The Sonnet (Lambert)

The Sonnet
ArtistGeorge Washington Lambert
Year1907
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions113.3 cm × 177.4 cm (44.6 in × 69.8 in)
LocationNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Websitehttps://cs.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=46029

The Sonnet is a 1907 oil-on-canvas painting by Australian artist George Washington Lambert. The work depicts man reading a sonnet to a female companion with both seemingly unaware of a nude woman sitting between them.[1] The open-air idyll draws on other well-known works such as Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe 1863.[1]

Lambert painted the work while in London. Fellow expatriates Arthur Streeton and Thea Proctor were the models for the clothed persons and Kitty Powell was the model for the nude.[1]

One day when I saw these three people together … it seemed to me a modernized version of Giorgione's [possibly Titian’s] Fete Champetre

— Lambert, [1]

The painting won a silver medal at the Exposicion Internacional de Arte in Barcelona in 1911.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Kelly, Miriam. "The sonnet c.1907". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  2. ^ Serle, Percival (1949). Dictionary of Australian Biography. Angus and Robinson. Retrieved 18 June 2020.


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