Margaret Lamont’s

Paintings

C Nineteen oil paintings and one watercolour painting by M. Lamont are known. All are presently in family hands.

As shown in “About A. J. and M. Lamont”, M. Lamont was Margaret Louisa Cunningham [nee Wares] Lamont, or ‘Meg’ to very close friends and family members. Meg was the wife of Archibald James ‘Archie’ (sometimes A. J.) Lamont. She was a native of Scotland who emigrated to Toronto with her husband in 1920. She worked entirely inside their home in Toronto until sidelined by a massive stroke in 1968. Archie was Master Mechanic at the Toronto Works of the Massey Ferguson farm implement manufacturer.

The nineteen known oil paintings show landscapes in various locations. All seasons are represented, but fall and winter scenes make up more than half of the known paintings. Almost all of the paintings which are attributed to the artist, show ‘M. Lamont’.

Three of the nineteen oil paintings were dated by Margaret on the front of the painting – two show ‘1957’, and one shows ‘1958’.

Labels identifying the theme or location of a particular painting can be found on the dust stop on the back of four of the paintings. Two of these show a date – one shows ‘Feb/1953’, and one shows ‘1953’. The labels were written by Archie Lamont.

Five of the known paintings have been found unframed. Two of the known unframed paintings show no signature attribution at all. One shows ‘M Lamont’. Two show ‘Margaret Lamont’ on the front. One shows ‘Margaret Lamont’ in Archie’s handwriting on the back of the board. Another shows ‘Margaret W. Lamont’ in Archie’s handwriting on the reverse side dust stop. And a third shows ‘Margaret Lamont’ in a label on the back of the dust stop, again in Archie’s handwriting. It’s surmised that these are paintings which Meg or Archie, or both, decided to display somewhere publicly. None of the four unframed painting are dated in any fashion.

A sole watercolour painting is attributed to ‘Margaret Lamont’. This also is not dated. A label on the back of the reframed painting (a portion of the original kraft paper backing dust stop, cut & attached to the back on the new white paper dust stop) reads “Scene at Gravenhurst”.

• “Winter Scene on the Credit River near Orangeville, Ont.”; 1953
• “January Thaw”; Feb / 1953.
• “Rocky Cove, Buck Lake, Ont.”; Oct / 1953.
• “The Road to Egan’s Farm, Little Rideau Lake, Ontario”; n.d.
• “Near Scotia, Ont.”; n.d.
• “Scene at Gravenhurst”; n.d. – watercolour
• Winter Scene – river valley, pine trees & tall hills visible in bright sunshine in background; 1957.
• Autumn Scene – creek with trees in foreground & field in background; [1957 ?].
• Fall Scene – view over hilltop to vista of taller hills & mountains; [1957 ?].
• Lone Pine Tree – in rocky outcrop at the side of a lake; n.d.
• Late Fall / Early Winter Scene – leaves on trees, snow on ground; n.d.
• Fall Scene – view along creek to lake, vibrant colours either side; n.d.
• Winter Scene – in a small stream valley with birch trees & climbing terrain; n.d.
• Cabins at the side of a lake, fall colours; n.d.
• Lakeside Bay, with view of houses on the far shore, fall; n.d.
• Another Lakeside Bay, meandering flow into lake with distant view of shore; n.d.
• Winter Scene – snow covered road curving alongside rail fencing with trees either side; n.d.
• Fall Scene – large deciduous & Pine trees framing a rail fence with rocks dropping down to a lake; n.d.
• View Down a Lake, with a motor boat and float plane in the foreground; n.d.; n.s.
• Winter Scene – large deciduous trees either side of an icy road. n.d.; n.s.

 n.d. = no date
n.s. = no signature

It’s entirely possible that other paintings exist, given to friends or relations over the years soon after completion. Please contact the author if you know of any additional paintings by Margaret Lamont. Thank you!

To see a full gallery of the above paintings, click here.

find details about Archie & Meg here
find details about Archie Lamont’s water-colour paintings here