.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Lavery acted as informal artist-in-residence at the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1888. During the summer months of that year he produced over 50 small oil paintings of the crowds, the sideshows, the military tattoo, and - the most important event - the visit of Her Majesty the Queen to the Exhibition. The immediate result of these endeavours was a show held at the Craibe Angus Gallery in Queen Street, Glasgow in October 1888, and the commission from the city fathers to produce a grand ceremonial group portrait of the Royal visit. The Craibe Angus show was critical a success, the critic in The Baillie (3 October 1888) declaring that Lavery had 'painted half-a-hundred strikingly effective works of art'. The Glasgow Herald (1 October 1888), agreed that these were not 'hasty memorials but completed pictures' - works which clearly accept the underlying premise of Lavery's technique which was to produce a series of plein-air impressions.
Reporting on the exhibition, many journalists commented upon the Venetian gondola which took visitors from one end of the site to the other. The illustrated London News (19 May 1888) reported that if 'Ossian's dark-eyed Carul' were to return to the Kelvin'.... the Venetian gondolas he would find afloat on his native stream might not indeed seem very different from the boats he left long ago in the river silt...' The two gondoliers, both of whom are seen in action in the present work were 'brought all the way from St. Mark's city by the sea', according to the Art Journal (The Glasgow International Exhibition, supplememt, 1888,p.5). The writer continued 'those who understand Italian say that these gondoliers declare that, after all the Kelvin smells as sweet as the romantic canals of Venice'. Lavery used the gondola motif from the present work, combined with Chinese lanterns to provide the illustration for the private view card of his exhibition of Pictures and Sketches... at the Craibe Angus Gallery.
A smaller work than the present one entitled View from the Canal, Kelvingrove of the Industrial Exhibition held in Glasgow, 1888. (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford), shows the gondola in the middle distance approaching the Industrial Hall.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Reporting on the exhibition, many journalists commented upon the Venetian gondola which took visitors from one end of the site to the other. The illustrated London News (19 May 1888) reported that if 'Ossian's dark-eyed Carul' were to return to the Kelvin'.... the Venetian gondolas he would find afloat on his native stream might not indeed seem very different from the boats he left long ago in the river silt...' The two gondoliers, both of whom are seen in action in the present work were 'brought all the way from St. Mark's city by the sea', according to the Art Journal (The Glasgow International Exhibition, supplememt, 1888,p.5). The writer continued 'those who understand Italian say that these gondoliers declare that, after all the Kelvin smells as sweet as the romantic canals of Venice'. Lavery used the gondola motif from the present work, combined with Chinese lanterns to provide the illustration for the private view card of his exhibition of Pictures and Sketches... at the Craibe Angus Gallery.
A smaller work than the present one entitled View from the Canal, Kelvingrove of the Industrial Exhibition held in Glasgow, 1888. (Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford), shows the gondola in the middle distance approaching the Industrial Hall.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.