page_title: William Lamb (sculptor)
section_title: Sculpture
hierarchical_section_title: William Lamb (sculptor) / Works / Sculpture
caption_attribution_description: Betsy Baxter, sculpted by William Lamb in Montrose
context_page_description: William Lamb RSA was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a survivor of the "lost generation" who came of age in 1914, and was scarred, both mentally and physically, by the First World War.
  Lamb completed his training in 1915 as a right-handed artist. A war wound incapacitated his right hand, so that after the war he had to retrain as a left-hander. His urge to create was in no way diminished and his preferred medium was sculpture.
  Lamb's most productive period was from 1924 to 1933. As a result of an education on strictly traditional lines, he developed a style of modelling that was classically accurate, but which expressed the character and background of his subject. Although he modelled Queen Elizabeth II as Princess Elizabeth aged six, in 1932, he generally eschewed the rich, the famous and the heroic. Instead Lamb settled permanently in his native Montrose, Angus, Scotland, and sculpted the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, concentrating upon working class models, especially from the fishing community.
  Fiercely independent, Lamb despised the young modernists and pre-war baroque fashions alike.
context_section_description: Lamb's first major work was The Cynic, a head modelled from an apprentice in 1924. It was exhibited at the Salon (Paris) in 1925 as Tȇte de Garcon.
  
  The Young Fisherman was exhibited at the Royal Academy (RA) in London and the Young Musician (WSC) at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in Edinburgh all in the same year. This trio of exhibits was unusual for an artist's first year. 
  In the years following, Lamb's more important works were Old John (Père Jean Salon 1926), Violet Jacob (Doncaster 1926), Betty (Printemps Salon 1926), Purpose (RSA 1926), Self Portrait (Portrait d'un Artiste Salon 1927), Bob (Glasgow 1928), Old Salt (RSA 1927), Passing Shower (Dorothy Salon 1929), the Bud (Bébé Jeanette Salon 1927), Hugh MacDiarmid and Pittendrigh MacGillivray (RSA 1932), Ferryden Fisherwife (RSA 1929), My Model listens to a Tall Story (RSA 1940), Paresseux (RSA 1931), Princess Elizabeth (RA 1933), Princess Margaret Rose (RSA 1933), Duchess of York (RSA 1933), The Daily News (1935), Robert Burns 1936 (Sunderland Museum), Bill the Smith (RSA 1937) , Betsy Baxter (RSA 1937), Seafarer (Trawl Hand RSA 1938) and Edward Baird c1932 (Fleming Collection, London 2004).
  With the approach of war, Lamb turned to wood carving.
  In this genre, the more noteworthy works are The Beardless Christ (Five Figures set above the rood screen in the Episcopal Church of St. Mary, Newport-on-Tay), Wind frae the Baltic, Sou-Wester, The Shrew & Gale Force.
  Altogether 109 of Lamb's works were shown at the RSA annual exhibition 1925–1951. These included 84 works of sculpture, 5 prints and 20 drawings.
  A number of his works can be seen in the William Lamb Memorial Studio in Montrose, and elsewhere in the town.
caption: Betsy Baxter 1937.
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