The last tents at Moascar

Places
Accession Number ART02819
Collection type Art
Measurement framed: 39.5 cm x 59.7 cm x 6 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas on wood panel
Maker Lambert, George
Place made Egypt: North Egypt, Moascar
Date made 20 July 1919
Conflict Period 1910-1919
First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

In March 1919, George Lambert described the Moascar camp as: "Miles and miles of tents and desert, thousands of sweating, sun-bronzed men and beautiful horses"(Lambert 1938, p. 79). On 20 July 1919 he wrote to his wife: "... the well-appointed camp that two years ago spread out from here to the Desert for miles and umpteen miles, a white city of tents. There are still tents, a mile or so ... but the tents are slowly coming down, the incinerators are throwing off long, low lines of blue smoke ... Outside this bit of shade, 111 Fahrenheit, there is a blaze of almost colourless light, and it takes even for an experienced savage like myself, a few seconds to locate the difference between sand, tents and sky. In this blaze work still goes on - army work ...".