George Washington Lambert ARA (Australian 1873-1930) Kate Kelly during the last stand of the...

George Washington Lambert ARA (Australian 1873-1930)

Kate Kelly during the last stand of the Kelly Gang

Signed and dated 1908

Oil on canvas

35.7 x 50.9cm

Provenance:

Purchased from the artist by Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, Melbourne (1860-1929);

by descent to his daughter Lady Dorothy Young (d.1966);

by descent to her son Patrick Templeton Young (1925-1992);

and by descent to the present Private Collector

Literature:

William Henry Lang, Australia (T.C. & E.C. Jack, London, 1908), o.p.238, illustrated, as The Last Stand of the Kellys at Glen Rowan;

Anne Gray, George Lambert 1873-1930 Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture, Drawings in Public Collections (Bonamy Press, 1996), p.25, no. P89

Exhibited:

Melbourne, Guild Hall, Australian art exhibition, March - April 1911, no. 29, as In front of the Glen Rowan - Kate Kelly;

Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sir W. Baldwin Spencer's Collection, December 1916, no 206;

Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Loan Exhibition of Australian Art, 1918, no. 70, as Ned Kelly;

Melbourne, Fine Art Society, The Baldwin Spencer Collection of Australian Pictures and Works of Art, May 1919, no. 18;

Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Loan Exhibition of Australian Paintings, 1925, no. 193, as Ned Kelly;

Sidney, Education Department Gallery, 1930, no. 93

The daring Kate Kelly came forth from the crowd and on her poor brother she call out aloud "Come forth, my dear brother, and fight while you can"

This work depicts the last stand of the notorious Kelly Gang, at Glenrowan, Australia in 1880. The outlaws took numerous hostages at a local inn, and were besieged by the police. George Lambert has depicted Ned Kelly's younger sister Kate, astride a horse, trying to make her way past the police and reach her brother.