Henry Lamb: Out of the Shadows

Henry Lamb (1883–1960) was a founder-member of the Camden Town Group, a powerful and original War artist, and an engaging and sensitive portrait painter. He is now best known through his many compelling portraits of Lady Ottoline Morrell, Evelyn Waugh, and Lytton Strachey, and his many compelling portraits of them. Lamb abandoned a promising medical career in Manchester to pursue his training as an artist at the London art school run by William Orpen and Augustus John. He found inspiration in the rural simplicity of Brittany and Ireland, and contributed two of the greatest artworks to the proposed National Hall of Remembrance in 1919.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 120 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2018
Publisher: Paul Holberton Publishing

Henry Lamb (1883-1960) was a remarkable draughtsman, matching even his mentor Augustus John. He was a founder-member of the Camden Town Group, exhibiting at their inaugural exhibition in 1911. Lamb was a powerful and original War artist, as well as an engaging and sensitive portrait painter. His group portraits are as successful as those by any British painter of the age.

Unfortunately, Lamb has been unfairly eclipsed by the glamorous and culturally influential circle around him. He is now best known through his many compelling portraits of figures such as Lady Ottoline Morrell, Evelyn Waugh, and Lytton Strachey. His monumental full-length portrait of Lady Ottoline Morrell in Tate Britain is probably his most famous work.

Lamb abandoned a promising medical career in Manchester to pursue his training as an artist at the London art school run by William Orpen and Augustus John. He found inspiration in the rural simplicity of Brittany, and a later visit to Ireland inspired his great genre painting Fisherfolk, Gola Island of 1913, which has not been seen in public since the last major retrospective in 1984.

Following active service during the First World War as an army medical officer (for which he was awarded a Military Cross), he contributed two of the greatest artworks to the proposed National Hall of Remembrance a year after the armistice in 1919.

After the War, Lamb produced some evocative townscapes of Poole's streets and skylines. He eventually settled in Coombs Bissett near Salisbury, where he established a reputation as a sought-after portrait painter. He executed a constant stream of landscapes, still lives, genre pictures, and fine domestic subjects.

In 2018, an exhibition of his work was held at Salisbury Museum, and in 2019, another exhibition was held at Poole Museum. Henry Lamb's legacy as a talented artist continues to be celebrated.

Weight: 604g
Dimension: 277 x 213 x 11 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781911300366