Artist Information
Artist
Harold Mortimer-Lamb, RPS (1872-1970). Former UCBC Member Artist.Role
PhotographerArtist
Royal B.C. Museum and ArchivesRole
PrintmakerTime Period
21st CenturyNotes
PHOTOGRAPHER BIOGRAPHY
Born in Surrey, England, Harold Mortimer-Lamb was, in the early 20th century, the leading artistic photographer in Canada, a proponent of Pictorial photography that focused on figure studies, portraits, genre and landscape views. He was also a successful mining engineer, journalist, art critic and artist perhaps best known for his early championing of the Canadian Modernist Group of Seven in the 1920s. In addition, he is more recently recognized for his influence on, and support of, the development of the arts in both Victoria and Vancouver, and beyond.
Mortimer-Lamb came to Canada in 1889, settling in first in B.C., arriving in Victoria in 1895 to become secretary of the British Columbia Mining Institute. Most of Mortimer-Lamb’s professional life was in the mining industry of Canada. However, he developed a keen interest in photography, especially soft-focus images, and helped bring about the first exhibition of ‘photography as art’ in the province. His subjects included his family as well as many notables such as B.C. Premier Richard McBride, writer Clive Phillipps-Wolley and artists such as Sophie Pemberton (1869-1959).
Mortimer-Lamb left Victoria in 1905, heading to Montreal, where he came to know many leading artists of the day including William Brymner (1855-1925), Laura Muntz Lyall (1860-1930) and later, members of the Group of Seven, in particular A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974), whose work he first noted in print in 1911. He was a charter member of the Arts Club of Montreal, contributed art criticism to The Montreal Star and became the Canadian correspondent for the leading art journal, “The Studio“.
In 1920, he and his family including his wife, Kate, five children and housekeeper (pregnant with Mortimer-Lamb’s child) returned to Burnaby in B.C. where Molly was soon born, later to become the famed New Brunswick artist, writer and teacher, Molly Lamb Boback (1920-2014). The housekeeper Mary Williams stayed with the Mortimer-Lamb family for 23 years. And in 1942, after the death of his first wife, Mortimer-Lamb married Vera Weatherbie (1909-1977), also an artist, and a muse of Frederick Varley's.
In 1928, after his move back to B.C., Mortimer-Lamb, with fellow photographer John Vanderpant (1884-1939), opened the Vanderpant Galleries on Robson Street in Vancouver where arts groups met and artists were showcased including members of the Group of Seven. As in Montreal, Mortimer-Lamb was fully engaged in the arts community – he was a neighbour of Lawren Harris (1885-1970), a patron of Frederick Varley (1881-1969) and was also an early advocate of Emily Carr (1871-1945). He helped to found the Vancouver School of Art in 1925 and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1931. After Mortimer-Lamb retired in 1941 he began to paint, his works were exhibited in Montreal and Vancouver. His photographic work was widely exhibited in Canada, New York and London, and he was eventually elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS). His photographs are held in many public collections, such as the RPS, the University of British Columbia and the National Gallery of Canada. The Royal BC Archives and Museum holds Mortimer-Lamb’s letters, published notices and over 260 photographs.
For many years, Mortimer-Lamb fostered a keen interest in the arts overall, frequently lecturing and contributing articles to journals and newspapers. In 1954, Mortimer-Lamb started to give works from his extensive art collection to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and on his and later Vera’s death, they left the contents of their estate to the Victoria gallery including works of art, photographs, his papers and a large financial donation for the purchase of art. This donation was made on the condition that a modern extension to the old building would be built. The new gallery wing opened in 1957. The Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver Museum were also the beneficiaries of Mortimer-Lamb and Vera’s generosity. Mortimer-Lamb died in Burnaby at age 99.
For further information see -
Robert Amos, “Harold Mortimer-Lamb: the art lover” (Victoria, B.C.: TouchWood Editions, 2013), available in the UCBC Library.
