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George Lambert and ‘Windamere’

08 February 2007 by Janda Gooding. No comments
George Lambert: Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes, Conservation, Exhibition, Exhibition Tour, Gallipoli Mission, Janda's Blog about Gallipoli, Symposium

Windamere, Cobbitty

Lenore Heath who works in the Photographs section at the Memorial has an interesting link to George Lambert. Lenore’s grandparents, Ben and Alice Heath, owned the guesthouse ‘Windamere’ where Lambert died in May 1930.

Ben was born in Slough, England in 1887 and migrated first to New Zealand and then Australia, settling in Sydney. He married Alice Ward in 1915 and shortly after enlisted in the Australian Flying Corps, serving three months in Egypt as a sergeant air mechanic before being invalided back to Australia after being diagnosed with an ‘irritable heart’.

The dining room and river views, Windamere

Ben and Alice bought the property in Cobbitty in late 1925. It backed onto the Nepean River and was ideal for a guesthouse. In 1928 they built ‘Windamere’ that boasted facilities including its own electricity plant (bought from a Kings Cross theatre), a nine hole golf course and polo ground, dining, lounge and dance rooms, and a resident pianist. Activities advertised included billiards, tennis, table tennis, shooting, horse riding, swimming, and fishing. Ben and Alice were helped by their four children one of whom was Jeffrey, Lenore’s father.

In May 1930 Lambert stayed at ‘Windamere’. Lambert had contacted his friend Brigadier General George Macleay Macarthur-Onslow to ask about horses he could ride during his rest break. Macarthur-Onslow suggested that the owner of ‘Windamere’, Ben Heath would have some good horses, but Lambert decided to take his own horse ‘Old Iron’. Although Lambert was under medical instructions to have complete rest, this did not stop him from riding ‘Old Iron’.

It was at ‘Windamere’, that Lambert, while repairing a feedbox had a heart attack and died. A newspaper reported the incident: “Yesterday morning he [Lambert] took some light exercise, and, in the early afternoon, he decided to get a piece of timber to mend a feed-box. He walked directly to the wood-heap, and as he was about to split a piece of wood he fell forward unconscious. Help was quickly forthcoming, and Dr. Crookston, who was summoned, made a hurried journey to Windamere, but the famous artist was then beyond aid.”

‘Windamere’ continued operating for some years but business declined and the Heaths sold it. During the Second World War Ben enlisted in the US Army Small Ships Division and served in the South West Pacific for ten months. His son Jeffrey served in 30 Squadron, RAAF in Papua New Guinea and fortunately father and son were able to meet in New Guinea twice during the war.

Today, the 100 acre Windamere property is surrounded by the rapidly growing outer suburbs of Sydney’s south west. 

Lenore Heath and Janda Gooding

Double trouble

13 December 2006 by Sharon Alcock. No comments
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 treatment

Lambert frame during treatment

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.

Front of Lambert frame after inpainting

Back of Lambert work after treatment

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

The Lambert family

13 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. 1 Comment
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

The rail journey from Gallipoli to Cairo

12 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. No comments
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.

George Lambert on a train travelling to Cairo, photo by Charles Bean G02138

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.

Turkish troops in train wagons in the Taurus Mountains 1919, photo by Charles Bean (G02134) G02134

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.

'The top of the Taurus range' 1919 by George Lambert

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.

'Aleppo' 1919 by George Lambert (ART02830) ART02830

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

Gallipoli wild flowers

07 December 2006 by Janda Gooding. No comments
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.” 

'Gallipoli wild flowers' 1919 by George Lambert (ART02838) ART02838

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

Lambert at Tiberias

07 November 2006 by Janda Gooding. 1 Comment
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.

'Tiberias' 1919, by George Lambert (ART02822) ART02822

'George Lambert sketching at Tiberias' 1919, photo by Ossie Coulson (B03210) B03210

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