The Convex Mirrorc 1916

George Lambert (1873 –1930) was an Australian artist mainly known for portrait painting and as a war artist during the First World War.

The Convex Mirror shows a group of friends reflected in a mirror. They stand in the low-beamed living-room of Belwethers, a cottage in the village of Cranleigh, in Surrey. In 1916 George Lambert visited the village when his younger son Constant became seriously ill with osteomyelitis (bone inflammation caused by infection).

Lambert himself looks out of the image in the foreground and his wife, Amy, dressed in blue, is seen in the centre of the room. Seen through a convex-shaped mirror, the room is slightly distorted and suggests a feeling of unease and anxiety. World War I had been raging for two years and illness and a death had disturbed this group of friends.