(American, 1830 - 1896)
Woman on Sofa Reading Letters
Oil on canvas, 31 1/4 x 25 inches
Signed at lower left: “George C. Lambdin”
Provenance: Lambdin Family; Kelly Kinzle; Schwarz Gallery
In early 1860s, George was specializing in genre themes, both sentimental and anecdotal. These images revealed everyday life at its most human and commonplace and took the viewer behind the scenes into situations that might otherwise be private. Genre subjects, which so frequently illustrated childhood and domestic life, often shared an element of universality and were understood regardless of cultural differences.
About the Artist
(American, 1830 - 1896)
Son of the well known portrait painter and miniaturist James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889), George Cochran Lambdin was born in Pittsburgh but from around the age of ten lived in Philadelphia. Trained by his father, he also studied in Europe in 1854-55. Although Lambdin's exact itinerary is unknown, in 1855 he did study in Munich with William Henry Furness, Jr. (1827-1867).
Lambdin spent his career in Philadelphia except for his trips to Europe in 1854 and again in 1870, and his two years in New York in 1868-70. He exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1848 to 1888 and was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1868. He exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1867 and at the Royal Academy in London in 1858.
