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Lot Essay
Lavery was fascinated by the subtle psychology of the mother and child portrait. He came from an age in which, despite the advent of photography, portrait painting was revived. Early commissioned portraits such as Mrs Lawrie and Edwin, 1890 and Mrs J.J. Cowan and Laura, 1892 (K. McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Edinburgh, 1993, pp. 71-74) though formal in character, betray the influences of Sargent and Whistler in their desire to break free from convention. Although he continued to produce parent and child pictures throughout the 1890s and into the new century, those representing members of his own family are fewer and have a special intimacy.
The models for the present work were the artist's daughter, Eileen Lavery, and his granddaughter, Diana, the only child from her first marriage to James Dickinson in April 1912. Born in 1890, Eileen sat to her father on many occasions up to that point, most notably as Her First Communion, 1901 (private collection; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 78) and later, as a twenty-year-old horsewoman in The Amazon, 1910 (Ulster Museum, Belfast; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 117). She had appeared in what might be considered one of the prototypes for the present composition, P©ere et Fille, 1898 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 84). Eileen went on to marry the Master of Sempill, later Lord Sempill, and had two further children, June and Anne. Not only did she remain active as a horsewoman, but during the twenties took up her husband's enthusiasm as an aviator. She died of tuberculosis in 1935.
We can infer from the present portrait that her daughter, Diana, grew up to be an attractive and sought-after young woman. Lavery painted her portrait for the Royal Academy in 1931 and again in 1934 (private collection; McConkey, op. cit., p. 182). As the painter's first granddaughter, she had a special place in his affections. She was nevertheless something of a tearaway, involving herself with Goldie Buttner's Dude Ranch and taking small parts in hollywood movies and later marrying the actor, Paul Dupuis. She died in 1960.
Perhaps the most important comparable composition to the present work is Mother and Child (Mrs Lavery and Alice), 1909 (Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 140) depicting the painter's second wife, Hazel and his five year old stepdaughter. Although, as here, both figures directly engage the spectator, the earlier work is essentially a harmony in brown, with Hazel's face thrown into half-light. In the present example the palette is lighter and the lighting more even. Eileen is fashionably attired in a yellow felt hat and a loose-fitting striped coat. Less formal than its predecessor, the portrait places Lavery in relation to the younger school. Up to this point, Orpen, Knight, Fearon and Whiting had all deployed dramatic striped costumes to great effect. Such liberal attire demostrates the new freedoms which women had attained, despite the straightened circumstances of the Great War. The informality is carried into the treatment of the child who hugs her mother in a characteristic way. Lavery extended the theme of the mother and child in a further portrait of Eileen with her third child, Anne, 1923 (Ulster Museum, Belfast). In this he reverts to greater formality, showing Eileen in profile and the child, resting on her lap.
Kenneth McConkey
The models for the present work were the artist's daughter, Eileen Lavery, and his granddaughter, Diana, the only child from her first marriage to James Dickinson in April 1912. Born in 1890, Eileen sat to her father on many occasions up to that point, most notably as Her First Communion, 1901 (private collection; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 78) and later, as a twenty-year-old horsewoman in The Amazon, 1910 (Ulster Museum, Belfast; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 117). She had appeared in what might be considered one of the prototypes for the present composition, P©ere et Fille, 1898 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 84). Eileen went on to marry the Master of Sempill, later Lord Sempill, and had two further children, June and Anne. Not only did she remain active as a horsewoman, but during the twenties took up her husband's enthusiasm as an aviator. She died of tuberculosis in 1935.
We can infer from the present portrait that her daughter, Diana, grew up to be an attractive and sought-after young woman. Lavery painted her portrait for the Royal Academy in 1931 and again in 1934 (private collection; McConkey, op. cit., p. 182). As the painter's first granddaughter, she had a special place in his affections. She was nevertheless something of a tearaway, involving herself with Goldie Buttner's Dude Ranch and taking small parts in hollywood movies and later marrying the actor, Paul Dupuis. She died in 1960.
Perhaps the most important comparable composition to the present work is Mother and Child (Mrs Lavery and Alice), 1909 (Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; McConkey, op. cit., pl. 140) depicting the painter's second wife, Hazel and his five year old stepdaughter. Although, as here, both figures directly engage the spectator, the earlier work is essentially a harmony in brown, with Hazel's face thrown into half-light. In the present example the palette is lighter and the lighting more even. Eileen is fashionably attired in a yellow felt hat and a loose-fitting striped coat. Less formal than its predecessor, the portrait places Lavery in relation to the younger school. Up to this point, Orpen, Knight, Fearon and Whiting had all deployed dramatic striped costumes to great effect. Such liberal attire demostrates the new freedoms which women had attained, despite the straightened circumstances of the Great War. The informality is carried into the treatment of the child who hugs her mother in a characteristic way. Lavery extended the theme of the mother and child in a further portrait of Eileen with her third child, Anne, 1923 (Ulster Museum, Belfast). In this he reverts to greater formality, showing Eileen in profile and the child, resting on her lap.
Kenneth McConkey