| Weighing the Fleece | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | George Washington Lambert |
| Year | 1921 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 71.7 cm× 91.8 cm(28.2 in× 36.1 in) |
| Location | National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
| Website | https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=43314 |
Weighing the Fleece is a 1921 painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. It is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. [1]
The painting depicts "the interior of a woolshed with the owner and his wife watching the fleece being weighed, a shorn stud ram and an unshorn one." [2] The painting has a basic triangular form—"almost a frieze inside a pediment"—with the scales at the apex of the triangle. [3]
The calibrating needle is followed by the eyes of all those present, save for the two men handling sheep. On one side of the scales stand the woolbuyer and his assistants, while on the other the dominant figures are the station owner and his wife. He has his hand half in pocket as he assumes a haughty mien — casual proprietorship — while his wife is placed, seated, on an adjacent bag of wool. [3]
— Jim Davidson
Lambert claimed to have had the painting in mind for 25 years, a period that suggests it may be a riposte to Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams . Jim Davidson stated that "Certainly it could not be more different in spirit: instead of the celebration of strong masculine labour, this painting endorses wealth and the social order." [3]
Lambert painted the work in 8 days. [3] Despite this Lambert was proud of the attention to detail in the work such as the "beams and the swallow droppings on the beams, corrugated iron, oil drum, kerosene tin, wool bale, brand on the wool bale" that created "a masterpiece of small portrait grouping". [4]
The painting was commissioned by Leigh Sadlier Falkiner, the owner of Wanganella station, near Deniliquin in the Riverina region of New South Wales. [4] The locality of Wanganella was later named for the station. Despite commissioning the work, Falkiner disliked the way he and his wife, Beatrice, were portrayed by Lambert and declined to purchase the painting. The painting was later sold to Sir Baldwin Spencer for £600. [4]
It was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 1966. [4]
Contemporary critics were largely favourable of the painting, although some claimed it lacked emotion and sympathy for the subject. [4]
The whole making a fine composition, which centres in the white fleece. Every detail of this picture shows an almost pre-Raphaelite care.
— The Argus, 15 September 1921 [2]
The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the breed were not allowed, and those who tried risked capital punishment. During the eighteenth century, flocks were sent to the courts of a number of European countries, including France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden.
William Beckwith McInnes was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the Archibald Prize seven times for his traditional style paintings. He was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria and an instructor in its art school.
Thomas William Roberts was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year. The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes more than 3,000 sheep per day. A working group of shearers and accompanying wool workers is known as a shearing gang.
George Washington Thomas Lambert was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait painting and as a war artist during the First World War.
A wool bale is a standard sized and weighted pack of classed wool compressed by the mechanical means of a wool press. This is the regulation required method of packaging for wool, to keep it uncontaminated and readily identifiable. A "bale of wool" is also the standard trading unit for wool on the wholesale national and international markets.
The following lists events that happened during 1921 in Australia.
The Peppin Merino is a breed of Merino sheep raised for their wool, mostly in Australia. So important is the Peppin Merino that wool producers throughout Australia often classify their sheep simply as being either Peppin, or non-Peppin.
Shearing the Rams is an 1890 painting by Australian artist Tom Roberts. It depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed. Distinctly Australian in character, the painting is a celebration of pastoral life and work, especially "strong, masculine labour", and recognises the role that the wool industry played in the development of the country.
The Golden Fleece, originally known as Shearing at Newstead, is an 1894 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. The painting depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed at Newstead North, a sheep station near Inverell on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. The same shed is depicted in another of Roberts' works, Shearing Shed, Newstead (1894).
Glenorn is a pastoral lease that has operated as both a sheep and cattle station. It is located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south east of Leonora and 33 kilometres (21 mi) north east of Kookynie in the Goldfields of Western Australia,
A Sergeant of the Light Horse is a 1920 painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The portrait depicts an Australian soldier in Palestine during World War I. The National Gallery of Victoria states that the work is "recognised as an image that captured the spirit and character of the Australian soldier".
Across the Black Soil Plains is a 1899 painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The landscape depicts a team of draft horses pulling a wagon heavily laden with wool bales. Lambert's painting was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1899.
Polly Hurry, was an Australian painter. She was a founding member of the Australian Tonalist movement and part of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.
The Squatter's Daughter is a 1924 painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. It is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Pan Is Dead (Still Life) is a 1911 still life painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The painting depicts "a sculpted head of Pan beside white gloves and a glass vase filled with white roses". Lambert created the bust of Pan as part of a costume for a character he played in a tableau vivant, The awakening of Pan, created in 1909 by the wife of the artist Philip Connard.
Lambert constructed a conceit in which he played upon the difference between how things appear on the surface of the canvas and how they are in reality. He abrogated the difference between the solid bust of Pan and the bunch of fragile white roses in the glass vase beside it by making the sculpted curls in Pan's hair resemble roses and by using sharply defined edges to 'sculpt' the flowers.
Mrs Annie Murdoch is a 1927 portrait painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The painting depicts Annie Murdoch, the mother of newspaper proprietor Keith Murdoch and grandmother of businessman Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch commissioned this painting of his mother, who migrated to Australia from Scotland in 1884 with her Presbyterian minister husband, Patrick. Lambert painted the work in September 1927.
It is a striking portrait and full of character. Lambert portrayed the alert-faced matron, with her brown eyes looking directly out of the picture with confidence and authority. He showed her smiling with what might be interpreted as genial amusement
Miss Collins is a 1924 portrait painting by Australian artist William Beckwith McInnes. The painting depicts Miss Gladys Neville Collins, the daughter of J.T. Collins, lawyer, Victorian State Parliamentary draughtsman, and trustee of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria.
The White Glove is a 1921 portrait painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The painting depicts Miss Gladys Neville Collins, the daughter of J.T. Collins, lawyer, Victorian State Parliamentary draughtsman, and trustee of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria.
Self-portrait with gladioli is a 1922 oil-on-canvas painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The painting, a self-portrait, depicts Lambert in a brown velvet gown, wearing a purple scarf with a vase holding a gladiolus in front of him.