George Washington Thomas Lambert (1973-1930), Edward VII (detail), Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
Reigned 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910
Ascending to the throne after the 64-year reign of Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901), Edward VII (1841-1910) gave his name to an age.1 The splendour of his court reclaimed the ceremony and grandeur of the monarchy lost during the decades of Victoria’s withdrawal from public life. His diplomatic skills and affable bearing earned him the soubriquet of ‘Uncle of Europe’.
The first-born son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Edward became Prince of Wales at birth. Sporting and sociable rather than academic in nature, he chafed against his father’s strict educational regime, devised to ready him for the demands of statecraft.2 However, in 1859 he became the first Prince of Wales since Henry V to matriculate at Oxford, before completing his studies at Cambridge.3
Edward married Princess Alexandra, daughter of Prince Christian of Denmark, in 1863. They had two sons, Albert (d. 1892) and George (later George V), and three daughters, Louise, Victoria and Maud.4 His ‘love of excitement’5 was manifested in a passion for racing and a fondness for country sports, theatre, the arts, and travel. Although Victoria did not involve him in her royal duties, Edward undertook various public roles including in the planning of the Royal Albert Hall. He was a trustee of the British Museum, president of the Society for Arts and served on the Royal Commissions on housing for the working classes and on the aged poor.6
Edward ascended the throne in January 1901, though illness delayed his coronation until August. His reign, though brief, coincided with a time of increasing industrial and political turbulence. He is often credited with helping engineer the Triple Entente, his engagement with French and Russian leaders helping end Britain’s previous foreign policy doctrine of ‘splendid isolation’. Against the advice of his Cabinet, he was the first British monarch to meet with a Pope (Leo XIII). In the realm of domestic politics, his main areas of interest were naval and army reform, the former of which he championed to great effect.7
Edward died on 6 May 1910, during the constitutional crisis created by the House of Lords’ refusal to pass the Liberal government budget.8 The German Emperor and kings of eight nations attended his funeral procession, and a quarter of a million people paid their respects as his body lay in state in Westminster Hall.9 He was succeeded on the throne by his son George.
George Washington Thomas Lambert
Portraitist and sculptor George Lambert (1873-1930) was born in Russia and migrated to Australia in 1887. He worked as a clerk before beginning to paint and attending art classes conducted by Julian Ashton at the Art Society of NSW. After winning a scholarship to study in Paris, he worked in London as an illustrator and taught at the London School of Art. Appointed an official war artist in 1917 with the honorary rank of lieutenant, Lambert completed various commissions on his travels through Egypt, Turkey and Palestine, recording events precious to the history of the nation. He returned to Australia in 1921 and dominated the art scene through the 1920s. His portrait Mrs Murdoch won the Archibald Prize in 1927. Since his death, his work has been included in many landmark exhibitions of Australian art. In addition to most state and regional galleries, a large collection of his work is held at the Art Gallery of NSW.10
Edward VII
by George Washington Thomas Lambert
1910
Oil on canvas
299.5 x 242.4 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from: HCG Matthew, ‘Edward VII (1841–1910), king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the British dominions beyond the seas, and emperor of India’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; P Magnus, King Edward the Seventh, John Murray, London, UK, 1964; ‘‘Edward VII (r. 1901–1910)’, Royal Family, accessed 2 September 2021.
2. Magnus, op. cit., p. 7.
3. Royal Family, op. cit.
4. Ibid.
5. G Hibbert, Edward VII: the last Victorian King, Palgrave McMillan and Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2007, p. 36.
6. Matthew, op. cit.
7. Magnus, op. cit., p. 377.
8. Ibid., pp. 356–57.
9. Royal Family, op. cit.
10. Information in this biography has been taken from: M Terry, ‘Lambert, George Washington (1873–1930)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983; ‘George Washington Lambert 1873–1930’, Carrick Hill; ‘George W Lambert: Retrospective: heroes and icons’, National Gallery of Australia, archved; ‘Lambert, George Washington’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, pp. 591–93. Websites accessed 26 March 2021.