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Sir John Lavery (20 March, 1856 - 10 January, 1941) was an Irish painter best known for his portraits.
Belfast-born John Lavery attended the Haldane Academy in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1870s and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s. He returned to Glasgow and was associated with the "Glasgow School". In 1888 he was commissioned to paint the state visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition. This launched his career as a society painter and he moved to London soon after. In London he became friendly with James McNeill Whistler and was clearly influenced by him.
John Lavery's first wife, whom he married in 1889, died of TB in 1891. In 1909 Lavery married Hazel Lavery (née Martyn) (1887 - 1935), an Irish-American known for her beauty and poise. She was to figure in many of his paintings; for example, the sumptuous The Artist's Studio: Lady Hazel with her Daughter Alice and Step-Daughter Eileen, currently is in the National Gallery of Ireland.
She modelled for the allegorical figure of Ireland he painted on commission from the Irish government, reproduced on Irish banknotes from 1928 until 1975 and then as a watermark until the introduction of the Euro in 2002. She is reputed to have had affairs with Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins; the latter died with a letter to her in his pocket.
Like William Orpen Lavery was appointed an official artist in the First World War. Ill-health, however, prevented him from travelling to the Western Front; he remained in Britain and mostly painted boats, planes and airships. After the war he was knighted and in 1921 he was elected to the Royal Academy. During this time, he and his wife both became interested in their Irish heritage and were tangentially involved in both the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War: they gave the use of their London home to the Irish negotiators during the Treaty negotiations. After Collins was killed, Lavery painted Michael Collins, Love of Ireland, now in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery.
In 1929 John Lavery made substantial donations of his work to both The Ulster Museum and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery and in the 1930s he returned to Ireland. He received honorary degrees from the University of Dublin and Queen's University of Belfast. He was also made a free man of both Dublin and Belfast.
He died in County Kilkenny, aged 84, from natural causes.
Works in Collections
- Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum
- Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum
- The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery
- The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, including:
- The Guildhall Art Gallery, London
- The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, including:
- The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
- Miss Flora Lion in Her Oriental Costume Deaccessioned 2000
- The Laing Art Gallery
- The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
- The Tate Gallery, London, including:
- The Ulster Museum, Belfast
- The Walker Art Gallery
See also
References
- Anne Millar Stewart (2003), Lavery, Sir John in Brian Lalor (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillian. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2
- Sinéad McCoole (2003), Lavery, Hazel, Lady in Brian Lalor (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillian. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2