James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889)
James Lambdin was born in Pittsburgh and at age 13, he was studying with John Stein in Steubenville, Ohio. He then went to Philadelphia where he studied with Edward Miles and Thomas Sully. In 1826, he returned to Pittsburgh and opened up the Museum of Natural History and Gallery of Painting. In 1832, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and spent several years as an itinerant painter traveling between Pittsburgh and Mobile, Alabama. In 1837, he settled in Philadelphia where he taught as a professor of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania. He exhibited at the PAFA frequently, and the NAD in the 1840s and 50s, and his sitters include Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Abraham Lincoln. His portrait of Ulysses S. Grant in uniform sold at Sotheby’s (New York) in 1995.
Information courtesy of Cowan’s Auction Inc.