Lavery, Sir John

Lavery, Sir John (1856–1941), portrait and landscape painter. Born in Belfast, he was educated in Glasgow, London, and at the Académie Julian, Paris. In 1883 he paid the first of many visits to Grez‐sur‐Loing, south of Paris, where he was influenced by plein air painting, then much in vogue. A year later he was back in Glasgow and was associated with the group of avant‐garde painters subsequently celebrated as ‘The Glasgow Boys’. This marked the beginning of his meteoric rise to fame, a success that dazzled even Lavery himself. In 1888 he was commissioned to paint the royal visit to the International Exhibition in Glasgow. The commission comprised more than 200 portraits, including that of the queen, thus establishing him as a society portrait painter. In 1896 he settled in London, remaining there till near the end of his life. During the First World War Lavery was appointed an official war artist with the Royal Navy and afterwards was knighted for his work. He was elected an academician of the Royal Academy in 1921. His portrait of his second wife Hazel (1880–1935) as Kathleen Ni Houlihan, personification of Ireland, was used on Irish banknotes up to the 1970s. Hazel, Lady Lavery, also entered popular legend for a supposed liaison with Michael Collins during the negotiation of the Anglo‐Irish treaty. Following her death Lavery spent much time with his stepdaughter in Ireland.

Bibliography

McConkey, Kenneth , Sir John Lavery (1993)

S. B. Kennedy