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.)