Big gun emplacement, Fort of Chanak

This work was painted during George Lambert's visit to Gallipoli in 1919 with the Australian Historical Mission. They spent a week at Chanak (7-14 Feb), a small town on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, before crossing to the Gallipoli peninsular. Lambert stayed at the Lion Hotel, Chanak and occupied his stay making four paintings. Lambert wrote on 14 Feb 1919: "For the past seven days we have been stranded at Chanak, on the Asiatic side of the Gate of the World. Snow, blizzards, ice and general discomfort. No coal or wood and a damp, gloomy, fifth-rate house called the Lion Hotel. May I live to forget it! Apart from the delay and the temperature, this place is interesting and the surrounding country very beautiful and fertile and not at all what one is led to believe from the geographical lessons of childhood, which gave me the impression that Asia was barren rocks and desert".