Weighing the Fleece 1921

George Washington Lambert’s painting, Weighing the Fleece, feels to me like a scene observed in a dream. I imagine him, brush in hand, building up the image, layer by layer, trying to capture the way the light catches on the wool, turning it into a cloud of soft whites and creams. I can feel the artist’s focus, his attempt to render the textures of the sheep’s fleece, the rough wood of the barn, the crispness of the workers’ shirts. I see him stepping back from the canvas, squinting, adjusting his palette, trying to get it just right. The painting seems to be saying something about value - not just the price of wool but also the value of labour, of observation, of a moment captured in time. It reminds me of other artists wrestling with similar problems: how to make paint feel like something real, how to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Ultimately, painting is about looking and feeling, and maybe a little bit about weighing the fleece.