In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1914
- Died
- 1999
- Birthplace
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Country
- Canada
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Evelyn Lambart helped develop experimental animation at the National Film Board of Canada, co-making Begone Dull Care before directing a distinctive series of cut-out films.
- Field
- Animator and experimental filmmaker
Why this life matters
Evelyn Lambart helped develop experimental animation at the National Film Board of Canada, co-making Begone Dull Care before directing a distinctive series of cut-out films.
Timeline
Key moments
Commercial art becomes wartime film work
Evelyn Lambart was born in Ottawa in 1914 and studied commercial art at the Ontario College of Art. She joined the National Film Board in 1942, initially undertaking lettering, graphics and maps. Such work required images to clarify relationships and movements that a live-action camera could not simply record. Her maps appeared within the wartime World in Action series, while films such as The Impossible Map explored the difficulty of representing a round world on a flat surface. This educational practice established a career in making ideas visible before her name became closely associated with abstract animation.
Sources for this section: [1]
A collaborator with more than one responsibility
Lambart worked extensively with Norman McLaren on films including Begone Dull Care, Around Is Around and Now Is the Time. The NFB’s 1949 record for Begone Dull Care credits both artists with direction, animation and editing, and the Oscar Peterson Trio with music. Those specific credits are more informative than describing her only as an assistant. The NFB’s career account also identifies work on stereoscopic animation and apparatus used in experiments with synthetic sound. Her contribution therefore included practical problem-solving across colour, movement and production methods, as well as the patient construction of images that became a projected film.
An independent cut-out practice
From the mid-1960s Lambart increasingly directed films with a recognisable approach of her own. She developed painted cut-outs and animal characters, using stories whose humour and moral conflicts could reach children without requiring realistic acting. Fine Feathers, The Hoarder and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse belong to this later phase. The transition changes how her earlier partnership should be remembered: collaboration was an important part of her practice, but it did not exhaust it. She died in 1999. Her work links educational graphics, direct-on-film experimentation and an independently directed body of narrative animation, demonstrating several ways an artist could shape the NFB’s developing film culture.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Evelyn Lambart
- What is Evelyn Lambart known for?
- Evelyn Lambart helped develop experimental animation at the National Film Board of Canada, co-making Begone Dull Care before directing a distinctive series of cut-out films.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Norman McLaren
Read McLaren’s biography together with Lambart’s separately documented directing, animation and editing work.
- Caroline Leaf
Compare direct marks on film with another NFB artist’s paint-on-glass and later etched-film methods.
- Amanda Forbis
Read Amanda Forbis for a separate, documented example of animation production and artistic collaboration. This is a contextual comparison, not an assertion of personal collaboration.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. TIFF Canadian Film EncyclopediaEvelyn Lambart
- 2. National Film Board of CanadaThe Life and Times of Evelyn Lambart
- 3. National Film Board collectionBegone Dull Care
- 4. TIFF Canadian Film EncyclopediaBegone Dull Care
- 5. National Film Board / Government of Canada publicationsMcLaren technical notes: Begone Dull Care