| As an amateur rider, racing journalist, bloodstock agent and now painter, the career of Elie Lambert has always been closely entwined with Belgian horseracing. As the fortunes of that country’s sport have taken a battering, Lambert too has had to weather the storms, turning his hand to these very different fields, and reaching the pinnacle of each.
Brought up by his grandfather, a stud manager for Mr Baron Brugman de Walzin’s successful bloodstock operation, Lambert gained his gentleman rider’s licence and silks at the age of 18, and was attached to the stable of Le Vicomte d’Hendecourt.
A self-confessed “restless pupil”, he transferred to the Brussels Academy, where his studies flourished. A career in journalism followed and Lambert wrote about his beloved sport as a Belgian correspondent for Paris-Turf, The Sporting Life and the Racinf Post.
However, it was the next stage of his career won Lambert the most acclaim. As the most successful bloodstock dealer in Belgium for about 15 years, he would send around 300 horses annually from England to the continent. In that time, numerous champion thoroughbreds in his homeland were purchased by Lambert.
Sadly, though, the boom years of Belgian racing were to come to an untimely bust. The industry has been kept afloat by buoyant off-course pari-mutuel betting. The popular Tierce bet, in which punters had to pick the first three home, rapidly grew in popularity, so that at its peak it amassed a pool of 100,000,000 Belgian Francs. Despite this, by the late 1980s the sport was plunged into liquidation and Belgian racing faced financial ruin. Lambert describes the sport in Belgium as a “devastated industry”, and points to the once-popular Wellington racecourse in Ostend as evidence of this. It is now a concert venue, the stables have been removed and the back turn of the course is now “a Micky Mouse golfcourse.” |
Elie Lambert |
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"Jock's going for glory" |
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| The collapse of the industry that he had prospered in coincided with a life-threatening blood cancer, and in it is these circumstances which led to the current phase of Lambert’s career. “If a man falls down but can not stand back up more clever, than he is not a man,” he says, explaining his extraordinary defiance. Always a keen artist, he would make small sketches of horses in catalogues at the sales, and during his illness between regular visits to the hospital, Lambert sought solace at the easel. His portfolio has grown to 647 studies, his prolificacy increasing as the popularity of Belgian racing decreased. Five years ago, Lambert took the decision to turn his hobby into a business and opened a gallery on the Rue Drouot in Paris. Initially he only sold works by other artists, but fate intervened and he realized the value of his own paintings. In the offices at the back of the studio, Lambert was keeping one of his own, larger studies. It caught the eye of an American lawyer who later bought it, and ever since, works by Elie . | Lambert have been in high demand among legal professionals in New York.Using the classic media of oil on canvas, the artist cites an eclectic set of influences on his work; he values the beautiful accuracy of Stubbs, but notes the absence of emotion on the canvas: “He was, in many ways, a photographer from the 18th century.” He praises Munning’s expressionist qualities, draws inspiration from Turner’s use of textures, and reveres Picasso, “who did everything before anybody else.” Lambert’s work continues to fetch encouraging prices in horseracing and sports auctions, and he has several paintings coming up for sale at both Christies and Sothebys this May. | |
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An exhibition later this year on the Rue de Richelieu in Paris represents something of an emotional homecoming for the artist, as it will be held in the former offices ofthe Paris-Turf newspaper. Having once more reached the top of his chosen field, despite such adversity, it is no wonder that Lambert keeps the following words of Winston Churchill close to his heart: “Bombed but not beaten.” | |
| Elie Lambert has bounced back from illness to become a prolific painter | ||