Description
Signed, inscribed verso 'To Betty with 'The President's' compliments and good wishes', S.Cromwell Rd, Sept. 1910, oil on canvas
Dimensions
60cm x 41cm (23.5in x 16in)
Footnote
Exhibited:London, Goupil Gallery, Oil Paintings by John Lavery RSA, RHA, 1908, no 10 (?) as Betty
Note:Lavery would often begin a portrait by working on a small scale - experimenting with poses and colour schemes. On occasions he also produced a swift head study to familiarize himself with a sitter's features. Long experience had taught him to act quickly if he wished to capture the essence of a personality. In an age when high aesthetic value was placed upon the fleeting glimpse, he was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sargent, Blanche and Boldini, the masters of what Sickert dubbed 'wriggle and chiffon' painting. There is however, no coy 'come hither' posturing in the present study of a woman who holds the painter's eye with calm concentration. Delicate modelling of the eyes and mouth is complemented by staccato notation of the sitter's dress and lace collar.
Unfailingly generous, Lavery would frequently present his sketches to friends, clients and sitters, often inscribed on the reverse with personal dedications, as mementoes of what were sometimes chaotic experiences. The painter's busy work room, if RB Cunninghame Graham is to be believed, was sometimes filled with animated chatter '… scents, noise, confusion …' as dealers, framers, friends and fellow artists came and went. With his model posed on a dais, or 'throne', Lavery practiced his craft oblivious to the throng. In the present case, both the identity of the sitter and the meaning of the inscription remain obscure.
One other portrait of this particular model is known, primarily from Walter Shaw Sparrow's monograph on the painter. Up to this point, it has been assumed that this picture, Betty - A Portrait Study, was that shown at the Goupil Gallery in 1908. However with the appearance of the newly discovered Betty, this must now be questioned. An extensive search of the portraits of the period has yet to tell us with certainty who she was. It is possible that she too was a painter - Betty Fagan, an artist who exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters of which Lavery was a prominent member. In May 1910 he had hosted the society's council meeting in his studio at 5 Cromwell Place, when JJ Shannon was voted in as its new president. It is possible that, despite his reluctance, Betty Fagan had been campaigning on Lavery's behalf. He was currently the subject of a major retrospective at the 1910 Venice Biennale and had been collecting international honours for a number of years and since 1902, a campaign had been waged in the press to secure his admission to the Royal Academy. Although he was not immune to flattery, it is unlikely that a presidency would have appealed to him at this point.
In 1910, Lavery's reputation abroad was greater than that at home. Prominent sitters' commissioned portraits were clearly named and accounted for in exhibition reviews. Models and friends, 'Mary', 'Idonea', 'Phyllis' and in this instance, 'Betty', are often only identified by a single Christian name. Dropping into the studio they were seized from the melée, placed on the 'throne' and painted.
We are grateful to Dr Kenneth MConkey for his help in the preparation of this entry.