Sir John Lavery

Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1856 - 1941

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About MeBorn at Belfast, the late Sir John Lavery had such close links with Scotland that he is regarded as a Scottish painter: he came to Glasgow in his teens, it was there that he set up his first studio, and he became one of the Glasgow "Boys" who in the 'eighties and 'nineties of the last century had a revolutionary influence upon the art of Scotland.

Lavery's was no primrose path to a career in art. Orphaned at three, he spent his childhood on an Ulster Farm and with a cousin of his Aunt's, a pawnbroker in Salcoats, Ayrshire. He ran away to Glasgow and after returning for a time to his Uncle's Ulster Farm he was employed by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. He was on the fringe of the art world when he became apprenticed to a Glasgow Photographer, by whom he was employed touching up negatives and colouring prints, attending an Art School in the early morning and evening. He was twenty when he painted his first picture and two years afterwards he set up in his own studio.

This studio was brunt down. Fortunately the contents were insured so that the Clyde breezes which fanned the flames were not entirely ill winds and the studio debris became not the ashes of his hopes and ambitions but the means of their fulfilment. He was paid £300 in compensation and this financed a year at Heatherley's School in London and a visit to Paris, where he became a student under Bouguereau at Julians'. Thus he was brought into touch with the extremely professional attitude of French Painters and their slick technical competence. Joining an artists' colony at Gres-Sur-Loigne he also gained experience in the painting in the open air, often called "Plein-Air" painting, which was then being practised in emulation of the then extremely popular work of Bastien-Lepage, of which he had heard much in the Parisian studios. It is, perhaps, surprising that he was not more strongly influenced by the impressionists, who were just beginning to gain recognition at that time - our Monet, "The Cliffs at Fecamp", was painted in 1881, but his autobiography does not even mention the names of any of the leading impressionists and one must assume that he was out of sympathy with their scientific theories. It was easy for British painters to work in Paris ignorant of impressionism; Wilson Steer, who was to become its outstanding exponet in this country did not practise it until after he had returned here.

The Glasgow School painters, indeed British painters generally, were more strongly influenced by the "Plein Air" painting of Bastien-Lepage than by impressionism.

The American artist Whistler was, no doubt, a strong influence upon Lavery through his emphasis upon tonal and decorative qualities in painting. When Whistler was President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Engravers, Lavery was the Vice President. The Spanish portrait painter Goya, and Manet, the French Artist, who, though not an impressionist, was in the van of the movement, are other artists of the past whose influence is thought to have been important in his work.

At Gres Lavery painted his first notable works and returned to Glasgow in 1885, the year in which the Glasgow School painters first began to make their mark. He shared in their exhibition success in this country and abroad and received very considerable recognition at the hands of foreign art societies and galleries. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1893 but had to wait until 1921 before he was a full member of the Royal Academy in London - a very belated honour this which had been anticipated three years …………….. a Knighthood.

During his years of growing reputation he travelled widely - to foreign capitals to carry out commissions; to Spain and Morocco in search of the sun. He made it a practise to spend each winter in Tangiers.

His early works had been story telling in intent and at Gres he painted landscapes with figures, but more and more he turned to portraiture. Glasgow commissioned him to decorate part of the banqueting hall in the City Chambers: his large panel illustrated the building of a large battleship. Another important, and earlier, commission was to paint the official picture of Queen Victoria's visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888. His small sketch for that picture
is in the possession of this Gallery.

Such commissions did much to bring his name before the public and soon he was recognised as one of the leading portrait painters of his time. The fluency of brushwork he had learnt in the studios of Paris, the justness of tonal relationships he had acquired with the open-air painters at Gres, an elegance in colour, and a decorative posing and placing of the figure, went to the making of a style which was admirably suited to rendering the charm of young womanhood if not the delineation of character. We have no portrait by him in our collections but those who saw the selection of paintings from the Burrell Collection which was here last summer may remember his striking portrait of Miss Burrell. If you contrast that with the emphasis upon the face and the expression of character in the portraiture of Sir George Reid, for example, you will realise both Lavery's qualities and weaknesses as a portrait painter. The face interested Lavery less as a means through which, by subtle modelling, character and personality may be conveyed, than as an oval shape whose outlines would share in the rhythmical arrangement of the picture and whose cream-ivory tint could be related to colour of hair and costume. Costume was always important. He had a knack of suggesting the sheen of light on satin or silk. He continued to paint subject pictures and quite late in his life he produced one of the most striking paintings in the Royal Academy of its year - The Jockeys Weighing in for the "Derby". A subject which allowed full pay for his love of full colour, his slick brushwork, and his pleasure in painting silk.

Mr Winston Churchill, which prowess with the brush has led to his becoming an honary academician of the Royal Academy, has been called a pupil of Lavery. His relaxation at the weekends and whilst temporarily out of office during the 1914 - 18 war was to go down to the country painting. He has described how Lady Lavery took the brushes from his hands one day and by her bold attack upon his canvas forever saved him from timidity of handling and form being overawed by the clean white canvas.

Lavery in his autobiography stated that he "knows few amateur wielders of the brush with a keener sense of light and colour, or a super grasp of essentials". And in view of Mr Churchill's present position in the Academy he made the interested prophecy: "had he chosen painting instead of statesmanship I believe he would have been a great master with the brush and as President of the Royal Academy would have given a stimulus to the art world".

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