Lot 65
SIR JOHN LAVERY R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A., P.R.P., H.R.O.I., L.L.B. (IRISH 1856-1941)
WATERFALL, THE GLEN
Estimate: £70,000 - £100,000
Auction: 26 September 2024 From 18:00 BST
Description
Signed and dated 1886, oil on canvas
Dimensions
61cm x 46cm (24in x 18in)
Provenance
Fulton Bequest, 1933.
Footnote
Exhibited:
Paisley, Clark Hall, Portraits, Pictures and Sketches Painted in the Neighbourhood, November 1886, (? uncatalogued exhibition);
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, The Discovery of Scotland, 1978, no11.7;
St Andrews, Crawford Art Centre, John Lavery: The Early Career, 1880-1895,1983, no.9;
Hankyu Department Store, Umeda Main Store, Osaka, Japan, The Beautiful Landscape of Scotland, 11-16 November 1983; touring to Tenmaya Department Store, Okayama Main Store, Okayama, Japan, 18-23 November 1983;
Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society, Sir John Lavery RA, 1856-1941, 1984, no 22 and tour to London, The Fine Art Society, Belfast, Ulster Museum, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland;
Paisley, Paisley Museum & Art Galleries, A Paisley Legacy: The Paisley Art Institute Collection, 2015, no.28.
Literature:
McConkey, Kenneth, John Lavery, A Painter and his World, Atelier Books, Edinburgh, 2010, p.214, note 118.
During 1884, the last of his student years in France, John Lavery was keen to prepare for a triumphant return to Scotland, sending recent works to exhibitions in Paisley, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Kilmarnock. His continental mannerisms brought him to the attention of collectors and fellow painters alike, and among these was Joseph Fulton, co-owner of a large cloth scouring, finishing and dyeing works, inherited from his grandfather. The family was one of Paisley’s biggest employers. The Fultons lived in some style at Glenfield House, a baronial mansion built in 1859, on an estate overlooking the town. There, three small dams were constructed to supply soft water to the family firm from burns that flowed from the nearby Gleniffer Braes. The mill-owner offered Lavery a cottage adjacent to one of these ponds, close to the house, to act as his studio while he painted the portraits of his daughters (Paisley Museum), and other works in the district.[1]
These included scenes in the Paisley suburbs and views of the braes, including the Craigielinn waterfall, the subject of the present work. The Parasol (Private Collection), a watercolour of 1885 indicates that the artist was already familiar with the woodland paths leading to the site.[2]
Lavery was no stranger to such an environment. Many recent canvases had been executed en plein air in the forest of Fontainebleau, within walking distance of his hotel at Grez-sur-Loing. One of these was even inscribed as an ‘Impression’, indicating his awareness of the work of the French Impressionists.[3] However, Lavery’s malleable approach to handling also embraced possibilities he found in the work of Bastien-Lepage. Specifically, this alluded first and foremost to massing the essential shapes and forms of the composition, adroitly placing the figure as a focal point for the beholder’s eye, and mapping colour and tone transitions, before attending to detail. These essential tenets derived from modern French ‘Naturalism’ are evident in the Waterfall: The Glen composition.
Even today, after nearly 140 years, one can see that Lavery was faithful to the setting. Back then, crystal pure tumbling waterfalls, sometimes incorporating a female bather, had been used to symbolise the source of human life – as in Gustave Courbet’s La Source 1868 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Lavery’s female figure, picking her steps down the ravine, carries none of this allegory. She is simply there, before us, as we turn a corner. Muse? Motif? Or chance encounter? She gives scale to this fold in the terrain with its sounding cataract.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for writing this catalogue entry.
[1] Thereafter, what was originally ‘Burn Crook’, became known as ‘Lavery Cottage’. The Pond at the Glen, Paisley, represents the view of Glenfield House a few steps from Lavery’s cottage (both now demolished). During these years Lavery also maintained a studio in St Vincent Street, Glasgow, in what might be described as the artists’ quarter, in close proximity to Glasgow Art Club, of which he was a member.
[2] For The Parasol, see Ulster Museum and Fine Art Society, Sir John Lavery RA 1856-1941, 1984, no. 18.
[3] Lavery’s An Impression dans la sous bois [sic], 1884 was sold at Christie’s, 10 May 2007 (essay by Kenneth McConkey).
