Herbert Lambert

Summary

Herbert Richard Lambert, FRPS, (1882 – 7 March 1936)[1] was a British portrait photographer known for his portrayals of professional musicians and composers including Gustav Holst.

Herbert Lambert
Born
Herbert Richard Lambert

1882
United Kingdom
Died7 March 1936 (aged 53–54)
United Kingdom
OccupationPhotographer

In 1923 he published Modern British Composers: Seventeen Portraits in collaboration with Sir Eugene Goossens,[2] and in 1926, he became managing director of the Elliott & Fry portrait studio.[3] In 1930, he published Studio portrait lighting, a technical guidebook.[4] He is also responsible for salvaging much of the 19th-century photography of Henry Fox Talbot, by re-photographing the remains of Talbot's photographs.[5]

In addition to photography, Lambert was also an amateur maker of musical instruments, specialising in harpsichords and clavichords. In 1927, he lent a clavichord which he had built to Herbert Howells; Howells used it to compose a 12-piece collection, which he named "Lambert's Clavichord".[6][7]

Howells also introduced Lambert to Gerald Finzi,[8] whose 1936 Interlude for oboe & string quartet, Op. 21 was inspired by Lambert.[9]

A Quaker, Lambert was imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the First World War.[5] He lived in Combe Down, Bath, Somerset.[10]

References edit

  1. ^ HERBERT LAMBERT, from the British Journal of Photography, volume 83; 13 March 1936; p 164
  2. ^ Modern British Composers. Seventeen Portraits by Herbert Lambert, with a Foreword on Contemporary British Music by Eugene Goossens, at WorldCat; retrieved 26 July 2011
  3. ^ Herbert Lambert at the National Portrait Gallery; recovered 26 July 2011
  4. ^ Studio portrait lighting at WorldCat; retrieved 26 July 2011
  5. ^ a b The magic image: the genius of photography; by Cecil Beaton and Gail Buckland (1975, Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
  6. ^ Herbert Howells Performed on Lautenwerck Archived 2 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, by Edward Brinkley, from the South Central Music Bulletin (Volume IV, number 1 – Fall 2005); page 54; "named in honor of Herbert Lambert, who in 1927 let Howells borrow one of his hand-made clavichords"; retrieved 26 July 2005
  7. ^ A Harpsichord Odyssey (I) Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine by Edgar Hunt, at the British Harpsichord Society; posted online 27 November 2005; retrieved 26 July 2011
  8. ^ Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music, by Diana McVeagh, page 63; 2010, Boydell & Brewer (via Google Books)
  9. ^ Interlude for oboe & string quartet, Op. 21 at Allmusic, by Joseph Stevenson; retrieved 26 July 2011
  10. ^ The art of accompaniment from a thorough-bass: as practised in the XVIIth & XVIIIth centuries, by F. T. Arnold; originally published by Oxford University Press, 1931; page xxvii; via Google Books

External links edit

  • Npg.org.uk
  •   Media related to Herbert Lambert at Wikimedia Commons