Charles Lamb RHA RUA (1893-1964)
In-shore Fishermen
Oil on canvas, 50 x 60cm (19¾ x 23½")
Signed

Exhibited: Dublin, Hugh Lane Gallery, Charles Lamb Memorial Exhibition 1969

 

Certainly not the first...

Charles Lamb RHA RUA (1893-1964)
In-shore Fishermen
Oil on canvas, 50 x 60cm (19¾ x 23½")
Signed

Exhibited: Dublin, Hugh Lane Gallery, Charles Lamb Memorial Exhibition 1969

 

Certainly not the first artist to become enchanted by the landscape and its people, a native of Armagh originally, Lamb would eventually make the Gaeltacht village of Carraroe his permanent home. In 1935 he built his own house, known affectionately, as his daughter Lailli Lamb reflects, as ‘Tigh Lamb’ or Lamb’s House (Catalogue Essay ‘My Father’, Lamb in Connemara, Adam’s Exhibition at Clandeboy, 2012). It was also here where Lamb ran an art school during the summer months, teaching painting classes.  

One can’t help but imagine what the locals made of Lamb and his desire to make them the subjects of his paintings. Though possibly not unused to artists travelling through the region, there must have been a certain amount of apprehension and suspicion towards him. Outsiders are not easily welcomed in these remote places, and it would not be surprising if it took many years before they trusted him entirely. Lamb’s cause was undoubtedly helped by his move to the area with his family. 

Lamb often depicted fishermen, either as group scenes, observing them going about their work on the shoreline or harbour in Taking in the Lobster Pots (The Armagh County Museum) or as a single figural study in Portrait of a Fisherman with Lobster (lot 49) offered alongside this work in the auction. They also appear in his portraits executed during his time spent in Brittany in 1926/27 where he visited Pont Aven and Audierne. In particular a large-scale portrait entitled The Breton Fisher Boy (Private Collection) in which the young boy stands confidently before the artist, hands tucked into his vest. Behind him appear a sardine fleet, which are immediately reminiscent of the Galway Hookers of Carraroe. 

In this present example two men finely balanced in their currach, row backwards to the shore line. Lamb has expertly captured the rhythmic movement, as one of the men controls the oars while the other holds out a net pulling in their catch along the way. He uses quick impastoed brush strokes to create a sense of the waves lapping against the boat as it moves through the water while the oars glide across and under its surface. 

It appears the day’s work has come to an end, with the light slowly starting to fade, casting pale pink highlights that fall along the edge of the boat. The surrounding landscape is a myriad of crosshatched strokes, yellows, pinks and greens while the sky above is a mix of grey clouds. Perhaps the weather is also about to change, as the mountains in the distance turn a midnight blue. He captures the chill and wildness of the Atlantic in the rich blue and green tones.

The daily work and traditions of the native people fascinated Lamb. By depicting them in paint, on an expansive scale, he elevated their ordinary lives, celebrating the daily tasks of working the sea as in this example or off the land as in Connemara Harvesters or the weekly custom of the news being read aloud, literacy not a common ability at the time, to a gathering of locals in Hearing the News (1921). 

There is a real sense as if the men are moving across the surface of the painting, caught for a brief moment by the artist. There is an economy of expression at play, using only small touches of colour to indicate their faces and bodies. This work was included in the Memorial Exhibition held in the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1969, five years after his death. It is reflective of the shift in his career from large-scale portraits towards the broader and more warm toned landscape scenes of his later years. 

Niamh Corcoran, August 2022

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