Ella Condie Lamb: Finances

"The Crystal (Portrait of Gertrude McMannis)
by Ella Condie Lamb

"With the passing of Joseph Lamb in 1898 and his brother Richard in 1909, the next generation moved to pick up the reins and lead the J. & R. Lamb Studios into the 20th Century. Charles pulled it all together and ran the firm. The Studios expanded rapidly under him and his brother Fred. Not only did it provide 'everything for the church,' it also decorated interiors of libraries and private homes. 

In this position he had to cope with an upsetting aspect of the finances: the necessity of reminding clients to pay their bills. A letter from Charles to Ella describes his great reluctance in this matter, 'I hate to do it! I can't stand it! I wish I didn't have to do it!'

Ella not only saw how the pressures affected her husband, especially when the market for the work fell away, but also felt deep frustration and bewilderment herself. She began to question the role of the artist in society. Did the artist exist only to execute a client's desires or the decree of an architect? Sometimes she desperately struggled with the question of why an artist was to paint - what useful purpose did painting have? Why did one feel such urgency, such need, especially if the world was indifferent to what was produced? But sometimes the pain of the inexplicable divergence between the offer of the artist and the needs of an indifferent society overcame her emotional restraint.

She wrote in her diary in anguish: 'They say easel pictures are purposeless and useless, that everything must have its place to which it is destined to be applied. But how can such fine frenzy be harnessed to waiting for a job of decoration? Can inspiration wait on architecture? Shall the sonnet, the epic poem, the song, the symphony, all truly spontaneous creations, never be born?'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Building a Country House

"Field Daisy" by Ella Condie Lamb

"In 1899, Charles Lamb began construction on a country house in Cresskill, New Jersey, a home which was to be a refuge from city pressures and cares. 'They came,' recalled their daughter Katharine, 'because of the gorgeous sunsets and the view, and because they did not want to be too far from New York. This place reminded them of Italy because of the cypress trees.' And they called the house 'The Fold.'

It was designed by Charles to harmonize with nature, to blend in with its surroundings. Ella explained:

'Our house belongs there on the edge of the woods just as much as the growing trees and shrubs do, for much of it has always been there. We brought out the foreign materials only when our own land could not supply our needs. You see we loved the land, and valued her assistance. And in return we did not encroach upon her reserve, or destroy her individuality, or try in any way to change her particular beauty by rendering it conventional. We cleared off no spaces, nor did we smooth out the pleasant wrinkled surface of the old pasture into hard flat lawns - that would have been a poor return for all the meadows were giving us.'

Some of William Morris' ideals of living and comfort were expressed in the house - restraint in decoration, bookcases with plenty of books, chairs that give comfort, tables commodious in size, vases for flowers, some real works of art on the walls, and the fireplace the chief object in the room.

For Ella, only one thing was missing - good light for her studio. The house had four foot eaves which made the upstairs studio room too dark. When Ella expressed her concern to Charles, he replied, 'Oh, that's all right, we'll go and cut a hole.' Katharine wrote, 'He got a carpenter to cut a five foot square hole... It brought in a tremendous amount of northern light, and now that's done in all the modern houses, you know, holes in the roof.'

And, of course, Ella shared, 'We had to have a garden. The children needed it to grow in, I needed it to work off city nerves, and as for Mr. Lamb - well, every artist should have a flower garden.' After it was established, she wrote: 'The most wonderful time of all is of a moonlight night. Then the white light sifts through the purple shadows of the grapevine over the wall's seat and sundial, the phlox, lilies, and pinks gleam white and fill the air with fragrance. Over in the woodland a whippoorwill or a hoot owl calls. A star shines in the pool and verily, 'God walks in my garden.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: The Sage Chapel Mosaic Mural, Cornell University

"The Sciences," mosaic at Sage Chapel, Cornell University
by Ella Condie Lamb

"The beautiful mosaic mural in the Sage Chapel of Cornell University, designed by Charles and Ella Lamb and executed by the Studios, is an example of harmonious collaboration and of an understanding of the desires of the times for philosophical rather than religious figures in a public building, even a chapel. Charles consulted with the President of the University as to the dominant idea of the mosaic mural to be erected in the chapel apse to the memory of the late Henry Williams Sage, and his wife, Susan Lana Sage.

The result of these conferences was a reservation of the lower part of the apse for the quesiton of 'Education' - and of the upper portion of the ceiling for the idea of 'Religion.'The lower wall surface suggested as its best treatment a processional. In this the subject of the 'Sciences' and the 'Arts' are placed north and south, and 'Philosophy' in the center, the extremem figures being those of 'Young Manhood' and 'Young Womanhood,' suggesting the cause of coeducation which Cornell leads.

As Ella designed and drew the figures she realized that they would be viewed from below. Therefore the heads are rendered somewhat smaller than they otherwise might be because they are further from the viewer than the lower part of the body, as if a real figure was in fact above the viewer. The same realization is indicated in the pastel study head of Music. Clearly one is looking at this face from a position slightly below it. Many of the figures she had to draw for public buildings would be placed above the heads of her viewers, therefore she had to use this perspective often."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Mistress of Mosaic

"Music" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Among the albums of old photographs of Ella's professional work in the records of the Lamb Studios are many pictures of her pastel studies for allegorical figures, personifications of Memory, Music, Architecture, Physics, Love, to name some of them. The figures are usually stately women clothed in drapery and are reminiscent of ancient Greek sculpture. Why do so many of these representations appear quite suddenly in her work?

The answer is that Ella had been given commissions from the Studios that required her to meet the demands of the artistic and philosophical fashion of the times. The taste in public art was for symbols which easily and immediately recalled the heroic, hard-earned achievements of civilization, as well as its spiritual values. A common voice seemed to say, 'We want monuments to brave men, military triumphs, global victories, and industrial and scientific progress.'

Individual artists realized they could earn their living by executing this form of Public Art. Some of those who did were John La Farge, William Morris Hunt, Edwin Abbey, Edwin Blashfield, John Alexander White, Edward Simmons, Elihu Vedder, Robert Reid, Will Low, Robert Blum, and Kenyon Cox, all friends or acquaintances of the Lambs.

Ella would not have chosen for herself assignments in mural painting and mosaic design, but Charles knew she was capable of working on this grand scale. She approached each commission in a scholarly, conscientious way, keeping in mind at all times the purpose of the design and the medium in which it would be realized - stained glass, mosaic, or mural painting.

Ella executed these commissions so competently that a full-page article in the 'New York Herald' about her carried the title 'Mistress of Mosaic.' In another article Ella pointed out 'It was not easy. All mural work demands many preliminary sketches, studies from models, detail drawings and color sketches, and research work, as well as physical endurance, nerve force, and determination to carry through to the final large cartoon or painting.'' Perhaps in an attempt to lighten these serious remarks, Ella then said, 'Being a little woman, I enjoyed covering large spaces!'"

Several notable commissions were her figures for the mosaic mural in Sage Chapel, Cornell University; the four symbolic figures for the interior of Lakewood Chapel, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Trask mosaic fireplace in Tuxedo Park, New York; and 'The Open Book,' a mural painted for The Flower Memorial Library, Watertown, New York.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Cornish

"Boy with Bangs" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Due to the demands of Charles' career, he traveled frequently to Europe. In June 1892, Charles took an extensive business trip there, and Ella journeyed to Windsor, Vermont, with their second son, Karl, to paint and to work. Instructors and artists whom Charles knew well from his years as president of the Arts Students League spent the summer in neighboring Cornish, New Hampshire: Thomas Dewing and his wife Maria, George de Forest Brush and his family, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbot Thayer among them. Their old friend, Henry Prellwitz was also in Cornish and arranged for a place for Ella, Karl, and Ella's young helper, Mary, to live.

Her long and conversational letters give immediacy to life in the colony: her feelings of loneliness for Charles, of the discomfort she comes to feel upon discovery of friction between several of the artists in Cornish, and the question of combining art with motherhood (she was working on a portrait of Karl):

• 'Saturday Joe Evans called in an old greatcoat with an old horse and buggy. I asked to be informed of the 'feud' for my own safety. It seems the Henry Walkers have been making violent enemies of the Dewings and Mrs. Lazarus, who, with the Saint-Gaudens, do not recognize them. Mr. Brush has sided with the Walkers and he and Dewing don't speak now. Isn't it stupid?'
  
  
• '[George de Forest Brush] told me plainly that as a mother I should give up painting - for we cannot serve two masters, and maternity and art each demand all of one's energies. I find truly that the boy does need me more and more as his mind develops. This is the time he takes impressions. It is a hard question and yet not too hard - for I have always felt that way, that we cannot serve two masters. But I must help my husband, too...'
  
  Nevertheless Mr. Brush gave me encouragement this afternoon. He thanks I have 'an exceedingly promising start.'...I am in that dreadful place that comes in all portraits that are carried far, when it looks hopeless, but I must be braver than this and more confident...'
  
  
• 'Oh dear, I am so lonely without my husband, my comrade, my 'shield' ...how happy I shall be when you return, in our dear home! I hold tight to Karl, when I can catch him or when I go to bed and feel as if I had part of you... Please try not to worry. Think of your little woman as working and will have a good thing to show you, and your son is growing strong and chubby and manly like his father... Be careful my husband, my dear husband - my baby's father. You are all we have.'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: The Dodge Prize

"An Advent Angel"
by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella was a thorough professional about her work for the Studios, although she once protested to Charles that she 'was not meant for it.' She was able to accomplish the work because she had discipline and because she regarded art not only as self-expression but also as the means by which to make a living, an attitude which was respected by her colleagues.

The character of the art which she pursued privately, however, was a continuation of her childhood need to observe - to express discovery of the world: children, friends, garden, boats on the river, landscapes of fields and mountains, birch trees in a grove and water lilies scattered over the surface of a pond. 

One painting, 'An Advent Angel,' she conceived and executed was submitted to competition at the National Academy of Design. It won the Dodge Prize, an award given by the Academy to 'the best picture painted by a woman in the United States.' There were more than half a hundred women exhibitors that year. The lovely painting was also accepted for the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, receiving honorable mention, then was exhibited favorably in 1890 next to a painting by Berthe Morisot, before being featured in 'The Century Magazine' in 1893. 

Four months after Ella had won the Dodge Prize, her first son Richard Condie Lamb was born. But in January of that year he died, aged five months, a victim of diphtheria. When she saw that her precious son was going to die, she decided to draw him. She would have no tangible remembrance of him unless she did. Ella's Dodge Prize money was used to endow a special room for severe surgical cases in the Babies Hospital, and a marble tablet bearing little Richard Condie's name and date of death was affixed there.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Mother and Professional Artist

Cartoon for Stained Glass "Christ Blessing Little Children"
by Ella Condie Lamb

"Over the next ten years, Ella Condie Lamb bore five children. The first, Richard, died in 1889 of diphtheria at the age of five months. The second, Karl, was born on November 9, 1890, a daughter, Katharine, on June 3, 1896, a third son, Donald, on December 29, 1896, and a fourth son, Joseph Condie, whom they called Condie, on March 11, 1900. These were the years during which art and family life were as entwined as they could possibly be.

In May 12, 1895 entitled "Industrial Art Progress: Women Who are Making Enviable Names in New Fields, Cartoons for Stained Glass Windows" reprinted in the 'Philadelphia Press, May 12, 1895:

Mrs. Charles R. Lamb - or Ella Condie Lamb - as she is better known in the art world - has but few rivals in the branch of work to which she has devoted most study - the designing of cartoons for stained glass windows and mosaic decoration...

In speaking of herself, Mrs. Lamb said: 'My first serious work was begun when I was about 16. Then followed years of digging and plodding and although my work was then done entirely from love of art and not professionally, my grounding was as thorough and studying as conscientious as if the thought of public approval had been ever before me. Since my marriage I have continued my studies, and my interest in art has increased rather than diminished. Most of my work is now done in collaboration with my husband.'

In speaking of the payment made to men and women for work of equal merit, Mrs. Lamb said: 'I believe it is fast becoming the rule to have one established scale of prices for both sexes. I have found that in the illustrating work that I have done for such houses as the Century and Harpers, that for each style of work there is a set price per page which is never deviated from except in the case of an artist who is famous enough to demand special rates, but then it is a question of genius, not sex.'

In one of Ella's first commissions, 'Christ Blessing Little Children,' [above] she has drawn Christ turning towards a mother, who leans toward him in supplication with an infant in her arms. This cartoon was drawn the year of the death of Ella's first child. She immediately proved with this design, that she could skillfully place and coordinate many figures within a given space, in this case a semi-circle. A pamphlet from Christ Church Springfield, Illinois, describes it.

'The window was designed by the wife of the head of the Lamb Studios, Mrs. Charles R. Lamb, known under her professional name, Ella Condie Lamb, and was executed in the Lamb Studios under her personal supervision, she having drawn not only the original design, but the full size cartoon from which the glass was cut. Mrs. Lamb is living and is still a working artist, with her studio in New York City, one of two women first elected, many years ago, to membership in the National Society of Mural Painters. 'Christ Blessing Little Children,' is a beautiful window any time but seen when the light of the afternoon falling through it, it is a sursum corda ('lift up your hearts').'

 To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: J & R Lamb Studios

"The Visit of the Shepherds"
design for a stained glass window
by Ella Condie Lamb

"When Ella Condie married into the Lamb family, she also joined the family firm of ecclesiastical art workers, the J & R Lamb Studios, and at once became one of their most important and respected designers of stained glass windows, painted and mosaic murals, and other works. 

One cannot help but wonder if she had any true idea of how vast an enterprise the Studios was. Entire interiors of churches, mausoleums and chapels, interiors which required altars, mosaic domes, choir stalls, pews, as well as stained glass windows, were commissioned. Materials were of the finest quality: Venetian mosaic, Italian and Irish marble, carved oak, ebony and rosewood, myriad forms of stained glass ('We have specially imported quantities of Antique, Iridescent and Venetian glass, including opalescent and hand-made glass') and intricate metal work of all types.

In 1899 they were invited by the United States government to represent the United States at the Paris Exposition of 1900 in the art of stained glass - one of four studios called upon. The monumental window, 'Religion Enthroned,' designed by Ella's brother-in-law won the unusual prize of two gold medals, one to the Studios for execution, and one to Frederick for the design. The window was a superb example of what was called the 'American School' in glass, a revolutionary technique invent by John La Farge.

As a designer for the Studios, Ella began collaborating with Charles and her brother-in-law, Frederick. She had to keep rigorous requirements in mind when given an assignment, and, of course, be subject to the opinion and criticism of the client since the initial cartoons [detailed drawings done in actual size used to execute its construction] could be seen and criticized. Her design had to be so clear in every detail that the team of craftsmen, glass cutters and mosaic setters, would have no doubt as to what she, as the designer, meant. There was no place for mere suggestion or ambiguity. She achieved simplicity, universality, and controlled power, no matter the subject assigned to her. 'Strongly drawn and vigorously conceived figures' - that contemporary assessment is an accurate description of her work. 

That her approach was considered skillful and was highly regarded by fellow artists in the field, is apparent in a letter from Edwin Blashfield, who became a muralist for the Library of Congress and president of the Society of Mural Painters:

My Dear Mrs. Lamb, The other night at the Mural Painters, the photographs of your angels especially attracted me as having style and feeling and seeming very fitted to what they were intended for, church or chapel decoration. I thought that you had done very well a thing very difficult to do well at all...'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Charles Lamb, Pt. 2

"Peonies" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella Condie Lamb's husband Charles was at times described as 'the Evangelist of the City Beautiful Movement.' This movement encouraged and created beauty and monumental grandeur in urban spaces for the purpose of social uplift. No one could state better his vision than he himself did in his article 'New York - The City Beautiful' published in November, 1900, in 'The Metropolitan Magazine.' Here are a few excerpts:

•  We now travel thousands of miles to see Brunelleschi's 'dome' and Giotto's 'tower,' and we stand in admiration before Ghiberti's baptistery doors, which Michelangelo said were 'worthy to be the entrance to Paradise.' This little Italian commune recognized that art was of the people and for the people, and the Or San Michele stands today enriched by the sculptural works of art, the contribution of the guilds of the city. Does it not raise a smile to think of the modern trades acting with the same broad-minded, civic feeling? Has art deteriorated or civic pride lost its force?
  
  
• Is it not true that in modern attempts to educate people on lines artistic, by bringing together in museums works of art, the purpose for which they were executed has been overlooked? Is it not true that every great work of art was designed for a place and with a distinct purpose in mind? Does not the isolation in great museums of such masterpieces go far to create the false impression that art is a thing apart from our daily lives?
  
  It is to combat this error that the work of the art societies of New York in the past few years has been directed. It is along these lines that the work of the National Sculpture Society and the Architectural League has developed, under the intelligent direction of their councils and executive committees.
  
  
• Have we not in our commercial supremacy of this country, have we not in our financial supremacy, two great forces which, if properly directed, will so modify the plan, the construction, the architecture, and the art as to recreate from a city of chaos a city of beauty?
  
  
• Art is not a luxury: it is an Essential. Art is not an exotic; any art which is will never live. Art is practical and when the people of this country and the citizens of New York awake to a realizing sense that art is the best in life, that is to say, the best in every sense...then we will have such a renaissance, such an awakening, as will be the marvel of the whole world."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Charles Lamb, Pt. 1

"The Dewey Arch," New York City

"A separate biography would be needed to fully describe the life and career of Charles Lamb.  However, since he must be part of this one, it seems prudent to summarize his achievements rather than weave them into a presentation of the art and life of Ella, his wife. Charles' business career, his passionate involvement with the City Beautiful Movement, his visionary ideas for city planning, his drive to promote fine public art, his avid participation and service in the influential art societies of New York, his public speaking, his strong personality, his need for action and his drive for recognition, all are dazzling.

Together Charles and Ella met the desires of the public, and necessarily the tastes of the era, in order to make a living for themselves and their four children. 

Charles was the second son of five children. This older brother was named Osborn, after Charles came Fred, then Dick and finally Agnes. The parents were strong, artistic and industrious people, desirous that their children be cultured, well educated and above all, well trained in art. Their lives revolved around each other and the family business, the J & R Lamb Studios. At the age of sixteen, Charles became an apprentice at the business and helped his father run the firm, which provided 'everything for the church' including stained glass windows, marble statuary, mosaics, and much more. 

At night Charles studied architecture and took courses at the Art Students League in drawing and laying out designs. His family sent him to study the great architecture, cathedrals, and museums of Europe, and he had become one of the chief designers for J & R Lamb Studios. He had developed a deep appreciation of artistic traditions of the past along with a compelling vision of how beautiful and inspiring the environment of the city and its public art could and should be. By the time he married Ella at twenty-eight, he was a self confident architect-designer who sought the finest in art. 

When one reads a list of his accomplishments throughout his lifetime, one wonders if there were enough hours in the day for Charles to attend to all his enterprises and positions of leadership and creative ideas. Here is a list of just a few:

• President of the Art Students League, 1886-87
• An organizer of the American Fine Arts Society and on the original Board of Trustees as Treasurer.
• Vice-President of the Architectural League for two terms
• 2nd Vice-President of the National Sculpture Society for two terms
• Designer, architect, and supervisor of construction for the Dewey Arch in New York City
  
• An organizer of the National Arts Club, insisting that there be equal entry for women
• The designer, architect, and supervisor of construction for the Dewey Arch
• Active in New York politics
• A major participant in the organization of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY
• President of the Municipal Arts Society, 1906 and 1907
• Director of the Merchants Association of New York and chairman of its City Planning Committee, which presented extensive schemes for improvement in New York
• A major contributor to the City Beautiful movement and published comprehensive plans for city improvement and for reclamation of the waterfront.
• Director of the Boy Scouts of America and lifelong friend of its founder, Dan Beard."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Honeymoon in Europe

Ella Condie Lamb's Sketch of Bruges

"'Before they [Ella and Charles Lamb] were married,' recalled their son, Donald, 'Mother got pneumonia and had taken to bed. A doctor said she ought to have a long sea voyage. They decided to get married and have the sea voyage be their honeymoon. Mother and Father were married right there in her bedroom. They left on their honeymoon and by the time they got back, she was well.'

Their letters back home are laden with historical references and detailed descriptions of all they were seeing in Holland, Belgium, Paris, and London. 'I send you some grasses that you may have part of our wanderings. They are from Egmond and Marken,' she wrote her mother-in-law.

In Bruges, Belgium, Ella made a small sketch of a canal. Beneath are her notations for color: houses - sienna; roofs - red tiles; bridge - warm gray; second house - dark gray sienna; gray sky; walls - yellow gray; distant house - suggestion of purple; dark purple shadow in bridge and walls; changing light on surface of the water - reflections with less color. She was enchanted with the beauty of this 'Venice of the north.' 

In Holland she noted, 'The girls are dressed like their mothers, in many petticoats, thick woolen waists embroidered in high colors... a high white cap that covers all the hair, except a bit that sticks out straight over the forehead, and two long curls, that hang on each side of the face... One woman smiling invited us to inspect her house. It was scrupulously clean with rows of Dutch plate along the walls. Finally the woman sat down and posed while I made a little sketch.'

Of Paris: 'We have seen more art and gotten more ideas in the last week than in a year in New York.'

In London they met up with a number of artists: 'I shall be happy to see you, ' wrote Burne-Jones, and there was a cordial letter from Mary Watts, wife of George Frederick Watts. 'I write to say for him that we are here for the Autumn and shall have much pleasure in showing you and Mrs. Lamb the work now here.' And what could be more English than a cup of tea? Walter Crane wrote from his home in Beaumont Lodge, Shepard's Bush, 'My dear Mr. Lamb, I am glad to hear you are in London and your bride is with you... I should be very pleased to see you both if you could look in some afternoon about 5 and have a cup of tea.'

Charles noted that 'Today we closed our London by calling upon Mr. Alma-Tadema and being received in a royal way - shown all over his London house and studio - and at last being sent off with two etchings and two photos with his signature on each.'

But Ella longed for home. 'We do not think anything we have seen will be pleasanter than the big room at the mountain, with the logs you promised, and the home faces around it.'" And so they returned to the States.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Charles Lamb

"Charles [Lamb] with Beret" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Upon her return to the United States Ella found a position as art instructor in a 'school for young ladies' in Bergen Point, New Jersey. Her business card lists her teachers: M.M. Collins and Courtois, Paris; Messrs. Wm. M. Chase, Walter Shirlaw, C.Y. Turner, New York. Chase also sent his recommendation as following: 'I take pleasure in presenting my former pupil Miss Ella G. Condie as one fully competent to teach the Art of Drawing or Painting.'

Ella had now known Charles Lamb for several years. They had studied at the Art Students League, he had visited her in France, and had accompanied her with her friends to the Netherlands and to England. Only 5'1", with long blond hair and blue eyes, exceedingly talented and dedicated to her art, Ella seems to have fascinated Charles from almost the moment he met her. Their son, Condie, recalled that his father often said he had married 'the best student at the Art Students League.' No longer a student, Ella was now a mature professional artist.

Charles was a handsome, outgoing man and Ella, though cautious, had become enamored of him. She had begun to realize that he was somewhat of a dynamo with a complicated personality. The decision as to whether or not to marry him loomed before her and she would not be hurried into making it. She had to proceed at her own gait and she put him off, knowing she needed to retreat, not only to make a decision about Charles, but also to find her own stride in life as well as in art. 

For two years Ella continued with her teaching, painting and exhibiting her work.

Then in a love letter written on thin tissue-like paper from Ella to Charles, and carefully preserved by him, she acknowledged her love for him and what that meant to her. Instead of dedicating herself solely to achieving supremacy in art, she chose married life: 'I wonder if you really know what it means - it means that the greatest joy that can come to a woman has come to me - that the highest station in life that can be given her has been given to me - that the richest possibilities that can be opened before her have been opened to me. You do not mind if I am not a great artist?' Of course, he did not mind.

Her father wished her and Charles 'their 'full share of those greatly to be admired blessings, Health, Happiness and Contentment, in whatever part of life's great drama you may be called upon to participate.' 

After June 16, 1888, Ella Grace Condie signed her paintings, 'Ella Condie Lamb.'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Paris

Sketches from Paris by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella Condie Lamb and Miss Metcalf settled into Paris at 44 Rue Madame. She enrolled in classes taught by Collins and Courtois in the Colarossi Academy. Here she learned the rudiments of sculpture and wrote home in a somewhat discouraged tone:

'I have been modeling in clay as usual and I feel I must learn something, although I will have nothing to show you, as things get broken up and the clay reused, and I could not get the casts home even if the things were good enough to be taken.' 

This study deepened her understanding of the workings of the human body. New strength and power appear in her life drawing at this time. Her increased ability in life drawing can be seen in one of the few surviving drawings from her time in Paris. She described one of the models, '...the garcon at school is an old man, with a splendid head of shaggy grey hair - a model - named Arc Angelo. I always want to call him Michelangelo or else Arch Angel.'

Though the paper is extremely brittle and yellowed, Ella's Parisian drawings demonstrate the development of her natural skill and the reason for which Charles de Kay, art critic for 'The New York Times,' praised Ella's 'faultless drawing.' She had a very happy time in Paris, not only because of her art lessons but also with friends who happened to be there at the same time. As well as her girlfriends, these included Dick and Charles Lamb whom she had met in New York. 

She did not stay the entire year but wanted to go home. 

'I have bought my ticket (with Mr. Lamb's kind assistance, who sails himself tomorrow)... I shall be home,' she penned, 'if all goes well, Sunday after next and sit with you in our pew at church. I do not know where you are going to put me at first - with you at Austin's or with Kittie - but will find out when I come. Until then good-bye - love to all - and so very much to yourself. From your daughter, Ella G. Condie'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: A Conflict of Interests

"Portrait of Mary Dale" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella Condie Lamb's father, James, offered to pay for another year of study in Europe. Ella's reply is an important letter because it eloquently expresses her understanding of herself and her personality, and because it shows that she sees clearly the consequences of the choice she must make. A sense of plight blends with common sense: it would not be possible to be a famous artist, to be 'truly great,' which to her meant to create, not imitate, while at the same time live a traditional family life. She has come to realize that one must give up everything to be 'great,' including 'all my most womanly instincts.'

One cannot help but be moved by her gentle effort to set forth that reality to the father who saw the potential for greatness in his gifted daughter: 

 

January 25, 1885

My dear Papa, This morning I received your letter containing the startling proposition of my staying abroad until the summer of '86.

 

Please do not think that the time and money spent in my coming abroad have been wasted so far, as regards an art education. I feel sure that I have gained more in doing what I have been doing - namely - seeing the good and grand examples of art in the galleries, museums and buildings, in taking in new ideas about all sorts of things and in having a little time to myself in which to get those ideas a little straightened, than I should have gained had I actually been at work at an art school which probably would not have differed essentially from the League.

 

It is the fine pictures and the surroundings of the Art schools here that make them superior. We have found that Herkomer's school was not a success and now that I have your permission, I am all ready to start for Paris, only waiting money and directions about same...

 

As for my staying another year, I cannot at present bear to contemplate the idea of being away from home another long year - but that possibility can be decided after two or three months at a Paris school.

 

I have had all the conceit taken out of me by seeing things here - not of my powers of imitation - but, I have learnt that that is not all that is needful - and to be truly great, one must be able to create - and interpret - Nature.

 

Papa, were I a boy, and able to give up all my time, future and interest and duties, for years and years to the one pursuit, I would not feel so - but, as I am a girl, and as there always have been duties, so I suppose there always will be duties, to divide my time and energies.

 

By all this, I do not mean that my studies are useless, oh no! I always will work whenever I have the chance - but I do not want you to expect as much from me as if I were a boy and could give up everything for it.

 

You know it is one of my greatest wishes to have a home - and so unless I lose all my most womanly instincts and feelings I am afraid I shall never be a 'great artist,' in the sense of making a name and fame for myself - although, as I always have, so will I always try to work, whenever I can. 

 

I cannot tell you how much good this winter is doing me, not only in the art sense, but in every other! But, I cannot yet say I would like to stay another year...'"

 

Her letter gives us valuable insight into the values of that time and helps us understand some of the issues that faced female artists.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: The Herkomer School

"House in Watford, England" by Ella Condie Lamb

"In the fall of 1884, Ella Condie Lamb traveled to England to study at the art school of Sir Hubert von Herkomer, situated in Bushey, near London. Unfortunately, she quickly realized that she was not going to make progress while at the Herkomer school. Not long after his return to New York, her father received a letter from Ella explaining the situation in detail:

'My dear Papa, Ever since you left it has been growing more and more unbearable at the school. We would start in the morning feeling like work ... and then in would come Mr. Herkomer to criticize. I don't mind how severe they were - that was nothing - they were not as severe as those I have been used to, but he would say I must do certain things - and others I must not do -  which all my teachers had instructed me as being the best way. He would talk as if I were not trying and leave me without an idea to start fresh on after having pulled all my work down as being totally wrong. Then he contradicted himself so that I got not to trust him. Always the same tone he assumed was of complete authority, as, you must do so and so whether you know why or not, - 'Don't follow your own reason but mine,' - whereas Mr. Chase and all the others always said, 'Do nothing I tell you because I tell you, not until you can see it so yourself!' 

So Ella made a decision to leave the school, describing her actions to her father:

'This morning we screwed up our courage and went to tell Mr. Herkomer for we had learnt he was a man who would not be thwarted and would be savage with the idea of anyone disagreeing with his judgment. Well we got in and got out and told him simply and politely that we would have to leave the school because we could not submit to the rules and could not stay and disobey them - that the influence of the work was bad and that the strain was too much for me. He gave us a good talking to and ended by saying it was not honorable.... We went away shaking hands with him at the door. We went into the school to get our things - when he passed us in the hall with a look of perfect fury on his face.'

Ella went on: 'And now my plan, subject to your approval, is this: to stay on in Bushey until the spring as before and work quietly at home here on models from the village or at still life.' Ella filled sketchbooks with country landscapes and village lanes. She went frequently to the British museum and produced several accurate studies of the draped figures of the Elgin Marbles. Very much on her own, writing in detail of all she sees and does, she expresses bewilderment at the shifting sense of identity which came from many new experiences and from the increase in confidence in her artistic powers. 'I find myself wondering if I be really I,' she wrote to her father. 'Papa, always do I thank you for giving me such Wonderful Opportunities.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Further Studies at the League

"Dick Lamb" by Ella Condie Lamb

Ella Condie Lamb wrote more on her instruction at the Art Students League:

'J. Carol Beckwith had the Antique and the men's morning Life class ... and C.Y. Turner the women's Life in the afternoons. Less picturesque than either Chase or Beckwith, he was sturdy and sincere and gave us good sound instruction. I learned to study the balance of a figure's masses, to see it as a whole - to 'think not of your drawing but only of what you are looking at...' There were also the evening lectures. Thomas Dewing, just back from Paris, on composition, J. Scott Hartley on anatomy, Frederick Dielman on perspective, and three or four special and inspired talks from George Inness.

From England came the great Hubert Herkomer, to paint portraits... He talked to us also. Tall, his skin dead white, with black eyes and straight hair that hung, intensely black, over his forehead, he was compelling and hypnotic - until he aroused one's antagonism.'

Life class, portrait class, sketch class, seven hours a day, five days a week. It was an intense but fulfilling time.

At this time a catastrophic event occurred in the Condie family. Ella's beloved mother became fatally ill. Ella, being the only daughter still at home, became her nurse. The center of her sheltered, cultured, loving world would soon be taken from her, her sisters, and her father. 'That year of 1883 I gladly gave up most of my study,' she wrote, 'to take care of my mother, who was fast leaving us. In October a 'beautiful, unselfish and noble life' came to an end.

Her father proposed that his talented daughter pursue her studies in Europe. 'My days at the League ended in 1884 ... days and friends I so vividly remember,' she penned, then added that perhaps the most vivid of those friendships were those made with Fannie Abbot, Dick Lamb, and with his brother Charles (of whom we shall hear more). But she bid farewell and departed for London and Paris."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Steeley.)

 

Ella Condie Lamb: The Art Students League

"Portrait of William Merritt Chase"
by J.S. Sargent

"Ella Condie Lamb left the National Academy of Design and entered a school where, '...everyone worked intensely, with a single purpose - to fit one's self for a life work.' So wrote Ella about her three years of study at the Art Students League.

This move was a major event in her life. She and her friend, Laura went at one into the League's Life Drawing classes taught by Walter Shirlaw and C.Y. Turner, and into William Merritt Chase's painting class. The League had been formed only six years before. Wrote Allen Tucker: 

'Without influence, without money, without a building, they started the first independent art school in the country. They hired teachers they thought well of... They made a place where people could come and study. The student paid for a month or for a year. A body of students grew up for no other reason on earth than to learn, men and women working for the sake of really knowing, with no certificate and no reward.'

Ella described her class with William Merritt Chase:

'He put us first at the skull, for construction, then the model, with soft charcoal - 'use it like paint.' Every morning I bought a loaf of brown bread which I kneaded into pellets for erasure as did the other students. The floor became covered with crumbs and pellets. The moment the room was empty large tame rats appeared from behind stacked stretchers for their daily feast until faithful Thomas appeared with his broom.

Chase let us set our palettes with big gobs of paint and we used large brushes. He alternated us from the portrait head - a new one each day - to still life arranged from his own collection of draperies, copper, brass, and pottery. He introduced us to 'Hunt's Talks on Art,' which we carried around like prayer books. His own talks were especially valuable. 

Always immaculate, with light spats and black-ribboned eyeglasses, he would seize some fortunate student's palette and work for an hour while we all watched breathlessly (never a dab of paint on himself). This fine frenzy of his has been perpetuated in Sargent's portrait of him in the Metropolitan Museum.

He acquainted us with Millet and the Dutch and Spanish masters by the photographs he brought to class or by his own copies in his wonderful studio on 10th Street, which we were invited to visit on Saturday afternoons.'"

Ella Condie Lamb: Student at the National Academy of Design

"Old Man Model" by Ella Condie Lamb

"The National Academy of Design was established in 1825. Samuel R.B. Morse (inventor of Morse code) was its first president. Ella Condie Lamb was overjoyed to be a student there, her intense longing for serious training was being met. 'I spent day after day of seven hours of absorbing work which passed only too quickly.'

To be in the 'Antique' class meant that a student drew from plaster casts. Capable of great concentration, she accepted the discipline of routine study.

'Professor Wilmarth started me on block head, feet, and hands. In the late afternoon we had a sketch class where we took turns posing, experimented with mediums, and admired each other's results as never in serious class work. Life classes - the men worked mornings, the women, afternoons - were all presided over by Professor Wilmarth. There were lectures in the evening, Frederick Dielman on perspective, J. Wells Champney gave us anatomy and brought us a human hand to show us how the tendons worked.'

Ella also met her two best friends, Laura Opper and Fannie Lee, at The Academy. All of them serious students, the three kindred spirits were also always ready for any fun, such as sketching expeditions and picnics in the spring. These were friendships that were broken only by death, forty-five years later.

Especially joyful were visits to the studios of professional artists. 'Every year, they kept open house. A studio was a mysterious place which filled my soul to the brim. The joy of being admitted to see intimately the surroundings and workshops of well-known artists! I went from room to room with awe and admiration.' She knew she had found her place, and wrote, 'I belonged to that world.'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Steeley.) 

Ella Condie Lamb: Life in the City

"Portrait of a Young Model" by Ella Condie Lamb

"The move to the city entirely changed Ella Condie Lamb's life, but respect and a sense of honor for the forms of tree and flower, forests, clouds, sky, mountains, indeed for all of Nature, had been established. She chose nature often as subject matter and would never presume to distort its forms - 'God's handiwork.' On the contrary, the natural world was to be closely observed and recorded with the same 'passionate love of nature' conveyed by her mother 'and born in me.' 

They lived on the northeast corner of 22nd Street and 9th Avenue in Kingston, NY, in a four-story house of which her father's business, a pharmacy, was the lowest floor. She attended Public School 45 for girls, and wrote: 

'There was one study I never had enough of - Drawing, under Frank Melville. First geometric forms, until I was allowed to copy lithographs...and kept at it until some of my original badly designed panels decorated the back of the platform. Miss Tate, the principal, had an exaggerated idea of my ability. I was always sent with a companion to buy art materials for the school. It was an intense pleasure to handle the pretty papers and pick out crayons and pencils and the leather or paper stumps. I had many household chores to do, but the afternoons were my own. I usually spent the time drawing, sometimes from lithographs, sometimes from still life ... or copying illustrations by Jasper K. Kelly in 'St. Nicholas' magazine...I admired his vigorous drawings immensely.'

It is at this point in her memoirs that Ella wrote eloquently of her joy when at last she was allowed to study the disciplines of Art every day:

'Impatient was I to get to some artwork. Bowing to my sister Lizzie's illness and her coming home for a time with two children and my mother's need of help, wait I had to, until December 1878, when I entered the Antique class at the National Academy. Life opened and blossomed and was full to the brim with the fullness and rapture and absorption only a student of any form of art can know.'

Her formal training had begun, and a year later her brother-in-law, the noted engraver Victor Bernstrom, impressed by her ability, wrote, 'You stand on the threshold of an art world.' She was just sixteen."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)

Ella Condie Lamb: Growing Up

"The English Cousin" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella Grace Condie was born in New York City on August 30, 1862. From early childhood she noticed everything around her and responded by drawing. Even at a young age her drawings conveyed conviction and control. 'Invaluable advice,' she deemed the command of her grammar school drawing teacher when he said, 'Carry a sketchbook with you always and draw everything you see. Sketch, sketch, sketch.' This was 'advice which gave me much facility and trained my eyes to see.' At about eight years old, she borrowed her older sister's book, 'Artistic Anatomy of the Human Figure,' and with care and scrutiny copied the skeleton 'on the eleventh page.' 

Ella's family were close, and consisted of an English mother, Sarah, a Scotch father, James, and three girls, one of whom was James' daughter from his first marriage. His first wife had died in childbirth. During the Civil War, James bought a farm in Kingston, New York, which became the home of his wife, three daughters, and father-in-law. Ella wrote of it: 

'From the house one looked across the drive over to the apple orchard, which in the spring was a sea of white and pink, and underneath was the swing! Oh, the joy of lazily rocking back and forth gazing up at the blue sky through the pink blossoms! In the garden were lilies, from which we made fragrant chains, phlox, poppies, all quickly turned into ladies with ballet skirts. My mother, who had a passionate love of Nature, was very happy on the farm. This same love for nature must have been born in me...'

The move to the city entirely changed Ella's life, but respect and a sense of honor for the forms of tree and flower, forests, clouds, sky, mountains, indeed for all of Nature, had been established. She chose nature often as subject matter and would never presume to distort its forms - 'God's handiwork.' On the contrary, the natural world was to be closely observed and recorded with the same 'passionate love of nature' conveyed by her mother 'and born in me.'

At last came the time when all this dream-life ended. The WallKill Valley Railroad had the right-of-way. 'My father was forced to sell them land for their tracks. They cut down our fruit trees and on a rare June morning, as we said goodbye, my mother and I were openly weeping. I saw seven large cherry trees, lying prone, laden with unripe fruit. And so we came to the city, and I entered upon the serious business of life.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)