rather than rendered, enhancing the sense of realism through atmosphere.

History & Provenance

The print was produced in the mid-1920s during a period when British artists were exploring social realism through printmaking. It entered The Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection through documented acquisition, though its earlier ownership history is not widely recorded. Its preservation reflects institutional interest in early 20th-century British graphic art outside the mainstream.

Context

Lumsden worked amid a wave of British printmakers who turned to everyday life as subject matter, influenced by social conditions and the legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Scales aligns with contemporaneous efforts to depict working-class environments with dignity and attention to material detail, avoiding idealization while resisting overt political commentary.

Legacy

The work remains a quiet example of interwar British printmaking, valued for its restrained emotional tone and technical precision. While not widely reproduced, it contributes to scholarly understanding of how artists of the period used domestic interiors to explore themes of labor, economy, and quiet endurance without melodrama.