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.)