Collection: Lamb Bobak, Molly

Molly Lamb Bobak CM ONB RCA (1920 – March 2, 2014) was a Canadian teacher, writer, printmaker, and painter. Born on February 25, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bobak grew up in an unconventional household with her father, Harold Mortimer-Lamb, a mining engineer, journalist, art critic, and collector who was friends with artists from the Group of Seven.

Bobak's poor eyesight and dislike for her teachers resulted in low school marks, leading her mother to encourage her to enrol at the Vancouver School of Art. There, she studied with artist Jack Shadbolt, who became a lifelong mentor and introduced her to the work of European artists like Cézanne and Matisse. 

Bobak enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corps (C.W.A.C) in 1942, and documented training, marching, and other wartime activities while traveling across Canada and eventually to London, England. In 1945, she was appointed Canada's first female official war artist by the Canadian War Artists Selection Committee. Her significant works from this period include Private Roy (1946), a rare depiction of a Canadian soldiers of colour, now held at the Canadian War Museum.

After the war, Bobak and her husband, artist Bruno Bobak, settled on the West Coast to paint and teach. During this time a French Government Scholarship, facilitated by Jacques Maritain, allowed her to visit France. Alan Jarvis, Director of the National Gallery of Canada, invited her to participate in major exhibitions, which increased her financial success and popularity. She became one of the first female Canadian artists to work professionally and earn a living from her art.

The Bobaks later moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick, where Bruno was offered a teaching position at the University of New Brunswick. In 1973, Molly Bobak was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and in 1993, the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Saskatchewan organised a major touring retrospective of her work.

Today, she is recognized for her dynamic depictions of crowds and her work from World War II. Bobak's work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Library and Archives Canada holds the Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak fonds, containing their personal records, prints, drawings, watercolours, photographs, and textual documents.