Maurice Lambert RA (1901 - 1964)

Maurice Lambert RA (1901 - 1964)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Born in Paris and educated in London, Maurice Lambert served his apprenticeship as a sculptor by working for five years as an apprentice to F. Derwent Wood on his machine-gun corps memorial at Hyde Park Corner. He first exhibited in public in 1925, and his work Swan was accepted into the Tate collection in 1932, giving notice of his arrival as a sculptor of renown. Large commissions for international exhibitions and ocean liners followed soon after.

Lambert exhibited at the RA for the first time in 1938 and was elected as Associate in 1941, although World War II disrupted his career – Lambert served as a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After the war Lambert was master of the RA sculpture school from 1950 until 1952, the year he was elected as an Academician. Lambert’s Diploma Work was the evocative Carving in Paros Marble, although he is best known for his statues, such as his life-sized likeness of ballerina Margot Fonteyn and equestrian portrait of George V.