Venue: Kathleen Fitzpatrick Theatre, Arts West
Presenters: Anne Gray
Tom Roberts was the pre-eminent portrait painter in Australia in the late 19th century and George W. Lambert was Australia’s most successful portrait painter in the early 1900s. Portraits were central to both artists’ work and played a major role in establishing their reputations. This lecture will compare and contrast aspects of the portraits of these two artists.
Many portrait painters have used themselves as a model to learn about portraiture and experiment with their approach to depicting people. Roberts, however, was not such an artist; rather, he turned to family and friends as models, and painted many friendship portraits. Lambert, on the other hand, painted numerous self-portraits. Both artists owed much to the tradition of portraiture, and particularly to the art of Velasquez, Manet and Whistler; but the lessons they learnt from looking at their predecessors work were very different. Roberts, however, did not like the swagger in portraits by Sargent, whereas Lambert not only admired it, but also became a master of swagger himself.
Portraits of this period, rather than shaping social values, reflected them: capturing the contemporary fashion for theatricality and for historical paintings. And this interest in ‘the continuing tradition’ was part of a contemporary trend – in music, theatre, and literature.
Anne Gray has had 40 years of art museum experience. She joined the National Gallery of Australia as Head of Australian Art in February 2001, a position she held until April 2016. She was previously Director of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia, Head of Art at the Australian War Memorial, and Educator at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She has a PhD in Fine Arts from The University of Melbourne and a MA in Aesthetics from The University of Western Australia.
from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7401-the-two-titans-of-australian-portraiture-roberts-and-lambert
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