''Weighing the Fleece'' is a
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
painting by Australian artist
George Washington Lambert. It is part of the collection of the
National Gallery of Australia in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
.
Composition
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."
The painting has a basic triangular form—"almost a
frieze inside a
pediment"—with the scales at the apex of the triangle.
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."
Lambert painted the work in 8 days.
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".
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Provenance
The painting was commissioned by Leigh Sadlier Falkiner, the owner of ''Wanganella'' station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
, near Deniliquin in the Riverina region of New South Wales.
Reception
Contemporary critics were largely favourable of the painting, although some claimed it lacked emotion and sympathy for the subject.
References
External links
''Weighing the Fleece''
- National Gallery of Australia collection.
{{George Washington Lambert
Paintings by George Washington Lambert
Collections of the National Gallery of Australia
1921 paintings
Sheep in art
Deniliquin