View source for John Lavery

{{Short description|Irish painter (1856–1941)}}
{{for-multi|the Northern Irish footballer|John Lavery (footballer, born 1919)|the English footballer|John Lavery (footballer, born 1877)}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| name             = John Lavery
| honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=GB|size=100%|RA|RSA|RHA}}
| image            = Unknown photographer - Portrait of Sir John Lavery (cropped).jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = Lavery in 1909
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1856|03|20}}
| birth_place      = [[Belfast]], [[County Antrim]], Ireland
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1941|01|10|1856|03|20}}
| death_place      = [[Kilmoganny]], [[County Kilkenny]], Ireland
| resting_place    = [[Putney Vale Cemetery]]
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| nationality      = Irish
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = Haldane Academy
| known_for        = portraits and wartime depictions
| notable_works    = 
| style            = 
| movement         = 
| spouse           = Kathleen MacDermott (1889–1891) <br>[[Hazel Lavery|Hazel Martyn]] (1909–1935)
| awards           = 
| elected          = 
| patrons          = 
| memorials        = 
| website          = 
| module           = 
}}

'''Sir John Lavery''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PPRUA|RA|RSA|RHA}} (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was an Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions.

==Life and career==

John Lavery was born in inner North [[Belfast]], on 20 March 1856 and baptised at [[St Patrick's Church, Belfast]]. While still a child, he moved to Scotland where he attended Haldane Academy in [[Glasgow]] in the 1870s.<ref name=":0" /> In 1878, he set up his own studio which was razed in a fire in the following year. With a £300 insurance pay-out, he spent a year studying at Heatherley's School in London.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Festival of Britain 1951 in Northern Ireland: official souvenir handbook|publisher=HR Carter Ltd|year=1951|location=Belfast|pages=70}}</ref> Lavery continued his studies at the [[Académie Julian]]<ref name=":0">{{Art UK bio|ref=1}}</ref> in Paris in the early 1880s. He returned to Glasgow and was associated with the [[Glasgow School]].<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=131 |isbn=}}</ref> [[William Burrell]], a wealthy shipowner, was a faithful patron of Scottish artists including [[Joseph Crawhall II]], with whom Lavery studied. In 1888, he was commissioned to paint the state visit of [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] to the [[1888 International Exhibition|Glasgow International Exhibition]]. This launched his career as a society painter and he moved to London soon after. In 1896, [[William Burrell]] commissioned Lavery to paint a portrait of his sister Mary Burrell. 
This portrait was exhibited widely and is considered one of Lavery's finest works. Another portrait of Mrs. Burrell was altered to become the "Red Rose" portrait of Hazel Lavery.
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 | image1    = John Lavery - Lady in Blue and White.jpg
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 | caption1  = Kathleen MacDermott - ''A Lady in Blue and White'', 1890 
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 | image3    = John Lavery - The Red Rose.jpg
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In his memoir, Lavery acknowledged Burrell's patronage.<ref>Lavery, John (1940) "The Life of a Painter" Boston: Little Brown {{ISBN|9789333100694}}</ref>

From 1910, he painted portraits of notable subjects including [[Winston Churchill]], [[H. H. Asquith]], [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]], and the Irish politicians [[John Redmond]] and [[Edward Carson]]. He also painted a number of naval pictures of the fleet at [[Scapa Flow]], which he presented to the [[Imperial War Museum]].<ref>{{EB1922|inline=y|title=Lavery, Sir John|volume=31|page=731|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri31chisrich/page/731/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref>

In London, Lavery became friendly with [[James McNeill Whistler]] and was clearly influenced by him.

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 (World War I)|Western Front]]. A serious car crash during a [[Zeppelin]] bombing raid also kept him from fulfilling this role as a war artist. He remained in Britain and mostly painted boats, aeroplanes and airships. During the war years, he was a close friend of the [[H.H. Asquith|Asquith]] family and spent time with them at their [[Sutton Courtenay]] Thames-side residence, painting their portraits and idyllic pictures like ''Summer on the River'' ([[Hugh Lane Gallery]]).

After the war he was knighted<ref>{{cite news|title=New Year Honours. The Official Lists., New Peers And Baronets., Long Roll of Soldiers (transcription)|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1918/Honours/New_Year#John_Lavery|work=[[The Times]]|location=London, UK|page=8; col B|date=1 January 1918|issue=41675|access-date=24 December 2008}}</ref> and in 1921 he was elected to the [[Royal Academy]]. His work was also part of the art competitions at the [[1924 Summer Olympics]], the [[1928 Summer Olympics]], and the [[1932 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920503|title=John Lavery |work=Olympedia |access-date=23 July 2020}}</ref> In the late 1920s, he selected the coral blue and silver colour scheme for the Empress Ballroom on the [[Clyde-Built Database|Clyde-built]] liner ''[[RMS Empress of Britain (1930)|Empress of Britain]]''.<ref>Peter, Bruce (2025), ''Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age'', [[Historic Environment Scotland]], p. 278, {{isbn|9781849173445}}</ref>

During this time, he and his wife, [[Hazel Lavery|Hazel]], were tangentially involved in the [[Irish War of Independence]] and the [[Irish Civil War]]. They gave the use of their London home to the Irish negotiators during the negotiations leading to the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]]. After [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]] was assassinated, Lavery painted ''Michael Collins, Love of Ireland'', now in the [[Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery]] in Dublin. In 1923 Lavery was commissioned by the newly established [[Irish Free State]] to design its new paper currency. The womans face on the Irish currency was that of his American born wife Hazel.<ref>De Breffny, pg. 131.</ref> In 1929, 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 Belfast]]. He was also made a [[Freedom of the City|freeman]] of both [[Dublin]] and [[Belfast]]. A long-standing member of [[Glasgow Art Club]], Lavery exhibited at the club's annual exhibitions, including its exhibition in 1939 in which his ''The Lake at Ranelagh'' was included.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zEZAAAAAIBAJ&pg=2550,117996&dq=glasgow+art+club&hl=en|title=The Glasgow Herald – Google News Archive Search}}</ref>

==Personal life==

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 | image2    = John Lavery (1856–1941) - Lady Lavery (1880–1935) - 1027 - Guildhall Art Gallery.jpg
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Lavery was an orphan raised by relatives in Moira, County Down. Lavery's first wife, Kathleen MacDermott, whom he married in 1889, died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1891, shortly after the birth of their daughter, Eileen (later [[William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill|Lady Sempill]], 1890–1935).

In 1909 Lavery remarried, to [[Hazel Lavery|Hazel Martyn]] (1886–1935), an Irish-American known for her beauty and poise, who had a daughter, Alice Trudeau (Mrs. Jack McEnery, from 1963 Mrs [[Denis Rolleston Gwynn]]) (1904-1991) from a previous marriage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCoole, Sinéad |title=Lavery, Hazel |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/gywnn-denis-rolleston-a3691 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy, John A. |title=Denis Rolleston Gwynn |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/gywnn-denis-rolleston-a3691 |access-date=2024-06-22 |website=Irish Dictionary of Biography}}</ref> Hazel Lavery was depicted in more than 400 of her husband's paintings. The sumptuous ''The Artist's Studio: Lady Lavery with her Daughter Alice and Step-Daughter Eileen'', is currently in the [[National Gallery of Ireland]].

Hazel Lavery modelled for [[national personification|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. The Laverys' marriage was tempestuous, and Lady Lavery rumoured to have been unfaithful.<ref name=Independent2006-07-16/>

Sir John Lavery died in [[Rossenarra House]], [[Kilmoganny]], County Kilkenny on 10 January 1941, aged 84, from natural causes, and was interred in [[Putney Vale Cemetery]].

==Works in collections==

*[[Aberdeen Art Gallery]]
*[[Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery]]
*The [[Burrell Collection]], Glasgow
**Portrait of Miss Mary Burrell
*[[Cecil Higgins Art Gallery|The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery]]
*[[Crawford Municipal Art Gallery|The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery]], Cork, including:
**''[[:File:TheRedRose.jpg|The Red Rose]]'' (1923)
*[[Guildhall Art Gallery|The Guildhall Art Gallery]], London
*[[The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery]], Dublin, including:
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20050115150920/http://www.hughlane.ie/collection/collDetail.asp?offset=19  ''Sutton Courtenay, (Summer on the River or The Wharf)'' (1917)]
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20050115151609/http://www.hughlane.ie/collection/collDetail.asp?offset=20 ''Japanese Switzerland'']
*The [[Imperial War Museum]]
*The [[Irish Museum of Modern Art]] (IMMA)
**''Miss [[Flora Lion]] in Her Oriental Costume'' Deaccessioned 2000
*[[Laing Art Gallery|The Laing Art Gallery]]
*[[The National Gallery of Ireland]], Dublin
*[[Rothe House]], Kilkenny
*[[National Museum of Serbia]], Belgrade
*[[Tate Gallery|The Tate Gallery]], London, including:
**''The Glasgow Exhibition 1888'' (1888)
**''The Chess Players'' (1929)
*The [[Ulster Museum]], Belfast
*The [[Walker Art Gallery]], Liverpool, including: "Hazel in Rose and Gold".

===Lavery on Location===
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The ''Lavery on Location'' [[Travelling exhibition|touring exhibition]] brought together works by Lavery to three national galleries for the first time.<ref name="LoL2">{{cite web|url=https://www.ulstermuseum.org/session/lavery-location|title=Lavery On Location|access-date=2024-10-05|work=[[Ulster Museum]]|archive-date=2024-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222143951/https://www.ulstermuseum.org/session/lavery-location|url-status=live}}</ref> 

*[[National Gallery of Ireland]], Dublin (7 October 2023{{en dash}}14 January 2024).<ref name="LoL1">{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/lavery-location|title=Lavery On Location|access-date=2024-10-05|work=[[National Gallery of Ireland]]|archive-date=2023-12-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210110539/https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/lavery-location |url-status=live}}</ref> 
*[[Ulster Museum]], Belfast (27 February{{en dash}}6 June 2024).<ref name="LoL2"/>
*[[Royal Scottish Academy]] (RSA), Edinburgh (20 July{{en dash}}27 October 2024).<ref name="LoL3">{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/irish-impressionist-lavery-location|title=An Irish Impressionist - Lavery on Location|access-date=2024-10-05|work=[[National Gallery of Ireland]]|archive-date=2024-07-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719044852/https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/irish-impressionist-lavery-location|url-status=live}}</ref> In the RSA the full name of the exhibition was ''An Irish Impressionist | Lavery on Location''.<ref name="LoL3"/>  
{{clear}}
<gallery mode=packed heights=168px caption="Wartime pictures">

File:John Lavery - IWM War Room.jpg|War Room – depicts surrender of the German High Seas Fleet on board of {{HMS|Queen Elizabeth|1913|6}} (November 1918)
File:Munitions, Newcastle, 1917 by John Lavery.jpg|Munitions, Newcastle, 1917
File:A Coast Defence - an 18-pounder anti-aircraft gun, Tyneside, 1917 by John Lavery.jpg|A Coast Defence – an 18-pounder anti-aircraft gun, Tyneside, 1917
File:A Convoy, North Sea, 1918. From Ns 7- painted from an airship off the coast of Norway Art.IWMART1257.jpg|A Convoy, North Sea, 1918
File:The Wounded At Dover, 1918 by John Lavery.jpg|The Wounded at Dover, 1918
File:Army Post Office 3, Boulogne, 1919 by John Lavery.jpg|Army Post Office 3, Boulogne, 1919
</gallery>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="133" caption="Other">
File:John Lavery - Sir Winston Churchill.jpg|Winston Churchill, 1915
File:Gaines Ruger Donoho by John Lavery.jpg|Gaines Ruger Donoho
File:The Tennis Party - Sir John Lavery - ABDAG002350.jpg|''The Tennis Party'', 1885, [[Aberdeen Art Gallery]]
File:SirJohnLaveryARally1885.jpg|Sir John Lavery, A Rally, 1885
File:Sir John Lavery (1856 - 1941) - Portrait of a Young Woman - ABDAG002497 - Aberdeen City Council (Archives, Gallery and Museums Collection).jpg|link=|''Portrait of a Young Woman'', 1888
File:Mrs Burrell, Lavery 1903.jpg|Portrait of [[Willoughby Burrell, 5th Baron Gwydyr|Mrs Burrell]]
File:Walter Burton Harris, Gemälde von Sir John Lavery (1907).jpg|[[Walter Burton Harris]], 1907
File:Mrs Lavery sketching.jpg|''Mrs Lavery sketching'', 1910
File:Lavery23.jpg|[[Mrs Ralph Peto]] as a Bacchante
File:Lavery32.jpg|Lady Lavery
File:John Lavery - A Summer Afternoon.jpg|A Summer Afternoon
File:John Lavery - On the Riviera.jpg|On the Riviera
File:The Opening of the Modern Foreign and Sargent Galleries at the Tate Gallery, 26 June 1926.JPG|The Opening of the Modern Foreign and Sargent Galleries at the Tate Gallery, 26 June 1926
File:The Chess Players, John Lavery (1929).jpg|The Chess Players, 1929
File:Evelyn Farquhar by John Lavery.jpg|Lady Evelyn Farquhar, 1906
</gallery>

==See also==

*[[List of Irish artists]]
*[[List of Orientalist artists]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Anna Pavlova]]

==References==

{{reflist|refs=<ref name=Independent2006-07-16>
{{Cite news|last=Tallant|first=Nicola|title=Collins didn't have affair with Lady Lavery: claim|newspaper=[[Irish Independent]]|date=16 July 2006|url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/collins-didnt-have-affair-with-lady-lavery-claim-132628.html|access-date=23 January 2011}}</ref>}}

==Further reading==

* Sinéad McCoole, "Hazel: A Life of Lady Lavery, 1880–1935", [[The Lilliput Press|Lilliput Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|1-874675-84-8}}
* Anne Millar Stewart (2003), "Lavery, Sir John" in Brian Lalor (Ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of Ireland''. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. {{ISBN|0-7171-3000-2}}
* Sinéad McCoole (2003), "Lavery, Hazel, Lady" in Brian Lalor (Ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of Ireland''. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. {{ISBN|0-7171-3000-2}}
* {{cite TIWW |article=Lavery, Sir John |page=132 }}

==External links==

{{commons category|John Lavery}}
{{EB1911 poster|Lavery, John}}
* {{Art UK bio}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041227193229/http://phryne.com/artists/54-71-72.HTM Biography]
*[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/lavery_sir_john.html John Lavery at artcyclopedia.com]
*[http://www.jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/John_Lavery/John_Lavery.htm John Lavery at the JSS Virtual Gallery]
*[http://www.clenaghans.com A Restaurant dedicated to Sir John Lavery.]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080501044510/http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/sirjohnlavery.htm Sir John Lavery Biography]
*John Lavery, [https://archive.org/stream/lifeofapainter000666mbp ''The Life of a Painter''] (1940 autobiography).
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLpzlteNbO4 Images from his autobiography ''The Life of a Painter''] (at YouTube.com)
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavery, John}}
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1941 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish painters]]
[[Category:Irish knights]]
[[Category:Irish male painters]]
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art]]
[[Category:Artists from Belfast]]
[[Category:British people of World War I]]
[[Category:Burials at Putney Vale Cemetery]]
[[Category:Glasgow School]]
[[Category:Irish Impressionist painters]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Irish portrait painters]]
[[Category:Royal Academicians]]
[[Category:Art competitors at the 1928 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Ulster Academy]]
[[Category:Society of Eight]]
[[Category:Olympic artists for Ireland]]
[[Category:Art competitors at the 1932 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Art competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:People from New Lodge, Belfast]]