13 December 2006 by Sharon Alcock. George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Conservation, Exhibition.
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
13 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition.
‘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
12 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition, Gallipoli Mission, Landscape.
When the Australian Historical Mission left Gallipoli on 10 March 1919 they sailed up to Constantinople (Istanbul) before embarking on a 1500 mile rail journey that would take them across Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt and into Cairo where they dispersed. The rail link through the Taurus Mountains had only been recently opened and was being used to transport Tukish and Allied troops back and forth across Asia Minor.
For their overland journey the party was assigned two long enclosed horse or cattle trucks in the train. One truck was converted to a mess room and kitchen where Lambert with the help of Sergeant G Hunter Rogers cooked the meals and slept. During the trip Lambert and Rogers frequently served up three course meals and Lambert regaled the group with impersonations of British officers and stories of his time in the Sinai with the Light Horse.
Charles Bean in Gallipoli Mission described the journey as one of “extraordinary interest and, in parts, through scenery both grand and beautiful, in country with a history going back much farther than St Paul; where Assyrians, Lydians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders – and in these modern times Napoleon and ourselves – had marched and fought.” Along the way they passed trains crowded with Turkish troops who were demobilising.
Lambert described the rail journey (through the Taurus Mountains) as taking them through “what I think is the most spectacular country in all that part of the world that I have travelled in.” Fortunately, we have one image from this part of the trip that indicates how Lambert responded to the landscape. At one point the train made a brief halt high up in the mountains. Lambert was able to make a quick sketch of the landscape on the back of one of his Gallipoli paintings. The painting (right) was only roughly sketched in but clearly outlines the form of the place and the distant peak of the Taurus Mountains covered in snow.
As the train wound down from the mountains it passed through Adana and then Aleppo where Lambert was able to make another quick study (left). Changing trains the group passed through Jerusalem and then onto Cairo where they dispersed in early April. Throughout most of April and May Lambert was confined to a Cairo hospital with dysentery and malaria. On 31 May he was discharged from hospital and travelled to Semakh where he resumed his work as a war artist.
Janda
07 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition, Gallipoli Mission, Landscape.
Lambert was interested in the small details of the landscape just as much as the grand vistas. By painting studies of the local flowers and bushes he was able to understand more thoroughly the character, form and colours of a particular site. When he arrived on Gallipoli he made notes about the local plants: “The scrub is greenish with nice dead stuff showing grey purple here & there. I propose getting a record of the various plants & flowers.”
Lambert picked these flowers from the site of a Turkish artillery battery called ‘Beachy Bill’ that had regularly shelled Anzac Cove. On 27 February 1919 he wrote that “we discovered quite a wild garden to-day and I am fixed for a flower-piece if it rains.” The following day it did rain and it was cold and bleak with intermittent showers. With the flowers to hand, Lambert was able to spend the whole day and the next painting this still life. On 1 March he commented: “Again the rain and therefore the account of the day is easy. The flower-piece is finished … The flowers are in a biscuit tin on top of a bed for a tentpole.” He was pleased with the result but felt that he should be painting up at the Nek where the tragic charge of the 3rd Light Horse had taken place in August 1915.
Janda
07 November 2006 by Janda Gooding. George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Exhibition.
While he was travelling through Palestine, Lambert would get up early and work all day painting and sketching. This photo by Ossie Coulson was taken near Tiberias in early June 1919 during Lambert’s second tour of Palestine. It is most likely that Lambert was painting the sketch Tiberias when the photo was taken.
On 7 June 1919 Lambert wrote of his visit to Tiberias: ‘I visited and sketched Tiberias a motor ride of about six miles from here. Tiberias [is] really lovely & if one could only begin Palestine from this end of the Desert it would give a much better impression. Round about here there are wonderful subjects just now…’.
Janda
Lambert frame before treatment
Lambert frame during treatment
Front of Lambert frame after inpainting
Back of Lambert work after treatment
