At last! Here are the photos from our December 2006 film screening of Lawrence of Arabia. Under these nearly authentic period disguises, our exhibition team is all but revealed.

 

 

 

So, to explain this rogues’ gallery from left to right: on the far left is Brad the Light Horseman, a colleague we roped in who happens to own all of the kit he is wearing. He is dressed as a trooper of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment, the first troops to enter Damascus when it was captured in 1918. They were recruited from Western Australia. The plumes you can see in Brad’s slouch hat are emu feathers (not kangaroo feathers).

To the right of Brad is A Nurse Called Robyn. Robyn is dressed as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).

In the centre is Save Our Souls Susie, who is also dressed as a VAD. In the background (from left to right) you can see Nigel, Mal and Brad. We are still looking for a frontal shot of Susie and will update this when we’ve found a better image.

The fourth image from the left is Nigel of Arabia, our historian. He stole the best of the agals that we borrowed for the night, and this left me, on the far right as Mal Not Really of Arabia looking a bit tired and sad because my agal did not sit very well.

Each of the images will open up in a larger size in a new window, should you be a sucker for punishment. I’ve kept the images in the post to thumbnail size in the interests of good taste!

Mal

The political background to the entry into Damascus is complex and murky. Yet, only by identifying the underlying web of forces involved, can sense be made of what happened as control of the city passed from the Turks to the Allies.

It is clear that parts of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment were the first troops formally to enter Damascus when they passed through on their way to secure the Homs road and that Major Olden was handed the city by the acting governor, Emir Said, a member of the influential al-Jaza’iri or Qadir family. But within hours this unexpected turn of events was overshadowed by the political need for Damascus to be seen to be liberated by the Hashemite army led by Feisal that had fought its way north from the Hejaz.

An article published in 2005 by the British historian Dr Matthew Hughes of Brunel University reviews and updates the evidence supporting this view which was first identified more than 40 years ago by Professor Elie Kedourie of the London School of Economics. Both show that, as part of a wider Imperial policy originating in London, the British were keen to establish the Hashemites in a strong position in central Syria to destabilise French claims to this area enshrined in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. Independently the Hashemites wanted to move their power-base from the distant and sparsely populated Hejaz to Syria and establish themselves as the legitimate and natural heirs to Turkish rule there. In this respect the British and Hashemites were equal partners of self-interest. read on

Exactly 90 years ago, with the capture of Rafa on 9 January 1917, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force arrived in Palestine. The Turkish raid on the Suez Canal in February 1915 had shown the limitations of defending both Egypt and the Canal from its western bank. Beginning with the establishment of a new defensive line 10 km east of the Canal, the British military authorities in Egypt had gradually extended this zone of protection eastwards across the Sinai Desert. After General Sir Archibald Murray assumed command in Egypt in January 1916, he moved the line of forward defence to Katia and began to build both a standard-gauge railway and a 12-inch steel water pipeline across Sinai so that he could eventually move it at least as far east as El Arish, approaching the traditional border between Egypt and Palestine at Rafa.

Following the defeat of the Turks at Romani at the beginning of August 1916, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force began a steady advance eastwards. The speed was limited to the rate at which the railway and pipeline could be built. Using the Egyptian Labour Corps this was maintained at 25km a month.

Although the bulk of the Turkish forces had been withdrawn back across the desert to El Arish, outposts were maintained at locations such as Bir el Mazar and Maghara. Murray used his most effective and desert-worthy division, the Anzac Mounted Division under Major General Harry Chauvel, to patrol aggressively across Sinai and launch heavy raids against the Turkish outposts. On 17 September Chauvel’s men, supported by horse artillery and part of the Imperial Camel Corps, attacked Bir el Mazar. After a difficult battle, Chauvel ordered the attack to be broken off and his men withdrew. Two days later the Turks gave up their strong position and fell back towards El Arish. read on

Registrations are now open and places are filling fast for the Lambert symposium to be held at the Australian War Memorial, 29 June 2007. This is an event hosted by the Memorial and developed in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia.

We are delighted that the well-known art historian, curator and museum director Daniel Thomas has agreed to give the keynote talk at the symposium. Other speakers will include the Memorial’s new official war artists Charles Green and Lyndell Brown, curators and historians – Anna Gray, Mary Eagle, Janda Gooding, Andrew Sayers, Sasha Grishin, Anne-Marie Conde and Deborah Edwards – who will discuss the life, times and work of George Lambert. 

The cost will be $70 for the full day event ($55 for concessions) and this will include morning and afternoon tea and a light lunch. Attendees will also receive a complimentary ticket to George Lambert retrospective: heroes & icons at the National Gallery of Australia and entry to our own exhibition Gallipoli and Palestine landscapes. The full program will be posted next week – so watch this page!

For further information about the symposium or to register, phone the Australian War Memorial (02) 6243 4375.

Jerusalem fell to the British and Australians just before Christmas 1917. The historic and religious significance of Jerusalem was not lost on the Australians, with many writing in letters and diaries of their excitement in glimpsing the holy city for the first time. The Official History mentions that within a matter of days of occupying the city, the bazaars, stalls and shops were open for business and Australians were seen casually spending their money in the days before Christmas. Many of the troops bivouacked outside of the city, however, had a less relaxing time, spending the Christmas season battling to save tents and supplies against severe weather conditions. read on

The David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia is one of the more famous examples of art contributing to the Lawrence legend. Lesser known is the Australian feature film Forty Thousand Horsemen which can also be considered as significant for its role in legend making, however, for the Australian Light Horse.

Released in 1940, the film’s nationalistic sentiment and dramatisation of Australian success in battle touched a strong chord with a new generation at war. The story follows three larrikin Light Horsemen and their role in the desert campaigns. The three leads, played by Grant Taylor, Chips Rafferty and Pat Toohill, are introduced to us playing two-up in a market place and indulging in tom foolery, including taking a wild donkey ride through town and into a cabaret club. The celebrated climax of the story plays out the famous charge at Beersheba. The film broke national box office records and also had considerable success on the international market.

The film’s director, Charles Chauvel was the nephew of Sir Harry Chauvel, initially commander of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division and later the Desert Mounted Corps, the first Australian to command a corps in the war. From the early phases of the film’s production, Charles Chauvel was able to build upon the support of veterans, the light horse and even the Australian War Memorial. Chauvel used real Light Horsemen for one of the first shot scenes. A Light Horse regiment, gathered in Sydney for the New South Wales sesquicentenary celebrations, was permitted to take part in the filming for one day, playing out the charge at Beersheba. This was an ambitious undertaking that succeeded through some good fortune: with Light Horsemen, cast and crew all waiting for the rain to cease and the sun to come out so as to start the shoot. read on

Well, our little exhibition team did all go to watch Lawrence of Arabia in period costume as planned. There will soon be some very embarassing photos and perhaps some film footage displayed on this blog, so keep an eye out for them.

I thought that I’d give you my perspective of the film as the curator of our exhibition. (My apologies, for this is a long post and there are no images!) For me, looking again at this film after spending so much time immersed in everything Lawrence, was an eye-opener in many ways and I recognised and understood more clearly some aspects of the film that probably led to the many accolades it received in 1963. I read recently in Malcolm Brown’s Lawrence of Arabia, the life the legend that he believed the film was ‘in numerous respects more Hollywood than history’. On the whole I don’t really think that is the case, but I suppose it depends on your perspective. Sure enough, there are many factual, chronological and even geographical errors in the film and those can easily be found in a number of critiques elsewhere on the web. Most criticisms are summarised in Wikipedia and Lawrence’s authorised biographer Jeremy Wilson also details them here. I am not debating those observations.

I believe, however, that the film is a masterpiece of film making and, for those who are not interested in reading any of the many books written about Lawrence during the First World War, it does leave you with all the essential parts of the story. A rather enigmatic young English officer with some knowledge of the Middle East is sent by his superiors to assist the Arab Army and becomes a close adviser to Emir Feisal during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. I am sure that the story told by the film has inspired many people to read more about Lawrence and it probably also inspired further biographies about him. Why?

read on

The exhibition Focus and the book Contact were launched simultaneously on 7 December 2006. Present on the day were a number of photographers featured in the book and exhibition: Mrs Barbara Beck (Second World War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographer), John Fairley and Mike Coleridge (Vietnam War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographers), Tim Page and Denis Gibbons (Vietnam War photojournalists), David Dare Parker and Stephen Dupont (photojournalists and Australian War Memorial official photographers), and the commercial photographer Heide Smith. The book and exhibition were launched by the distinguished Australian Broadcasting Commission journalist (and former Vietnam War correspondent) Tim Bowden and the AWM’s Director, Major General Steve Gower, in front of a large crowd. Tim Page photographed the proceedings, and a selection of these images is included below.

Tim Bowden and Patricia Sabine, Head of Photographs, Film and Sound at the Australian War Memorial. Photograph by Tim Page.

Major General Steve Gower speaking at the launch of the book Contact and the exhibition Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.

Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, looks at Contact with the book’s author Shaune Lakin. Photograph by Tim Page.

Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, talks with the Perth-based photojournalist David Dare Parker. Joss Jensen, the designer of the exhibition, and Nola Anderson, Assistant Director, National Collections, Australian War Memorial, are in the background. Photograph by Tim Page.

John Fairley, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, stands in front of his work, some of which he was seeing for the first time since leaving Vietnam in 1970. Photograph by Tim Page.

The photojournalist Denis Gibbons signs copies of the book Contact. Photograph by Tim Page.

The Walkley award-winning photojournalist Stephen Dupont discusses one of his photographs taken in Dili, East Timor, during 1999, at the media launch for the book and the exhibition. Photograph by Tim Page.

Barbara Beck (nee Isaacson) listens to Tim Bowden at the launch of the book and exhibition. Mrs Beck was an official photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Second World War, when she photographed the work undertaken by Australia’s women’s services. Photograph by Tim Page.

The photojournalist David Dare Parker stands in front of his portrait of the Australian peacekeeper, Private Anthony Meixner of A Company, 1RAR, in Dili in June 2006. Photograph by Tim Page.

View of the crowd listening to Tim Bowden’s address at the launch of the book and the exhibition. Standing in front is Steve Burton, one the Australian War Memorial’s own photographers. Photograph by Tim Page.

Installation view of Focus. A viewer considers Allan Cuthbert’s photographs of Hiroshima, taken in February 1946. Photograph by Tim Page.

Installation view of Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.

Exciting things don’t happen every day in the Memorial’s Painted Surfaces Lab. For us, work on the Lambert exhibition mostly involves framing and glazing issues. The frames were originally covered in bronze leaf, but sometime later, probably in the 1960s, many of them were spray painted with nitro-cellulose based gold paint. Some of the mouldings on the frames have also been damaged or are missing. Our job is to remove the gold paint, rebuild any lost or damaged parts, retouch where necessary and glaze the painting ready for exhibition. A certain sameness can therefore creep into the work.

Every so often, however, a painting will come along that gives us a new challenge. Achi Baba from Tommy’s Trench, Helles was one of those paintings. There was great excitement when we removed it from its frame and discovered another sketch on the back. Instead of covering it up again, it was decided to frame the back of the work in such a way as to ensure that the sketch on the back remained visible. The challenge was to make sure it looked the same as the other frames for the exhibition.

Lambert frame before and during treatment

In accordance with our usual practice, the gold paint on the frame was removed. The moulding had been repaired previously but some pieces had not been replaced and others had been put in the wrong place. The latter were removed and new mouldings were made using impressions taken from undamaged frames. The repairs and damaged areas of bronze leaf were then inpainted with bronze pigments. As we did not want to change the depth of the frame our options were limited. It was decided to glaze the verso with thin perspex and to use a window mount to keep it away from the painting. Brackets were hand made from brass and the colour of the build up was continued onto the back of the frame.

Although the sketch on the back is upside down, it is still visible for future reference. At the same time the frame will sit flush against the wall for exhibition and will appear just like the other frames around it.

Sharon Alcock, Conservator, Painted Surfaces

For some more detail on the sketch that was uncovered see the post The rail journey from Gallipoli to Cairo

‘A common family name, but an uncommon family’, is how Andrew Motion the biographer of the Lambert family described them. George Lambert was born in St Petersburg of American / British parents, educated in England and spent his teenage years in the outback of Australia before becoming an Australian official war artist. His sons Constant and Maurice were equally accomplished. The elder son, Maurice (1901-1964), became a sculptor and worked mainly in wood and stone. His work was in the modernist tradition and he became the Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy School in London. Constant (1905-1951) was a composer and conductor, who wrote a ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes company and several fine orchestral and choral works. Constant’s son Kit (1935-1981) was involved in films before taking on an unknown rock band and propelling them to stardom. This band was The Who.

The women in the Lambert family are more shadowy. Both George’s mother Annie (nee Firth) and his own wife Amy (1872-1964, nee Absell) largely managed households without their husbands. Annie had to manage four young children when her husband (George Washington Lambert – the engineer) died just two months before the birth of George Washington Thomas Lambert – the future artist. And Amy coped with George’s long absences as an official war artist or when he was completing important commissions. If you are interested in a detailed biography of the Lambert family see Andrew Motion The Lamberts: George, Constant & Kit, Chatto & Windus, London, 1986.

Janda