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Chinatown, San Francisco

Artist Frederick B Lamberger (1907 - 1986)

Date29 November 1959

Object number00027851

NameDrawing

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 175 x 254 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Catherine Gluck

Terms

San Francisco

DescriptionFrederick Lamberger sketched this cityscape of Chinatown while he was in San Francisco in November 1959. In the sketch he depicts buildings covered in signs, ornate street lamps with lanterns hung between them and cars parked in the street.HistoryFrederick Baranyhegyi-Lamberger was born on 9 May 1907 in Pozsony (now Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia) in western Hungary. His parents owned an electrical business in Budapest, where they raised Frederick and his older sister until moving to Gyáli on the city's outskirts around 1911 to start a stationery and printing business. The Lamberger family was one of three Jewish families living in the predominantly anti-Semitic area. After completed his secondary schooling Frederick applied to study medicine at university. His application was denied due to restrictions placed on the number of Jewish students who could be admitted to tertiary education. He settled on an office job in a large manufacturing company. In 1933 Frederick's mother died, and when his father died four years later, he left for England to further his education. In 1939, the Hungarian Consulate in London refused to renew his expired passport and demanded that he return to Hungary and join the army. Frederick refused and fled to France where he joined the French underground movement - the Maquis - until he was arrested after only a few months. After being liberated by the United States Army, he was employed as a liaison officer. Frederick’s sister Catherine Gluck, whose husband had been forced into Hungarian labour in 1939, joined him in Paris in 1946. Life was difficult in Paris after World War II, and so in 1950 the pair decided to emigrate from France. After Frederick became guarantor for his sister, the Australian Government granted them permission to migrate to Australia. Catherine sailed on Flotta Lauro's NAPOLI and Frederick on ROMA a week later, arriving in Sydney in December 1950. For the first few years, Frederick worked a range of jobs including tram conductor, waiter, cosmetic manufacturer, sewing machine salesman and public servant, until he set up a successful coffee lounge 'Espresso Rialto' in Kings Cross, Sydney, around 1956. Like many migrants before him, Frederick became an Australian citizen after five years residency, and in 1956 was granted consent by the Commonwealth Government to use the surname 'Lamberger' rather than 'Baranyhegyi-Lamberger'. In 1959 Frederick sold his business and took the first of what would be many world cruises. He left Sydney on QUEEN MARY bound for New York, during which time he made his first sketches to accompany letters to his sister Catherine. He then sailed to Japan on PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. In April 1960 Frederick first exhibited his pen sketches in the salon of CHANGTE during an extended cruise through Asia. He returned to Australia 18 months later. Back in Sydney, Frederick set up an antiques and collectibles store in Kings Cross called 'The Kings Cross Museum', which was popular with locals and sailors on rest and recuperation during the Vietnam War. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Frederick travelled extensively and provided a detailed account of his voyages through his drawings. The drawings illustrate various shipboard activities from deck tennis to evening dances, as well as cities and monuments Frederick visited, many of which feature accompanying text. Frederick also sketched a range of stylised architectural views of ships and their fittings, which from a drafting perspective, are his strongest works. Frederick Lamberger died in 1986, aged 79.SignificanceThis sketch is part of a collection of drawings by Hungarian migrant Frederick Lamberger illustrating his personal experiences on board various passenger ships from the 1950s to the 1970s. The collection also represents the migration story of Frederick and his sister Catherine Gluck, who escaped the misery of post-World War II Europe to make a new life in Australia. Frederick Lamberger's sketches are also held in the State Library of New South Wales collection.