OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1930, Page 9

OBITUARY

GEORGE LAMBERT, ARTIST

AUSTRALIA'S CHIEF PAINTER

(^Received 30th May, 9 a.m.)

SYDNEY, This Day

The sudden death is announced of George Washington Lambert, a most distinguished Australian artist.

Though he was an Australian citizen and regarded as the greatest artist that the country of his adoption has yet produced, the circumstances of Lambert's birth are curiously mixed. He was born in Petrograd in 1873, his father being American and his mother English. He received some private education in England, and was brought by his grandparents to Australia at the age of ten. A short but'vitally important visit to the Nevertirc district in New South Wales had great influence upon him, for although he settled down to a clerkship in Sydney for four years ho had been absorbed by Australian scenery and longed to return to the bush. He went back—as a station hand —and his work when shown to B. E. Minns, the well-known animal painter, drew .forth encouragement which prompted Lambert to ehter the school of that fine artist, Julian Ashton. It was the most fortunate of chances, for Lambert's ability developed rapidly and there was a. good sale for his work. In 1899 he sold the first important picture he had done, "The Blacksoil Plains," to the Sydney Gallery. Ashton had the greatest fflith in his future and fought for a Society of Artists' Scholarship to be awarded to his brilliant pupil. In 1900 it came, and Lambert gained £150 a year for throe years.

The young artist chose Paris for the first two years of his study and again tfie choice was vital. For he came into contact with modern art and was captivated; He was •in Colarossi's studio and when ho left it -was to make a serious study of portrait painting. He settled in London for this purpose, doing work for the ."Strand" and "Pall Mall" magazines and meeting with almost instant success. In ,1903 and each year from 1905 to 1911, portraits of his were hung at the Royal Academy, usually "on the line/ and by 1911, still a comparatively young man of 38, ho was among the few recognised portraitists of the, first class. In the art world-he was active. He was a foundation member of the Modern Society of Portrait Painters, a member of the International Society of ' Sculptors, Painters, and Engravers, find an associate of the New Salon, of Paris. Among his portraits of this period are those of Sir George Reid, which is now in the Federal Parliament House, Australia, the Gaekwar of Baroda, Lady Beaverbrook, and E. B. Cunningham Graham. His reputation spread beyond London and Paris and "The Mask," his Academy 'picture of 1911, was exhibited in Venice and purchased for a gallery in Petrograd. From 1915 to 1917 he served as works officer in-the British Timber Supplies Department, and from 1917 until the end of the war he was-official artist with the Australian Light Horse in Palestine. In 1919 the Australian War Museum commissioned him to paint records of the landing at Gallipoli, the Light Horse charge at The Neck, tho Beersheba charge and other episodes of the war, and he toured Palestine and Gallipoli to gain a thorough knowledge of the scenes which he had to depict. In 1921 he returned to Australia to complete his work and his country jceoived him as one of the greatest of its citizens. A year later he became an Associate member of the Eoyal Academy.

His. last years were spent in Australia. Virile and colourful, his work made 8 strong appeal to Australians and there was always a keen demand for his paintings despite their high prices. He was interested in and approving towards the modem movement in the Commonwealth, joining in the small exhibitions of modern work in which a little band, notably* Roi de Mestre, Margaret Preston, and Kenneth Mac Queen placed annually before the world. _ In comparison with some of theae paintings, his own had a classic tinge, but they were always vigorous in form and held beauty of colour and of line. He was always, in these last days, on the eve of returning to London, and to the last he maintained a,London address and a London telephone. But he did not return, and probably knew that he would not leave his adopted land again. In manner he was odd and sometimes affected, dearly loving to achieve the ■unexpected. In London, he was apt to appear as a "wild Australian," abrupt in speech and untidy in dress; in Sydney he was meticulously neat and his speech was prim, his phrases carefully turned. Underneath it all he was extraordinarily kind, and many young artists were indebted to him.

"He is now recognised as one of the leading figure painters of the world," said "Art in Australia" in an issue of 1923. "His portrait studies in pencil are probably unequalled by similar work of any other living artist. Lambert is not the great genius of portraiture who remorselessly reveals character, he is not a dealer in essences; rather is he the master of elegant gesture, the supreme virtuoso, the grammarian, graceful and' self-assured. His portraits do not display the mind of the sitter through the temperament of the artist as much as they display the nature of the artist by means of the treatment of his subject. One expects 'Mr. Smith of Australia' to speak, but it is imnoß<!ible to anticipate what will /be spoken."