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.)