Of all the artists featured in this exhibition Sir John Lavery enjoyed the greatest fame and successes.
By the end of his life Lavery was internationally renowned, had exhibited widely, and had painted many of the most famous and most important people in Britain and further afield. Originally enlisted in the First World War, he ended it as an Official War Artist and created some of its most enduring images. On of the 'Glasgow Boys', Lavery played a leading role in the first real Scottish art movement. But he had also turned from immigrant to emigrantstating that he had ‘outgrown Glasgow,’ and in 1896 left Scotland for London where he settled for the remainder of his life.
Beset with personal tragedies, Lavery was orphaned at the age of three, but having spent an ‘idyllic’ seven years on a relative’s farm in Ireland, Lavery came to Scotland at the age of 10.[1]
to work in a pawnbroker’s business in Saltcoatsrun by a cousin of the aunt who had raised him. He spent five years there before running off to Glasgow, where he found some work but never settled and had to return to his uncle’s farm in Ireland for a further two years. Lavery then returned to Saltcoats and began working with a photographic re-toucher in Glasgow.
Once settled in Glasgow Lavery began attending classes at the Glasgow School of Art and Haldane Academy. From therehe spent the winter term of 1879-80 at Heatherley’s Art School in London, before moving on to Paris where in 1881 he enrolled at the Atelier Julian and augmented his day studies there with evening life classes at Colarossi’s studio.
With some of his fellow students and other artists, Lavery spent much of 1883 and 1884 painting in the tranquil riverside village of Grez-sur-Loing before returning to Glasgow. He had aspired to study at l’Ecole des Beaux Artes in Paris, but had to return after examinations in language and history were introduced for foreign students seeking study there.
In Glasgow, Lavery became involved with the 'Glasgow Boys' whose radicalism he had already recognised as being at the forefront of British Art. Possibly with the experience of his own time in France, and contrary to the Scottish peasant and land worker focus of fellow 'Boys' Guthrie and Waltonhe recognised that his route lay in adapting naturalism and plein air painting in portraying the bourgeoisie at their leisure be that indoors reading a book by the fire or outdoors playing the then still novel game of lawn tennis.
Lavery avoided becoming too reliant on the West of Scotland however and maintained his artistic contacts south of the border, contributing to London exhibitions. One of these, the Society of British Artists, brought him into contact with Whistler who would remain an important influence. He also made return visits to Paris and in 1890 was one of those invited to exhibit in the ‘Scotch Gallery’ at the Munich Glaspalast exhibition.
Lavery’s participation in the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1888not only provided him with a major commission [2]but also showed his skills as an informal recorder of major large-scale events. This paved the way for later works and commissions connected with his time as official war artist during the First World War, and subsequently.
Through all his endeavours Lavery’s work became widely known and as an established society portrait painter he enjoyed commissions from both sides of the Atlantic.
By his own admission Lavery was not a theorist. Nor was he avant garde or truly radical. He was a people person who made friends easily across social strata and political and religious divides. He was an observer who understood the market and the wishes of his public and was blessed with the technical ability (at times panache) to carry these into effect.
He was one of several West coast artists elected to the Royal Scottish Academy around the fin de siècle. His rise through our ranks remains one of the swiftest recorded; elected to Associate rank in 1892 and to full Academician status just four years later.[3]
In 1896 Lavery deposited his oil painting The Rocking Chair as his Diploma Work and in 1929 the Academy purchased his oil of Stephen Donaghue in the King’s Colours from that year’s Annual Exhibition through the Thorburn Ross Memorial Fund. For his all too brief presence in the Academy’s midst Lavery today remains one of the most finely represented of our Academicians.
- Robin Rodger, Documentation Officer
[1] Lavery’s father Henry was one of 386 passengers and crew who were lost when the clipper Pomona bound for New York was wrecked 9 miles off Wexford on 27 April 1859. Three months later Lavery’s mother Mary died in childbirth.
[2] Lavery, George Henry, A E Walton and [Sir] James Guthrie were commissioned to execute a series of allegorical panels representing Science, Industry, Art an Agriculture to decorate the interior of the 150-foot high dome of the Grand Hall, for which Lavery was paid £600.
[3] Lavery was elected an Associate Academician at a General Assembly on 30 March 1892 alongside John Rhind, Archibald D Reid, William Leiper, George Washington Browne, Pollok S Nisbet, Alexander K Brown, Hippolyte J Blanc, George Henry, Robert Noble, James Pittendrigh Macgillivray and John Honeyman. Seven of these 12 were Glasgow based. After the first round of balloting of the 46 nominees John Rhind came top with 30 votes followed by A D Reid on 29 with Lavery and G Washington Browne tied with 26 votes each. Rhind then beat Reid 18-13, Lavery then beat Browne 17-14 to face Reid who beat him by the same margin 17-14. Lavery and Browne were then balloted against each other a second time with Lavery emerging winner by 19-12 and was duly elected. RSA General Assembly Minute Book 24 November 1891-20 March 1940, (RSA Archives 1.11.6.4)
In 1896 after the first round Lavery secured 35 votes to G O Reid’s 7. The two were then balloted between with Lavery emerging victor by 33-9 and was duly elected to fill the single vacancy. RSA General Assembly Minute Book 24 November 1891-20 March 1940, (RSA Archives 1.11.6.4)
Between 1897 and 1901 Lavery proposed R M J Coventry and Joseph Henderson and seconded the nominations of D Y Cameron, William Kennedy, Joseph Henderson, James S Christie, Tom McEwan, W Y Macgregor, R Macaulay Stevenson, John Campbell, John Keppie, George Pirie, David Fulton, Robert Lorimer and Edwin Alexander for election as Associate members of the RSA. With the exception of the last two named all were based in Glasgow or the West of Scotland. After his remove to London Lavery made no further contributions in this sphere. RSA Nomination Books for Election to Associate Rank 1887-1901 (RSA Archives 1.12.1).
Lavery’s name is largely absent from our records; he never served on RSA Council. At General Assembly on 12 February 1902 George Washington Wilson was elected Academician in place of Lavery who had by then become resident in London.[RSA Annual Report, 1902, notice II). On 3 January 1918 the good wishes of the Academy were conveyed to Lavery on his knighthood [RSA Annual Report 1918, notice IX] and in 1941 he was represented by a Memorial Tribute comprising five paintings in our Annual Exhibition and a glowing Obituary recorded his achievements in our Annual Report.
