The painting, a self-portrait, depicts Lambert in a brown velvet gown, wearing a purple scarf with a vase holding a gladiolus in front of him.

Despised for resembling a chippendale chair in a country where timber is cheapIn reality, Lambert saw himself as a craftsman with the Sydney Mail reporting that he preferred "to be told by a critic that he had 'done his job well,' as one might address a bricklayer".

[1] At the time of painting Lambert has recently moved to Sydney and was suffering with exhaustion trying to meet a gruelling schedule of artistic commissions and lectures.

[1] The painting was sold to pastoralist and art collector Tom Elder Barr Smith in 1923 for £1,000, the highest paid for a work by Lambert during his life.

[5] His style was academic, yet he supported the avant-garde in Australia and painted portraits of his artistic contemporaries Thea Proctor and Hera Roberts — both independent, self-possessed style-makers at a time of burgeoning female empowerment.