IN the late 1860s, when John Lavery ran away to Glasgow, he was so poor that he scavenged scraps of food from the streets and washed them in fountains. By the age of 32, he had won a gold medal at the Paris Salon and been commissioned to paint Queen Victoria. He would become a Society portraitist of international renown, whose cosmopolitan lifestyle echoed that of his patrons.
As Lavery scholar Kenneth McConkey has observed, it seems the artist lived more than one life. This is a theme of the new exhibition Prof McConkey has co-curated. 'Lavery. On Location' takes us from Ireland to California, encountering along the way Lavery the French naturalist, the Glasgow Boy, the Orientalist; Lavery the war artist and Irish mediator; Lavery the painter of portraits, landscapes and historical events; and Lavery the globetrotting observer of modern life.
It's an impressive trajectory for the son of a failed wine merchant from Catholic Belfast. Orphaned when he was three, Lavery lived on his uncle's Ulster farm until, aged 10, he was shipped off to Ayrshire to stay with another relation who ran a pawn shop. He escaped to Glasgow, where he shared dosshouse mattresses, ate at food depots and took menial jobs. Familiar only with gaudy lithographs, he became obsessed by drawing, for which he was given 'the first words of encouragement I had ever known'. He got an apprenticeship colouring photographs, attended classes at the Glasgow School of Art and, in about 1876, set himself up as an artist.
Lavery was pleased when his studio burnt down, as the insurance payment enabled him to pursue his studies in London and Paris. He later regretted that his lack of French hampered any chances of getting immersed in the Parisian art scene, although he claimed to have had a painting hung beside Manet's Bar at the Folie Bergères at the 1883 Paris Salon.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 21, 2024 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 21, 2024 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Don't rain on Venus's parade
TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying.
A rural reason to cheer
THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious King’s Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.
My heart is in the Highlands
A LISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest— and among his most ambitious in scope—he juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdair’s great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, ‘larch strakes swept up to a high prow’, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.
Put it in print
Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca
The rake's progress
Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astley’s fortune, but also swayed ‘le Titien Anglois’ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side
Charter me this
There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and one of the most exciting ways to see it is from the water, says Emma Love, who rounds up the best boat charters
Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to sow we go
JUNE can be a tricky month for the gardener.
Floreat Etona
The link with the school and horticulture goes back to its royal founder, finds George Plumptre on a visit to the recently restored gardens
All in good time
Two decades in the planning, The Emory, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, is open. Think of it as a sieve that retains the best of contemporary hotel-keeping and lets the empty banality flow away
Come on down, the water's fine
Ratty might have preferred a picnic, but canalside fine dining is proving the key to success for new restaurant openings in east London today, finds Gilly Hopper