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Collection

An image of The road to Jericho by George W Lambert

George W Lambert

(Russia, Australia 1873–1930)

Title
The road to Jericho
Year
(1918)
Media category
Painting
Materials used
oil on canvas
Dimensions

30.7 x 40.7cm stretcher; 44.0 x 54.2 x 5.6cm frame

Signature & date
Signed l.r. corner, brown oil "G.W.L.". Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1941
Accession number
7137
Location
20th & 21st c Australian art
Further information

"Of all the places I visited, the region around Jericho was the most attractive from the artistic point of view ... an inspiring background of hills ... beyond the Jordan the Mountains of Moab, standing out in jagged serrated masses of colour in strong light and shade."
- George Lambert late 1920s

Lambert's experiences as an official war artist in Palestine had a profound effect on him, inspiring a large body of work.

The intense light, subtle colours and arid landscape, so succinctly conveyed in 'The road to Jericho' and Lambert's other Palestine paintings, inspired subsequent Australian artists in their quest to modernise the landscape tradition in this country.

© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000

Bibliography (5)

Betty Churcher, The art of war, 'The birth of a legend', pg. 1-47, Carlton, 2004, 46 (colour illus.). NOTE: this is another painting titled 'The road to Jericho' in the collection of the Australian War Memorial of the Palestinian landscape depicted in the AGNSW work.

Barry Pearce, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Earth, sky and paint', pg. 149-150, Domain, 2000, 155 (colour illus.), 301.

Roslynn Haynes, Seeking the Centre, 'Geography is never innocent: or, what the explorers wrote in the landscape', pg. 58-84, Cambridge, 1998, 80-81 (colour illus.), 163..

Roger Benjamin, Ursula Prunster, Lynne Thornton and Mounira Khemir, Orientalism - Delacroix to Klee 1997, Domain, 1997, 150 (colour illus.). cat.no. 88

Ian Burn, National life and landscape - Australian painting 1900-1940, Sydney, 1990, 190 (colour illus.). plate no. 190

Exhibition history (3)

Orientalism - Delacroix to Klee:

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000

George Lambert retrospective: heroes & icons, National Gallery of Australia, Australia, 29 Jun 2007–16 Sep 2007