Sir John Lavery (1856-1941)

Q. Who was he

A. John Lavery was born in Belfast in 1856, the son of a publican. His father was drowned at sea while emigrating to America in 1859. John's mother died soon afterwards and he was brought up by relatives in Ayrshire.

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Q. Where did he study

A. He became an apprentice retoucher to a Glasgow photographer and attended the Haldane Academy, Glasgow, in the 1870s. After spending a winter term at Heatherley's School of Art, London, he moved to Paris in 1881 where he studied at the Academie Julian.

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Q. And then

A. On his return to Glasgow in 1885 he became one of the leaders of the Glasgow boys, a group of young painters committed to the ideals of naturalism. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1886 and soon became a very successful portrait painter. In 1888, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, Lavery was selected to depict the Queen's visit to the International Exhibition in Glasgow. He obtained a sitting from the Queen and thereafter his position as the premier young portraitist of his generation was assured.

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He moved to London in 1896, and became vice-president of the International Society, which was set up in 1897 to hold regular international exhibitions in London, under the successive presidencies of Whistler and Rodin.

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In 1910 he held a one-man exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1910, and the same year he married Hazel Martyn Trudeau, the daughter of a Chicago industrialist. She became a central figure in London society and Lavery often claimed his success as a portraitist was in part due to her social accomplishments.

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Q. What did he do in the war

A. When the First World War broke out Lavery began recording scenes at military camps, naval bases and munitions factories. He was appointed Official War Artist in 1917, assigned to the Royal Navy, and one of his duties was to paint the surrender of the German Fleet at Rosyth in 1918.

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Unfit to travel to France after a serious car-crash during a Zeppelin bombing raid, Lavery was unable to undertake a commission to paint members of the British High Command in France, so he agreed to continue to paint pictures of the Home Front.

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Q. And what did he do after the war

A. He was knighted in 1918 and three years later he was elected to the Royal Academy. In the 1920s Lavery became involved in Irish affairs, painting his friend Michael Collins, the negotiator of the Irish Treaty, on his deathbed.

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Lavery travelled widely in the 1920s and 1930s, producing many 'portrait interiors' of the rich and famous, caught in a mood of elegant relaxation. He also painted horse-racing, swimming-pool and casino subjects. Through the art dealer Joseph Duveen he attained a formidable reputation in the USA. After his wife's death in 1935, Lavery went to Hollywood with the idea of painting portraits of the stars. However, the only result was a self-portrait with Shirley Temple. At the outbreak of World War II, he retreated to Kilkenny in Ireland, where he died in 1941.

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Q. Can you name a few of his works

A.

Under the Cherry Tree (1884)

The Tennis Party (1885)

Mrs Ftizroy Bell (1894)

The King, The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Princess Mary, Buckingham Palace, 1913 (1913)

A Convoy, North Sea (1918)

The Cemetery, Etaples (1919)

Michael Collins (1922)

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Q. Where can I see his paintings now

A. The Imperial War Museum has a number of examples of his work, and others are to be found all over the place, including the Southampton Art Gallery, the Aberdeen Art Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. He donated 39 paintings to what is now the Ulster Museum, Belfast, the largest single collection of his work.

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By Simon Smith