Sir John Lavery stands as one of the most internationally celebrated painters associated with the Glasgow Boys and, later, a key figure in British and Irish art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Renowned for his society portraiture, elegant genre scenes, and evocative landscapes, Lavery’s career was one of remarkable range and sustained success. He was also among the few Glasgow Boys to gain major recognition during his lifetime both in the UK and abroad, carving a path from realist beginnings to high society portraiture, all while maintaining a deep connection to Ireland, his country of birth.
Born in Belfast in 1856, Lavery was orphaned at an early age and sent to live with relatives in Scotland. His artistic training began in Glasgow, followed by studies at the Académie Julian in Paris. It was in France that he absorbed the principles of the Realist and Naturalist movements, particularly the work of Bastien-Lepage, and adopted plein air techniques that would align him with the ethos of the Glasgow Boys. After three years in France, Lavery returned to Glasgow with canvases depicting the daily life of the rural commune of Grez-sur-Loing. Having left a city in the doldrums in 1881, he found on his return that Glasgow was booming once more, and he quickly realised that the life and leisure pursuits of its wealthy middle class opened up more exciting artistic possibilities than rustic subjects drawn from landscape.
There was also greater tolerance for a range of media in the west of Scotland. Less respected in France than in Britain, watercolour painting, led by his friends Joseph Crawhall, Arthur Melville and Edward Arthur Walton, was an important art form attracting critical attention, and one Lavery quickly mastered for major works such as A Rally (1885, Glasgow Museums). His early Scottish works often feature quiet, observational scenes rendered with clarity and restraint, such as The Tennis Party (1885), which combines naturalistic detail with a growing interest in modern leisure and composition.
Lavery’s technical versatility and social ease eventually drew him towards portraiture, a genre in which he would come to excel. By 1900, two years after his move to London, his career as a portrait painter had flourished. Crowned by the purchase of Père et Fille (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) by the French government, his work was now represented in public collections across Europe and the United States. Only in London did he experience resistance from the Academic establishment, particularly when, as Vice-President and prime mover of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, he worked in close association with James McNeill Whistler to champion Impressionism, Symbolism and other radical tendencies alongside his Glasgow contemporaries.
At the society’s third exhibition in 1901, Lavery’s most important work was the dramatic profile portrait of the American actor Cora Brown-Potter. This striking image likely began as a small oil sketch - swift notes that familiarised the artist with his sitter, and which he often gifted after sittings.
Lavery’s reputation continued to grow. He became one of the most sought-after portraitists in Europe, depicting figures such as Winston Churchill, King George V, and Pope Pius XI. His appointment as the official artist to the British government during the First World War further solidified his status. Despite his fame as a London society painter, Lavery remained deeply connected to Ireland throughout his life. He was an advocate for Irish Home Rule and produced numerous paintings of Irish landscapes and political figures. His portrait of his wife, Hazel Lavery, whose likeness was famously used to represent Ireland on banknotes from 1928 to 1977, has become one of the most iconic images in Irish visual culture.
Following the death of his daughter, Eileen, Lady Sempill, in 1935, Lavery’s granddaughter, Ann Forbes-Sempill, came to live with him at his Kensington home, 5 Cromwell Place. Then in her mid-teens, Ann’s lively conversations and enthusiasm for the latest Hollywood films inspired the octogenarian artist to see the studios for himself. In January 1936, he visited the MGM lot in Los Angeles, where Romeo and Juliet starring Leslie Howard and Moira Shearer was being filmed. There, he made a series of rapid oil sketches capturing the bustle of the set, including garden and death scenes, each produced in a matter of minutes amidst the controlled chaos of production. These works, filled with immediacy and colour, reveal Lavery’s enduring curiosity and adaptability, even in his eightieth year.
Sir John Lavery was knighted in 1918 and became a member of both the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy. His work is represented in major public collections including the Tate, the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Portrait Gallery, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Ulster Museum.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for writing this artist bio.
