Sir John Lavery

Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941) was primarily a painter of society portraits and contemporary scenes. He studied in Glasgow, London, and then in the early 1880s in Paris. Between 1885 and 1896 he lived mainly in Glasgow, where he knew the artists known as the Glasgow Boys, sharing an interest in their subjects of modern life. He is sometimes referred to as the ‘Belfast-born Glasgow Boy'. His later career was spent between London and Morocco, where he acquired a villa, surrounded by beautiful gardens.

In 1888, he was commissioned to paint the state visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition. This launched his career as a society painter and he moved to London soon after, where he met James McNeill Whistler who clearly influenced Lavery's work. In 1896, he was commissioned by William Burrell (the Glasgow collector) to paint a portrait of his sister. This portrait was exhibited widely and is considered one of Lavery's finest works.

From 1910, he painted portraits of notable figures including Winston Churchill, H. H. Asquith, Lord Derby, and the Irish politicians John Redmond and Edward Carson. He also painted a number of naval pictures of the fleet at Scapa Flow, which he presented to the Imperial War Museum. He was appointed an official artist in the First World War, however due to ill-health he remained in Britain, painting boats, aeroplanes and airships.

After the war he was knighted and in 1921 he was elected to the Royal Academy. His work was also part of the art competitions at the Summer Olympics in 1924, 1928 and 1932. A long-standing member of Glasgow Art Club, Lavery exhibited at the club's annual exhibitions. His work is in many public collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery; Glasgow Museums Collections; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork; The Imperial War Museum, London; The Irish Museum of Modern Art; The Laing Art Gallery and The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade; The Tate Gallery, London; The Ulster Museum, Belfast; The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.