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Lot Essay
Throughout his career Lavery painted a large number of gardens and garden parties in Morocco, France, Scotland and England. These often contain elements of classical architecture and statuary, and they evoke an idyllic world of house parties and long weekends. As Hazel Lavery noted in a letter in 1928, the painter never regarded these occasions as anything more than a working holiday when, without tipping into pastiche, he confronted the contemporary equivalent of the world of Watteau. The secretive gardens of Tangier, Fez and Marrakesh appealed to his taste for the exotic in that their owners, sometimes European expatriates, would combine elements of the classical past with Moorish vernacular architecture. Replica classical sculptures occasionally appeared in North African gardens. In essence there was no contradiction in this since the coastal ribbon of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco had been part of the Roman Empire.
We know from other small paintings that Lavery's friend, The Times correspondent, Walter Harris, had a garden with a circular pool of similar dimensions to that portrayed in In the Garden, Tangier. Although the resplendent Villa Harris was painted around 1907, it is not inconceivable that Lavery returned to it on his visit in 1912. The classical statue which acts as a focal point to the composition is a replica of Diana the Huntress, (Musée du Louvre, Paris). It shows Diana leading a young stag while reaching for an arrow from the quiver on her back. The sculpture's early history, prior to its arrival in France in the late sixteenth century is undocumented. It was first installed at Fontainbleau and copied in bronze as a fountain ornament, before being transferred to the Grande Gallerie at Versailles by Louis XIV. The classicall original was returned to Paris during the Revolution and after the opening of the Louvre, it quickly acquired an international reputation similar to that of the Apollo Belvedere. In the eighteenth century a further copy was erected on the edge of the central basin at St Cloud - an arrangement which through prints and photographs, may have inspired the present setting, albeit in much-reduced form. In Lavery's day, photographs and prints of the royal domains of Versailles, St Cloud and Fontainbleau by Eugène Atget and others were widely circulated and discussed by garden designers. By the end of the century such was Diana's renown that the sculpture was included in cast sets distributed to provincial museums and art schools. The figure by the pool remains unidentified.
Lavery gave this work to Thomas Sinclair of Lisburn, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, in circumstances that remain obscure. Sinclair was a staunch Ulster Protestant and a signatory to the Ulster Covenant in that year. The Covenant was the first important public demonstration that Protestants rejected Home Rule for Ireland. Given Lavery's catholic background, the gift seems all the more surprising, although we should not assume that the dating of the work relates directly to the gift. Public Record Office files for the period relate that Sinclair, who lived at 'Roslyn' on the Antrim Road, Lisburn, appears to have begun his career working for the Poor Law Union for which his father, Thomas Sinclair, was Clerk. Elsewhere he is listed as a businessman in nearby Belfast. He was chairman of the Lisburn Urban District Council in 1918 and ended his days as magistrate and Justice of the Peace.
We are very grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for providing the catalogue entry for lots 141-143.
We know from other small paintings that Lavery's friend, The Times correspondent, Walter Harris, had a garden with a circular pool of similar dimensions to that portrayed in In the Garden, Tangier. Although the resplendent Villa Harris was painted around 1907, it is not inconceivable that Lavery returned to it on his visit in 1912. The classical statue which acts as a focal point to the composition is a replica of Diana the Huntress, (Musée du Louvre, Paris). It shows Diana leading a young stag while reaching for an arrow from the quiver on her back. The sculpture's early history, prior to its arrival in France in the late sixteenth century is undocumented. It was first installed at Fontainbleau and copied in bronze as a fountain ornament, before being transferred to the Grande Gallerie at Versailles by Louis XIV. The classicall original was returned to Paris during the Revolution and after the opening of the Louvre, it quickly acquired an international reputation similar to that of the Apollo Belvedere. In the eighteenth century a further copy was erected on the edge of the central basin at St Cloud - an arrangement which through prints and photographs, may have inspired the present setting, albeit in much-reduced form. In Lavery's day, photographs and prints of the royal domains of Versailles, St Cloud and Fontainbleau by Eugène Atget and others were widely circulated and discussed by garden designers. By the end of the century such was Diana's renown that the sculpture was included in cast sets distributed to provincial museums and art schools. The figure by the pool remains unidentified.
Lavery gave this work to Thomas Sinclair of Lisburn, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, in circumstances that remain obscure. Sinclair was a staunch Ulster Protestant and a signatory to the Ulster Covenant in that year. The Covenant was the first important public demonstration that Protestants rejected Home Rule for Ireland. Given Lavery's catholic background, the gift seems all the more surprising, although we should not assume that the dating of the work relates directly to the gift. Public Record Office files for the period relate that Sinclair, who lived at 'Roslyn' on the Antrim Road, Lisburn, appears to have begun his career working for the Poor Law Union for which his father, Thomas Sinclair, was Clerk. Elsewhere he is listed as a businessman in nearby Belfast. He was chairman of the Lisburn Urban District Council in 1918 and ended his days as magistrate and Justice of the Peace.
We are very grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for providing the catalogue entry for lots 141-143.