No documents about A. A. Lamb or other paintings by him have been discovered. His sympathetic treatment of the subject of the National Gallery's painting Emancipation Proclamation (1955.11.10) suggests he was a Northerner, perhaps from New York, where he could have known the Henry K. Brown statue of George Washington used as a model for the figure of Washington in the painting. The fancy shaded lettering on the chariot and that originally on the back of the canvas suggest experience as a sign-painter or decorator, perhaps of carriages. Details of the Capitol building in the painting indicate that the artist was active in 1864 or later. [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]
Artist Bibliography
1992
Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 241-242.