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Charles Lamb RHA RUA (1893-1964)
The Costelloe River (c.1945)
Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 56cm (18 x 22”)
Signed
Provenance: In these rooms, Important Irish Art sale, 14/03/91, Lot 102 where purchased by
John P. Reihill; Deepwell, Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Exhibited: RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin, 1945, Cat. No. 146, costing £35.0.0
Charles Lamb Retrospective,The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, April 1969, Cat.
No. 70, although the size in the catalogue is different (remnants of Retrospective
label verso)
Charles Lamb, like Henry, Keating and MacGonigal had a deep attachment to the West
of Ireland, especially the area around Carraroe where he lived for many years. From the
mid-1930s he concentrated on depicting landscape, working rapidly on a warm-toned
surface whilst trying to capture the changing mood and light of Connemara. His vision
which is characteristically contemplative is characterised by broad brushwork and re-
strained impasto. He painted many views such as this, of cottages nestling together in the
rich, black earth of the boglands. Here the meandering waterway which cuts through the
soft loamy bogland may be the Spiddal river.
€2,500 - 3,500
