Rose Lamb (1843-1927)

Rose Lamb was born in Boston in 1843. Around 1876, Lamb began studying with William Morris Hunt and became a highly regarded student of his. She also studied with Helen Mary Knowlton who taught Hunt’s classes.  Lamb exhibited and was a medal winner in the Mechanics Fair in Boston in 1878.  Her work was also exhibited at Williams and Everett Gallery in Boston in 1888.  She traveled to Paris in 1881 and in 1891 and possibly continued her studies while there.  Lamb was also a teacher, assisting G. Bartlett at the South Boston School of Art.  Lamb stopped painting around 1900 due to illness.

 This painting was likely completed c. 1877 while studying with William Morris Hunt at his summer art school in Magnolia, Massachusetts. Hunt’s school, opened in 1876, is considered the first American artists’ colony.  Hunt is credited more than any other artist for spreading the influence of Jean-François Millet and the French Barbizon school in the U.S.  Those influences are seen in Lamb's work.