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.)