International studio (53.1914)

John Lavery, R.S.A., A.RA.



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“winter” (1913) BY JOHN LAVERY, R.S.A., A.R.A.

of the Lady Gwendoline Churchill, and of his well-
known Hely-Hutchinson group convinces one of this.
There is no fumbling with the brush. The pre-
liminary experiment has been in the brain, not on
the canvas. The taste—pictorial, and in its wider
meaning—is unerring. The sense of tone is
delicate and fine, his flair for elegance more
marked than in any other contemporary painter
and in his greater triumphs, such as the Princess
Patricia and The Silver Turban, captivates the
observer. Placing his sitter unerringly on the
canvas, his delicate colour harmony, his sense
of romance in the presentment, his dexterous
handling of tonal difficulties, and his masterly sense
of pose, result in Mr. Lavery being, if nothing else,
a great picture-builder.
The delight which the artist has shown in these
studies in colour harmony for which he is so
famous, such as Spring in the Luxembourg Collec-

tion, The Lady in Black in the National Gallery,
Brussels, and The Green Coat, convinces us that Mr.
Lavery is ever obsessed by the colour possibilities
of his models. He sees the colour metier of his
sitters at a glance and weaves them into a harmony
of paint with unerring skill. Being an artist in love
with nature, careless of the vogue of schools and
scholastic traditions, he approaches art with “joy”—
there is no mistaking that. If there be spade work
of the mind or brush it is never evident. The sense
of spontaneity and enthusiasm is ever prevalent.
However unpromising the material, his painter’s eye
finds out any quality of colour and grace of form it
may possess. Keeping his artist’s soul aloof—more
aloof than most painters do—from the dominating
assertiveness of his sitter, he gives a facile
expression to his own vision. He may be charged
with taking but a superficial interest in the psycho-
logy of his sitter, allowing his decorative and
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