Maurice Lambert

Maurice Prosper Lambert RA (25 June 1901 – 17 August 1964) was a British sculptor. He was the son of the artist George Washington Lambert and the older brother of the composer and author Constant Lambert.

Lambert is mostly known for his public sculptures. He was also a member of the Seven and Five Society and The London Group. Lambert was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1950 to 1958.

Early life Maurice Lambert was born in Paris in 1901, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Washington Lambert and his wife Amelia Beatrice Absell. He was educated at Manor House School in Clapham, London. From 1918 to 1923, Lambert was apprenticed to the sculptor Francis Derwent Wood. Lambert became Wood's assistant in 1924. He held his first one-man exhibition at the Claridge Gallery in 1927. Tennant, who owned the bust, was reportedly delighted with it, saying: "It is very startling...the fur collar of the coat looks like a huge dead snake, the face has a null, poisonous beauty that I like."

Lambert's use of a wide range of materials for sculpture and carving was made evident at the 1929 New Sculpture by Maurice Lambert exhibition at Arthur Tooth and Sons, where he showed sculptures made from marble, alabaster, African hardwood, Portland stone and metal. Two of the sculptures Maurice Lambert produced for 33 Grosvenor Place. Lambert's fourth and final one-man show in his lifetime was at Alex Reid & Lefevre in 1934.

In 1938 Lambert exhibited his portrait of the lutenist, Diana Poulton at the Royal Academy. Cast while Lambert still considered the bust unfinished, this piece is indicative of a looser handling of form as opposed to mimetic representation. He was elected an RA in the same year. For this bronze cast at least, Lambert used the same foundry as the sculptor Henry Moore, the Corinthian Bronze Foundry.

Lambert contributed six grotesque sculptures and two pinnacles to the headquarters of Associated Electrical Industries at 33 Grosvenor Place. The sculptures on the facade of the building depict angelic male figures wrestling with female demons. The spires are made up of stylised dragons coiled around armillary spheres.

Personal life On 27 July 1926 Lambert married Olga Marie Stuart.

Death Lambert died of cancer of the colon on 17 August 1964 at Guy's Hospital, London.