Terms and conditions of use
Self-portrait
(1906)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
46.3 × 38.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
Gallery location
Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia
About this work
Like many artists of the period, George Lambert was influenced by the grand tradition of portrait painting and in particular the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Lambert’s Self-portrait, with its distinct use of light and shade, was closely modelled on Velázquez’s Philip IV of Spain, 1656, and was a painting which Lambert could examine in detail in the National Gallery in London. When Lambert initially exhibited Self-portrait at the Modern Society of Portrait Painters in London in 1907, contemporary critics admired the subject but took exception to the reference to smoking, firmly stating that the ‘picture would be excellent if he would only paint out the cigarette’.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
2004.184
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Portraits
Subjects (specific)
beards cigarettes Lambert, George W. men (male humans) moustaches