1830 - 1896
A son of the artist James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889), George Lambdin was raised in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and probably received his early training in painting from his father. He was associated with the latter city for much of his life and began exhibiting his works at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1848 when he was only eighteen years old.
Lambdin went to Europe in 1855 and studied in Munich and Paris, returning to Philadelphia in 1857. By the time of the Civil War, he had decided to specialize in genre painting, a thematic choice that perhaps was made intentionally so as to avoid conflicting with his father's portrait business. Certainly, the younger Lambdin expanded his interest in the area of genre during the Civil War when he traveled with the Union Army to record scenes of the everyday lives of the soldiers. Nevertheless, many of his paintings from both before and after the war involved the usually less tragic and more productive activities of children and young women.
In 1867 or 1868, Lambdin took a space in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York and worked there until at least 1869. A tour of Euorpe and England in 1870 was upset by the Franco-Prussian War and cut short by the illness of his brother and traveling companion James. James's death late in 1870 and the deterioration of George's own health, probably influenced the latter's decision to move back to Philadelphia for good. He remained in that city for the rest of his life.
At his father's home in Germantown, Lambdin developed an interest in the cultivation and painting of flowers, especially roses which became a favored theme in his paintings in the final decades of the century. His popularity in this field was enhanced by the reproduction and sale of many of his still-lifes by the chromolithography firm of Louis Prang. Continuously plagued by ill health, Lambdin was forced to retire from painting in 1887.
Lambdin was an active exhibitor at the National Academy from the 1850s through the 1880s. The works he showed there reflected his early interest in genre painting and his later emphasis on floral still-lifes. He was considered for the post of 'professor' at the Academy school in 1869 but the offer of employment was evidently not forthcoming. Much later, in 1885, he was featured as a guest lecturer at the Academy, speaking on the topic of 'The Invention & Perfecting of Oil-Painting.'
DBD
Lambdin went to Europe in 1855 and studied in Munich and Paris, returning to Philadelphia in 1857. By the time of the Civil War, he had decided to specialize in genre painting, a thematic choice that perhaps was made intentionally so as to avoid conflicting with his father's portrait business. Certainly, the younger Lambdin expanded his interest in the area of genre during the Civil War when he traveled with the Union Army to record scenes of the everyday lives of the soldiers. Nevertheless, many of his paintings from both before and after the war involved the usually less tragic and more productive activities of children and young women.
In 1867 or 1868, Lambdin took a space in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York and worked there until at least 1869. A tour of Euorpe and England in 1870 was upset by the Franco-Prussian War and cut short by the illness of his brother and traveling companion James. James's death late in 1870 and the deterioration of George's own health, probably influenced the latter's decision to move back to Philadelphia for good. He remained in that city for the rest of his life.
At his father's home in Germantown, Lambdin developed an interest in the cultivation and painting of flowers, especially roses which became a favored theme in his paintings in the final decades of the century. His popularity in this field was enhanced by the reproduction and sale of many of his still-lifes by the chromolithography firm of Louis Prang. Continuously plagued by ill health, Lambdin was forced to retire from painting in 1887.
Lambdin was an active exhibitor at the National Academy from the 1850s through the 1880s. The works he showed there reflected his early interest in genre painting and his later emphasis on floral still-lifes. He was considered for the post of 'professor' at the Academy school in 1869 but the offer of employment was evidently not forthcoming. Much later, in 1885, he was featured as a guest lecturer at the Academy, speaking on the topic of 'The Invention & Perfecting of Oil-Painting.'
DBD
