John Charles Lamont ARSA 1894-1948

Bythe death of J. C. Lamont, A.R.S.A., Scotland has lost one of
its best painters.

John Charles Lamont, born 2nd September 1894, was the only son of Dr. Lamont of Chryston, Lanarkshire. He was trained at the Glasgow School of Art under Fra Newbery and won a Travelling Scholarship.

From his student days began his friendship with Archibald McGlashan, Robert Sivell, and James Cowie, which lasted through his life. During the first world war he served in the Tank Corps, suffering wounds which permanently impaired his health. After the war he worked in Ireland and won the Torrance award.

After the death of his father he settled in Kirkcudbright and married in the nineteen-twenties, building himself a house near that of Robert Sivell and his wife who was Lamont’s sister-in-law. His work never associates itself with the heroic or the fanciful ; rather it is concerned with the complete recognition of the constant truths with which he lived in a circumscribed part of the world.

His approach was completely objective, his subject the tender moods of the human, intimate, individual scene. He painted in a low tone, yet succeeded in securing colour that was clear and vibrant, imparting to the whole effect a solemnity and quietness very impressive. Owing to his state of health, his output was small. He is survived by a daughter and a son, his wife having predeceased him.

RSA Obituary, transcribed by the 1948 RSA Annual Report