Beschreibung:

Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941)
Signature: signed lower right; inscribed on label on reverse
Medium: oil on canvas laid on board
Size: 14 x 10in. (35.56 x 25.40cm) Provenance: The Artist, 1904; Miss Daphne Lonides, London; Christie's, London, 5 May 1950, lot 75; Private collection; Christie's, London, 10 May 2007, lot 114; The Taylor Gallery, Belfast; Private collection Exhibited: Berlin, Schulte's Gallery, 1904, catalogue not traced Literature: Kenneth McConkey, John Lavery A Painter and his World, Atelier Books, 2010, p. 88 (illustrated) In 1904 John Lavery's Printemps (Fig 1), a painting of Mary Auras recently acquired by the French State, was the toast of Paris. The 'British' painter's young model was the flower of Englishness at a time when anglomanie was in the air, and Britain a...Read more In 1904 John Lavery's Printemps (Fig 1), a painting of Mary Auras recently acquired by the French State, was the toast of Paris. The 'British' painter's young model was the flower of Englishness at a time when anglomanie was in the air, and Britain and France had secretly entered into an entente cordiale to thwart the territorial ambitions of the Kaiser. Lavery's Irish identity mattered less at the time than the fact that his model was actually German. As Arnold Bennett discovered when he met Lavery's friend, 'K', Mary was actually 'the rage of Berlin' and had 'received 5 proposals in three months'. (1) If expatriate British painters in Paris were envious of Lavery's success it was in part down to his beautiful model. (2) Fig 1 John Lavery Printemps, 1904, 191 x 123, Musée d'Orsay, Paris In 1901, Miss Auras was sixteen when she and Lavery were introduced in Unter den Linden by the wealthy young Westphalian painter, August Neven du Mont, for whom she had been posing. (3) She arrived at a time when he was at one of the high points in his career. Having left Glasgow and moved to London in 1896, he did not wish to build a British reputation, so much as to construct the springboard for an international career. Over the next two years, he and others planned the launch of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, and within a short time his works were being acquired for American, Belgian, German, Italian and French national and municipal galleries. Although the Royal Academy at first ignored him, he was awarded honorary membership of many European academies. During two seasons working in Berlin Miss Auras joined Lavery's entourage. She went on to model for Lavery for about six years, travelling with him to France and to Tangier where she met her future husband, an eccentric British army officer, Nigel d'Albini Black Hawkins. (4) In addition to Printemps she appeared in many of Lavery's full-length portraits including Mary with Roses 1902 (Johannesburg Art Gallery) Mary in Green 1903 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), Summer 1903 (Musée Rodin, Paris) and Mary in a Green Coat, 1903 (Bradford Art Gallery). It is however in smaller works such as Mary in Black that we experience a more intimate encounter with Lavery's flame-haired model. The painter's consummate ability to engage the spectator without recourse to studio props, fashionable dresses and expensive millinery is evident in its simplicity and directness. Mary's pensive gaze locks the viewer into a moment of quiet contemplation and provides an eloquent riposte to those critics who wanted to characterize the painter as a mere follower of Whistler. A contemporary label indicates that Mary in Black had been selected for the St Louis Purchase Exhibition in 1904, a show that became something of a cause célèbre. At a late stage, the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, the body responsible for coordinating the Irish pictures under the colonial administration, faced with a high insurance bill, removed its financial support and the exhibition was cancelled. (5) Sir Horace Plunkett and Hugh Lane then persuaded AG Temple to accept the assembled pictures for the first modern exhibition of Irish Art at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London. (6) Lavery who had shortened a show at