The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, 7 August 1915 1924
Title: The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, 7 August 1915
Collection: Art
Object type: Painting
Artist: Lambert, George
Place made: Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made: 1924
Medium: oil on canvas
Description:
This painting depicts the scenes of the charge at the Nek on the 7th of August 1915, George Lambert (1873-1930) depicted the “tense drama of the awful moment when the Australia soldiers charged across the rock plateau as the line of Turkish soldiers fired at them” (NGA, 2014). Lambert uses this painting to portray the sacrifice of these men and the unreality of this battle, this is achieved through the lines and symbolism within the painting to emphasis the futility of this attack and the stigma of Christ (NGA, 2014). This painting was commissioned by War Memorial of Australia in 1920 (AWM, 2014)
Rationale:
This image was selected for an artifact within the exhibition as it depicts the brutality and sacrifice of the war; especially at the Battle of the Nek. The image is used at the start of the exhibition to highlight to students the vast number of deaths and the reach of soldiers sacrifice in this battle and the war. This image should hook students into the exhibition as it is quite a graphic image with quite a number of different aspects happening at once, which will take students a period of time to register and understand what is being depicted in the image. This image will also be a great start for students who have low literacy and those who are visual learners, starting with a written artifact may have turned students off the exhibition.
