A Portrait of the Sculptress

After visiting the Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, Lamb was inspired to paint Elisabet Ney. He based the portrait on a photo of Ney taken in Germany, prior to her emigration to the United States.

Originally hoping to sell the portrait to the museum for $3,700, Lamb was convinced by his wife, a University of Texas graduate, and Elisabet Ney Museum curator Mrs. Willie B. Rutland, to lower the price to $1,500. Rutland secured enough donations to make a down payment in 1961, and shortly after, the painting was transported to the Elisabet Ney Museum to be displayed, where it remains to this day.

"Adrian Lamb in his studio with the portrait of Elisabet Ney" hosted by Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection

Letters in the Archive

Letter from Adrian Lamb to Willie B. rutland on August 10, 1959. In this letter, Lamb describes the portrait he has created in reference to a photograph of Ney. He writes that "two years ago, I was attracted to this very fine photograph and thought that it would make a handsome subject for a painting." At the end of the letter, he suggests, hopefully, that the museum should purchase the portrait at a discounted price: "If I recall, the wall to the right, next to the window wall as you enter the room should be a good light in which to see the portrait." This would initiate two years of fundraising by the Ney's first curator, Willie B. Rutland, whose efforts are documented in the archive.

Fragment of a letter from Adrian Lamb to Daisy B. Tanner, undated, in which he writes: "It is so important these days to have a proper image of people and events that have made outstanding contributions to our history and wellbeing."

This is a draft for a press release from the Austin Parks and Recreation Department regarding the acquisition of Lamb's portrait of Ney. The draft includes a quote from Willie B. Rutland about the portrait: "People will come to know Elisabet Ney as she really was...a woman of nobility, extremely talented and endowed with a pioneering spirit far beyond the times, rather than the 'character' as Texians labelled her..."

Letter from Adrian Lamb to Willie B. Rutland on January 20, 1963, in which he suggests that the success of having paid entirely for the painting for the museum should be a local news story, "so that those who had so generously contributed can realize that the matter they have had such an active part in is an accomplished fact".