Born: 1816, United Kingdom
Died: 28 July 1870
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Elish La Mont or La Monte
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Lamont (La Mont, La Monte), Elish (1816–70), artist and writer, was born in Belfast into a prominent business family, daughter of John Lamont, stationer and printer. Having trained as a miniaturist in London, she subsequently returned to Belfast, where by 1837 she had established herself as a professional artist. She began her career as an exhibitor with contributions to the Belfast Association of Artists shows in 1837 and 1838, and went on to exhibit with the RHA from 1842 to 1858, and again in 1870. She may have been the ‘Mrs Lamont’ who contributed two miniatures to the Northern Irish Art Union exhibition in Belfast in 1843. As ‘Miss La Monte’ she exhibited seven miniatures at the Royal Academy in London (1856–9). Thought to be Belfast’s earliest known professional woman artist, she had an extremely successful career, receiving commissions from many northern aristocratic families, among them the Dufferins, Lord Bangor, and the earl of Belfast. Her miniatures of Helena, Lady Dufferin (exhibited RHA 1851, RA 1856), and the dowager duchess of Manchester were engraved for inclusion in the Court Album, while two of her paintings were among the gifts presented to Queen Victoria during her visit to Dublin in 1853. She did not restrict herself solely to producing miniatures, and in 1845 published a series of prints from six of her own crayon drawings, illustrative of Moore’s Irish melodies.
Lamont lived at numerous locations in Belfast, and is listed as residing alternately with her brothers: John, watchmaker and optician, and Dr Aeneas Lamont, surgeon. In 1851 she and a Miss Rook opened a boarding and day school in Upper Arthur St., Belfast. The prospectus indicated that she was an experienced teacher, having taught in England, France, and Germany. However, her collaboration in the venture proved short-lived and by 1856 she was no longer associated with the running of the school. In 1857 she moved to Dublin, living in Clare St., where she remained for the next two years. Also known as a writer, by 1843 she had produced several publications. The Northern Whig, in reviewing (3 January 1843) her recently published travelogue Impressions, thoughts and sketches during two years in Switzerland, also mentioned two of her earlier works, The gladiators and The mission of the educator. In 1846 she collaborated with her sister Frances on a volume of poetry entitled Christmas rhymes, or Three nights’ revelry (published by the Lamont brothers in Belfast), for which she also provided the illustrations, and in 1855 she produced a novel entitled Love versus money. Her later years were spent in England, where she became acquainted with Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, and the Irish painter Daniel Maclise. She died at Boley Hill, Rochester, Kent, on 28 July 1870. Two of her paintings were included in an exhibition of deceased local artists held in Belfast in 1900. The only known work by Lamont in a public collection, a miniature of a Miss O’Hara of Ballymena, is in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.