Be Inspired - Sir John Lavery

Irish painter Sir John Lavery was particularly skilled at his quick oil sketches that captured the mood, and his series of oil sketches depicting modern life and crowded scenes which exhibited at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888 caught plenty of attention. It was these sketches that awarded him the commission to paint the state visit of Queen Victoria to the exhibition which then launched his career as a society painter.

After moving to London, he was able to paint Lords, Earls, Prime Ministers, Ballerinas and more, including being commissioned to paint the Royal Family again in 1912. His success and notoriety only increased as was appointed an official artist in the First World War but ill health and a car crash limited his abilities. He was knighted after the war, elected to the Royal Academy in 1924 and his artworks regularly featured on the cover of Country Life magazine.

Growing up an orphan and in poverty, Lavery’s early career was not one that afforded him with plenty of opportunities. In fact, he was pleased that the studio that he set up in 1878 was destroyed in a fire only a year later as the insurance payout allowed him to travel and study in London and Paris. As he began to succeed, he continued to travel, always bringing his painter’s kit along with him; this sunshiney collection of artwork includes some of his most summery travels. First visiting Morocco in 1890, he visited again several times in the first two decades of the twentieth century, particularly Tangiers, as he was fascinated by the strong light and brilliant colours.

Particularly famed for his depictions of beautiful women, he frequently depicted summery scenes of gorgeous women in his many visits to the South of France, even travelling as far as Palm Springs. These striking summery outdoor paintings prove why Winston Churchill called Lavery a ‘plein-airiste if there ever was one’.