IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 29 SEPTEMBER 2025

40 26 Charles Vincent Lamb RHA RUA (1893-1964) THE POTEEN MAKERS , CONNEMARA , c .1960 s ' oil on canvas signed lower left 24.25 by 29.25in. (61.6 by 74.3cm) Frame Size: 30.5 by 35.5in. (77.5 by 90.2cm) Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist at his studio, 1960s; Private collection; Thence by descent Charles Lamb was a key figure in the creation of a new visual identity for the burgeoning Irish Free State, an identity that became inextricably linked to the west of Ireland, its landscape, people and practices. The eldest of a family of seven children, Lamb was born in Portadown Co. Armagh and began his career as an apprentice painter and decorator to his father honing his painting skills on church interiors by day and attending Belfast College of Art by night. In 1917 he attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin on a scholarship and it was there he came under the stylistic influence of his teachers and peers, among them Sir William Orpen, Seán Keating, Patrick Tuohy, Margaret Clarke and James Sleator. The influence of Keating in particular can be seen in Lamb’s early work; most noticeably in his portraiture and genre scenes and although Lamb was uninterested in politics 1 the style of his paintings at this time dovetailed with the Nationalist narrative. In 1921 Pádraic Ó Conaire, the Irish language writer and journalist, encouraged Lamb to visit the west of Ireland. While there he visited the coastal village of Carraroe, a Gaeltacht (primarily Irish-speaking) community, which would later become the artist’s permanent home. In Carraroe Lamb, together with his wife Katherine, daughter of the novelist Ford Madox Ford, and great-granddaughter of the painter Ford Madox Brown, raised five children, all Gaeilgeoirs (Irish speakers) bar Lamb himself. They lived sustainably off their land in a home - built by local tradesmen - that would become an artistic hub attracting numerous artists, among them Maurice MacGonigal, Gerard Dillon, Bea Orpen, Micheál MacLíammoir and others. In later years he hosted a summer school there. Lamb had a longstanding relationship with the RHA, exhibiting there almost annually over a forty-five year period from 1919 until his sudden death in 1964. The titles exhibited with that institution - many given in Irish - provide a record of the people of the west of Ireland and their way of life, whether they were images of people fishing, gathering kelp, sowing potatoes, basket weaving, gathering for song, dance or prayer (Lamb’s, Pattern Day in Connemara - now in the collection of the National University of Ireland, Galway - was commissioned in 1934 by the Trustees of the Thomas Haverty Bequest) or painted in their traditional dress such as A Quaint Couple, 1930 (Collection of the Crawford Gallery, Cork). The present work is a later example by the artist, likely dating to the 1950s when his style became more fluid and his depictions of people and places were more impressionistic than specific, however, aspects of the sitters’ features and dress recall the aforementioned A Quaint Couple, Lamb’s neighbours, Pádraic McDonagh and his sister Bríd from Rinn, Connemara. In this painting however the pair are not depicted outdoors but rather seated together on a long bench, set back against their cottage wall. The scene is a fascinating insight into the Irish rural cottage interior. In the upper left corner hangs a picture, likely the sacred heart, with a set of rosary beads hanging from its simple cross frame. To the right, a circular-shaped basket, possibly a “ciseog” (used for straining and serving potatoes) hangs, while on the floor beneath stands a square-shaped basket with handles holding what might be three “sleán” or spades used for cutting turf. The man holds a shiny, metal cup in his left hand, his elbow resting on his leg which is propped up slightly against the bench. He turns to face the barefoot woman reaching out to her with his other arm, she does not appear to react and sits, arms folded across her chest, looking into the distance. In 1955 Lamb exhibited a painting entitled A Cnaigin of Poteen (no. 88, £95-0-0). Nágin is the Irish for “naggin” or “noggin” a small drinking cup and although the title of the present work is untraced the subject matter would seem a plausible match for this substantial painting. Adelle Hughes August 2025 Footnote: 1 Bourke, Marie, ‘Charles Lamb, Imaging Connemara’, Irish Arts Review, Winter, 2019, Vol. 36 (4) €15,000-€20,000 (£13,040-£17,390 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot26