Molly Joan Lamb Bobak

Canadian [1920-2014]

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Born and raised in the Vancouver area, Molly Joan Lamb studied at the Vancouver School of Art (1938-41) before enlisting with the Canadian Women’s Army Corp. in 1942. She became Canada’s first female official war artist three years later, meeting fellow artist Bruno Bobak during her time in London, England. After marrying, the Bobaks returned to Vancouver for a number of years, before Bruno Bobak accepted a teaching position at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where the couple settled.

During her years back in Vancouver (1947-60) Molly Lamb Bobak focused on teaching and raising her children. She taught at the Vancouver School of Art (1947-60), the Vancouver Art Gallery (1954-58), and the University of British Columbia (1958-60). There was not a lot of spare time for painting, though her talent did not go unnoticed by Alan Jarvis, then Director of the National Gallery of Canada, who encouraged her to submit her work to Canadian and international exhibitions. Molly Lamb Bobak went on to have a long teaching and exhibition career, honored with a travelling retrospective of her work in 1992. Her work can be found in many public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.