The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 27 September 1930, page 11

LAMBERT.

GEORGE

Warren, New South Wales, and another, Mr

district
Nield, of Meryon Station, in the same
about 14, his grandfather
When
George was
to
come
decided
out to
early in 1887 the whole

Incidents

Youth.

of His
O.

E.

W.

BEAN.l

fairly widespread impression that

o
the great artist, some
whose
unsold work is now
being exhibited In
drew
of his versatile genius
Sydney
part
from a strain of Russian
This is not
blood.
There

George

Is

Lambert,

the

Russia
with
case-his
only
connection
that of being born there.
It
Russian
the
of
was
the construction
railways that took George Lambert's
parents
to Russia.
buildat that time
England was
was

ing

railways

railway workconstructing
in the world:
great country
St.
Petersand, to build the railway
from
the Russian
Government
burg to Moscow,
enEnglish
brought over
Thomas
Firth, an
was
gineer.
An
American
engineer
brought
in shortly afterwards,
to work
on
the same
line.
The new
engineer, George Washington
and

shops In every

Lambert, had been

though his family

bom
came

at

from

and
Baltimore,
the Southern

States he believed In the principles for which

the North
stood, and, in the Civil War, had
fought as an
engineer in the Federal Navy
He met and fell In love with Thomas
Firth's
only daughter,
exAnnie
Firth, an
Matilda
ceedingly accomplished girl, musical
and Interesting.
he
was
She
not yet twenty, and
was
approaching forty.
They married, and
had
four children, of whom
the youngest
was

son.

George Washington

Thomas

Lam-

bert.

But George Lambert, the American

father,
did not live to see
the son
George Lambert,
The
father was
a
most delicate man,
almost
ill,
continuously
a month
and In August, WS,
before his son's birth, he died In England.
His frequent illnesses had eaten up practically
all

and
It

his money,
and his young
widow, then 24,
her children
went to live with her father.
was
on
there,
September 13, 1873, that

George Lambert, the younger,

MANY
A

few

CHANGES

OF

was

born.

SCENE.

after this, the Russian

Government
decided
to insist that all Its servants must
become
nationalised
Russians
Thomas
not
Firth would
his British
abandon
nationality, and, accordingly, he obtained emin Wurtemberg,
where
ployment
Germany,
he became
director of the locomotive
works
at EsslinRen.
Here, with the daughter and
her young
family, the Firths lived for some
years

years.
child,
entertaining
George was.an
constantly
In demand
mimic, and

born

among

their German
friends, who
nicknamed
him
But
eight,
"The
Comic."
when
he was
the
to Engtand, settling at Yeovil
Firths moved
in Somerset.
Here George attended the local
Grammar
School, and at the age of 12 won
the South
Kensington prize for drawing. His
a
been
clever draughtsman,
father had
but
more
the boy possibly owed
of his talent to
his mother.
Firth, George's
Thomas
grandfather,
had
several relations in Australia, one
of them
near
being Mr. Robert
Firth,
of
Eurobla,
Warren, New South Wales, and another, Mr

National Library of Australia

country,

and,
in

family arrived

Sydney.
A

OP

LOVER

HORSES.

Firth at Eurvisit
a
obla, and,
second
to the
that
Nlelds at Meryon,
George Washington
Lambert
(he preferred his father's name
and
the passion
acquired
dropped the Thomas)
bush
character,
bush
and
for bush
scenes,
life that afterwards
of the two,
provided one
or
perhaps three, main fields of his work. He
a
remained
love of horses which
conceived
life,
and which, coma passion
throughout his
bined with his extraordinary
thoroughness in
the study of his art, resulted in the producIt is said
of his masterpieces.
tion of many
the anathat he not only knew
of Lambert
of the horse in general, but that he
tomy
that he
of every
horse
the anatomy
knew
mess
In a Light Horse
during the
observed.
officer, who
been brought up
some
had
war,
horses since his babyhood, questioned
among
with a
drew
George
Lambert's
knowledge.
and elaborated
pencil a few bones, extended
the
Into a complete skeleton, clothed
them
with
then
first
muscle,
and
with
skeleton
under
finally
the unbepushed
skin, and
liever's
nose
a
speaking portrait of his own
officer
could
mess
the
no
in
charger, which
fail to recognise.
sketchcarefully indexed
the many
Among
In his studio after
found
that were
books
several with drawings of the
his death, were
skeletons of horses that he had studied; perthere was
haps the most striking drawing
and
leg
off hind
of the
pencil sketch
a
finished with extraordinary
flank of a horse
and
marked
"Study of sheen
and
care,
action."
muscular
of
contains
many
exhibition
present
The
of
horses, but, in
lively
sketches
his vivid,
beautiful pencil
outstandingly
particular, one
for
the Light Horse
drawing of his group
the
Unfortunately,
Said.
at Port
Memorial
be adopted
could not
group
small sculptured
in full size
for
the memorial, its execution
being far too expensive, but the small design
has
purchased by the Australian "War
been
is
being r tided.
now
and
Memorial,
a
as
capacity
Lambert's
It was
of course
painter of horses that led to his appointment
camartist
for
the Light Horse
official
as
and, while he
paigns in Sinai and Palestine,
it
the great artists,
rank among
will always
that as a painter of horses
Is held
by some
a
peer.
he Is probably without
It

(BY

this

was

"ACROSS

on

visit
later,
on
a

THE

to

BLACK

Robert

SOIL

PLAINS."

painted
that Lambert
at Hornsby
was,
This
Soil Plains."
the Black
"Across
at
of things seen
largely a memory
of course,
also the probut it was
Eurobla and Meryon;
daily
studies of teams that came
duct of many
leading
The
Galston.
from
into Hornsby
butcher's;
horse is said to have been the local
the carrier. Lamthe bay belonged to Fagan,
dissatisfied with this picture after
bert was
painted It; a few daysit, before the
he had
criticising
exhibition he stood In front of
still
it
to his sister, Miss Ida Lambert, who
some
adding
lives
in Hornsby; but after
touches to the grass tufts in the foreground, he
surprised by its reception
He was
sent it In.
by other artists and by the public. it was
for
aware
that
now
Most people are
the
he received
that In 1900
other works
These
scholarship that took him to Europe.
in
(now
at Warren
scene
bush
a
included
possession of his sister at Hornsby), a portrait
and the
and a picture "Youth
of his mother,
(recently exhibited in the Manly Art
River"
the Wynne
In 1899 he had won
Gallery).
in Julian
Prize.
through his work
It was
It

was

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16717877

in Julian
through his work
It was
a fellow
Ashton's studio, where her sister was
met his future
Lambert
student, that George
Abseil, an
English-born
Beatrice
wife,
Amy
girl,
parents had brought their young
whose
lils
marShortly after
family to Australia.
riage he and his wife sailed to Europe, where
began.
the second stage of his artistic career
Prize.