• Title
  Item 05: The convex mirror, ca. 1916 / by George Lambert
• Call number
  ML 1292
  Status: On display – Paintings from the Collection, Room 3, West Wall, no. 249
  
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  ca. 1916
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  1025630
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 painting - oil, pencil, on wood - diam. visible image 39.0 x 39.4 cm inside slip, in frame 70.0 x 69.0 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  ‘To pass the time, and determined not to give way to brooding over his sick son, Lambert painted The convex mirror, the reflection of a room in this cottage. Yet Lambert captured some of his sadness at the death of Mrs Halford (who acted as a grandmother to his children) and his anxiety over his son’s illness, as well as the universal unease and apprehension created by the First World War, in the way he presented the world through a convex mirror – disturbed and distorted.’
  
  Reference:
  George W. Lambert Retrospective, catalogue entry for the Convex Mirror by Anna Gray. http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Lambert/Detail.cfm?IRN=163081 (accessed March 7, 2013)
• Scope and Content
  This painting depicts a group of friends reflected through a mirror image. They stand in the low-beamed living-room of Belwethers, a cottage in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. In 1916 Lambert visited the village when his son Constant became seriously ill with osteomyelitis while he was a student at Christ’s Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex. Lambert himself looks out of the image in the foreground. Lambert’s wife, Amy, dressed in blue is depicted in the centre of the room, standing.
  
  British periodical Country Life includes articles devoted to the history of the Belwethers cottage in Cranleigh (Surrey) and the Chilham Castle estate. Belwethers was inherited by Sir Edmund Davis (1861- 1939) and his wife in 1915. Lambert's painting was first hung in Belwethers.
  
  See:
  E. W. Marshall, `The Lesser Country Houses of To-Day: Belwethers, Cranleigh, and its reconstruction', illustrated with 6 detailed photographs, three of which are interior scenes, and a detailed plan of the estate, Country Life, vol 46, 19 July 1919, pp. 91 – 93
  
  Photograph of the ‘Living Hall’ in Belwethers shows its convex mirror hanging above the fireplace alongside Lambert's recently acquired painting, unframed. After framing, the painting was hung in the Davis’ imposing Chilham Castle.
  
  Christopher Hussey, `Country Houses, Gardens Old & New, Chilham Castle I. Kent. The seat of Mr. Edmund Davis', iIllustrated with 12 detailed black and white photographs of the gardens and exteriors of the castle, designed by Inigo Jones in 1616, Country Life, vol 55, 24 May 1924, pp. 812 – 819
  
  Christopher Hussey, `Country Houses, Gardens Old & New, Chilham Castle II. Kent. The seat of Mr. Edmund Davis', illustrated with 13 detailed black and white photographs of interiors and exteriors of the castle, Country Life, vol 55, 31 May 1924, pp. 858 – 865:
  
  See also:
  Robert Holden, `A fully rounded masterpiece', SL Magazine, Spring 2020, pp 23-37
  
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Digital order no:Album ID : 1045551
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Lambert, George W. (George Washington), 1873-1930
  
• Subject
  Artists, Australian--20th century--Portraits.
  Artists, Australian--20th century.
  Adult Females
  Adult Males
  Lambert, George W. (George Washington), 1873-1930
  
• Topic
  interiors
  dining tables
  interiors (buildings)
  self-portraits
  
• Place
  England
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Dixson 60 - State Library of New South Wales (20 October, 2013 - 20 March, 2014)
  Paintings from the Collection - State Library of New South Wales
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3295741

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