The Sonnet | |
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Artist | George Washington Lambert |
Year | 1907 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 113.3 cm × 177.4 cm (44.6 in × 69.8 in) |
Location | National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Website | https://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
[edit]- ^ a b c d Kelly, Miriam. "The sonnet c.1907". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ Serle, Percival (1949). Dictionary of Australian Biography. Angus and Robinson. Retrieved 18 June 2020.