Lavery On Location

This is an opportunity to showcase a different aspect of
his career. Although often described as a portrait
painter, John Lavery refused to be typecast. The majority
of pictures shown in his solo exhibitions were works
related to his travels, and throughout his long career
there are moments when he seems constantly on the
move. Much of this feverish activity related to
‘business’, but what might be construed as ‘pleasure’
was never ‘holiday’ in the normal sense. He
never travelled for business or pleasure without his
painting kit – whether a small pochade box, or a
larger collapsible easel designed specifically for 25 x 30
inch canvases.

Lavery was an internationally renowned Irish painter at
the turn of the 20th century, and the only Irishman to
receive the Freedom of both Dublin and Belfast in the
inter-war period, in a divided Ireland. It is however for
his standing as artist, and for important works, that he
best remembered.

Paintings such as ‘The Bridge at Grez’, ‘The Tennis Party’
and ‘The Greyhound, (Tangier)’, ‘Michael Collins’, ‘‘Love
of Ireland’ and others have become the essential images
of their times.

While not exclusively devoted to the artist-traveller, this
exhibition will focus on some of the key destinations
depicted in Lavery’s art from Scotland to Palm Springs.
Special features will be the works produced at Grez-sur-
Loing and Tangier – the first detailing a crucially
formative period that he claimed as his ‘happiest days’ in
France, while the second providing ample opportunities
to reassess the conventional tropes of Orientalism. Aside
from these areas of focus, there are on the spot studies
from Switzerland, Spain, Ireland and Italy, while cities
from Glasgow to London, Venice, Cannes and
New York are also represented. Such was the richness
and variety of Lavery’s work that Winston Churchill was
led to conclude that his artistic mentor, was a ‘plein-
airiste if ever there was one’.