Charles Lamb RHA RUA

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Biography

Charles Lamb Artist

Charles Vincent Lamb RHA RUA (1893-1964) was born and educated in Portadown Northern Ireland. He initially studied life drawing at night at the Belfast School of Art before winning a scholarship to study full time at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin in 1917. He married Katherine Madox Hueffer, daughter of the English writer Ford Madox Ford and the couple settled in Carraroe, Connemara where in addition to painting they ran a summer painting school

Lamb, like Paul Henry, Sean Keating and Maurice MacGonigal had a deep attachment to the West of Ireland, especially to the area around Carraroe where he had settled in 1935. He is best remembered for his depictions of peasant and fishing families in traditional dress and engaged in routine activities, whether this was knitting, fishing, or dancing. He treated his subjects with great dignity. From the mid 1930s he concentrated on depicting landscape, working rapidly on a warm-toned surface whilst trying to capture the changing mood and light of Connemara

He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and regularly showed work in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles as well as at the RUA and RHA where he became a member in 1930 and 1938 respectively.

In 1947 a solo show was held at CEMA, Belfast, and a retrospective of his work was held in 1969 at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Significant works by Charles Lamb can be found in many important public and private collections worldwide among them

  • National Gallery of Ireland,
  • Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
  • Ulster Museum.

Charles Lamb Artist