Lot 127
SIR JOHN LAVERY R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A., P.R.P., H.R.O.I., L.L.B. (IRISH 1856-1941)
A MOROCCAN GIRL
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale ft. A Century of Scottish Colourists | Lots 88 to 168 | Thursday 04 June 2026 from 6pm
Description
Signed and dated ’92, oil on canvas
Dimensions
24.5cm x 17.75cm (10in x 7in)
Provenance
Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow c.1995 from whom acquired by the present owner, a member of the artist's family
Exhibited: Possibly Thomas Lawrie & Son, Glasgow, Pictures of Spain and Morocco by John Lavery, October 1893
Footnote
When he left the city in the spring of 1891, Tangier, for John Lavery, was unfinished business and he was determined to return. From the Hotel Continental ‘a vista of flat white roofs,’ rose before him,
… and all the roofs were absolutely alive with figures; women unveiled and robed in brilliant silks, children playing and running around them, black slaves busied in service, pet of every kind … all visibly enjoying that cool, delicious hour of sunset … the whole interior of Moorish life … suddenly unfolded … a vision which scarcely the most privileged European may hope to behold …
As he surveyed the Kasbah Lavery concluded that this vision required deeper penetration.
Within its hubbub he discerned the plaintive sounds of the oud (lute) and bendir (snare drum), drawing him to one of the oldest of Eastern subjects, with a strong appeal to western collectors. He knew from his friends, Harrington Mann, Joseph Crawhall and Arthur Melville that the dance rituals accompanying such sounds, were strictly private, yet unlike other North African towns, in cosmopolitan Tangier - of great strategic importance to the ‘Great Powers’ of Europe and north America - more relaxed attitudes were sometimes possible (fig 2).
Young women would furtively shed their modesty, remove their face-veils and pose for the painter. Speed, nevertheless, was of the essence, for this remained a covert activity with possible jeopardy. Lavery’s objective, discussed with his Glasgow dealer, Thomas Lawrie, was to paint A Moorish Dance (Private Collection), a large canvas for the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1893. For this he required eye-witness notes of musicians to accompany the principal dancer. Two groups of sketches supported this project in the 1892 visit – one in which the dancer is dressed a white jellabiya, while in the second she wears a green kaftan trimmed in gold brocade, as in A Moroccan Girl.
There is great satisfaction in the ‘blocking-in’ of costume, and the mastery with which the girl’s features are caught in a trice. The richer palette of greens and golds was preferred for the Academy painting, while in October 1893 all the recent sketches – fifty in total, shown as ‘pictures of Spain and Morocco’ - were brought together for an exhibition at Lawrie’s Gallery in St Vincent Street, Glasgow. A critical success, The Glasgow Herald praised the ‘charm of truth and spontaneity’ in the works, concluding that the show’s accumulated effect ‘was a liberal education’. A Moroccan Girl is likely to have been one of the fifty.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for writing this catalogue entry.