George Washington Lambert

George Washington Thomas Lambert (13 September 1873 – 29 May 1930) was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait painting and for being a war artist during the First World War.

Early life Lambert was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the posthumous son of George Washington Lambert (1833 – 25 July 1873, in London) of Baltimore, Maryland. The younger Lambert's mother was Annie Matilda, née Firth, an Englishwoman. Mother and son moved to Württemberg, Germany, to be with Lambert's maternal grandfather. Lambert attended Kingston College, Yeovil, Somerset. Lambert, his mother, and sister, moved to Australia, arriving in Sydney aboard the Bengal on 20 January 1887.

Career

Lambert began exhibiting his pictures at the Art Society and the Society of Artists, Sydney in 1894. Lambert began contributing pen-and-ink cartoons for The Bulletin in 1895 and began painting full-time in 1896. Illustrations by Lambert formed part of the bush ballads of the Fair girls and gray horses (1898) and Hearts of gold (1903) anthologies of Scottish-Australian poet Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963).

In 1899 he won the Wynne Prize with Across the Blacksoil Plains. He studied at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney until 1900. Later, he won a travelling scholarship for 150 pounds from the government of New South Wales. He spent a year in Paris before moving to London where he exhibited at the Royal Academy. Lambert was awarded a silver medal at an international exhibition for his painting The Sonnet in Barcelona in 1911. He was most known during this time as a portrait artist.

War artist

Lambert became an official Australian war artist in 1917 during the First World War.'Camofleur', "Musketeers of Brush and Pencil with the A.I.F.: Art Under Fire: The Battlefield as Studio", The (Melbourne) Herald, (1 February 1919), p. 4. His painting Anzac, the landing 1915 of the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, is the largest painting at the Australian War Memorial collection. Lambert, as an honorary captain, travelled to Gallipoli in 1919 to make sketches for the painting. Another noted work was A sergeant of the Light Horse (1920), painted in London after his travels in Palestine.

During the war years, George Lambert spent much time in London, where it is suggested he was romantically involved with fellow artist Thea Proctor.

Return to Australia Lambert returned to Australia in 1921, where he had success in Melbourne with a one-man show at Fine Art Society gallery. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1922. He often visited the homestead of Colonel Granville Ryrie of the Australian Light Horse at Michelago, New South Wales and there painted The Squatter's Daughter and Michelago Landscape.

In the second annual Archibald Prize in 1922, now Australia's most prestigious art prize for portraiture, Lambert's work was disqualified as he had not been a resident in Australia for twelve months. He submitted a self-portrait for the third year, competing with William Macleod who entered with the subject of The Bulletin cartoonist 'Hop' Hopkins. In 1927 he won the Archibald Prize with Mrs Annie Murdoch, a portrait of the mother of Keith Murdoch and grandmother of Rupert Murdoch.

In November 1927 he was commissioned to create a statue of writer Henry Lawson; the work depicting Lawson in rough clothes accompanied by a swagman, a dog and a fence post was unveiled in The Domain, Sydney on 28 July 1931 by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game.

Personal life Lambert married Amelia Beatrice 'Amy' Absell (1872–1963) in 1900. Their children were Maurice Lambert (1901–1964), a noted sculptor and associate of the Royal Academy, and Constant, the British composer and conductor, born in London in 1905. Kit Lambert (1935–1981), manager of the rock group The Who, was their grandchild.

Lambert died on 29 May 1930 at Cobbitty, near Camden, New South Wales, and is buried in the Anglican section of South Head Cemetery.

Some of his family papers from 1874 to 1942 are held in the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

His life was dramatised in an episode of the radio series Famous Australians.

List of works + ImageTitleYear Medium DimensionsCollection 1896 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Across the Black Soil Plains 1899 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney George Washington Lambert Oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London Mother and child 1901 Oil on canvas on hardboard Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Hugh Ramsay Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1902 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Miss Thea Proctor 1903 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Sybil Waller in a red and gold dress 1905 Oil on canvas Private collection 1905 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Derwent Wood and Family 1905 Oil on cedar panel Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Francis Derwent Wood 1906 Oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London Lotty and a lady 1906 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Self-portrait Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1906 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1907 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 1907 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Gold prospectors 1907 Watercolour Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Portrait Group 1908 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 1908 Oil on wood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Children bathing 1909 Oil on wood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney The shop 1909 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Chesham Street 1910 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Holiday in Essex 1910 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney William Alison Russell Esq 1910 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Pan Is Dead (Still Life) 1911 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Portrait of a lady (The dancer) 1911 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Portrait of Maurice Lambert 1913 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1913 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1913 Oil on wood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1914, 1921 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1915 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Anzacs Bathing 1916 Oil on canvas Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura Portrait of a lady (Thea Proctor) 1916 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Oil on canvas diameter State Library of New South Wales, Sydney Mrs E.P. Reed 1917 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer1917, 1921 Oil on canvas Museums Victoria, Melbourne With the Light Horse in Egypt 1918 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1918 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1920 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Trewarmitt, Cornish landscape 1920 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Tulips and wild hyacinths Oil on plywood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Weighing the Fleece 1921 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The official artist 1921 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1921 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Portrait of a girl in a brown dress 1921 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Anzac, the Landing 1915 1922 Oil on canvas Australian War Memorial, Canberra Self-portrait with gladioli 1922 Oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Yarra Glen 1922 Oil on plywood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Yarra Glen 1922 Oil on plywood Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Hera 1924 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Charles EW Bean 1924 Oil on canvas Australian War Memorial, Canberra George Judah Cohen 1925 Oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Egg and cauliflower still life 1926 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Tulips and other stimulants 1927 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1927 Oil on canvas Murdoch family collection War memorial 1927 Bronze sculpture Geelong Grammar School, Geelong Julian Ashton 1928 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Swedish athlete 1928 Oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Gallery

George Washington Lambert

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