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拍品專文
Between 1919 and 1924, Lavery produced an important group of golfing pictures at Westerdunes, North Berwick, the home of Sir Patrick and Lady Ford, his principal Scottish patrons. Ford's country residence faced the ninth hole of the North Berwick course.
Some fifteen pictures have been identified in the golf series, although there are related landscapes, beach and garden scenes painted nearby at Tyninghame and at Ardilea, the home of Lavery's painter colleague, Patrick William Adam. In addition Lavery painted scenes of the miniature Japanese garden which Ford installed at Westerdunes. Of the golf pictures, there are depictions of The Putting Course, North Berwick, The Ladies Links, North Berwick and The First Green, North Berwick, as well as general views of the course. Lavery was working towards the definitive rendition of the subject, now known as Playing Golf at North Berwick, a large canvas, 68½ x 79¼ in., for his other important Scottish patron, Nicol Paton Brown. Brown later donated it to the Western Club, Glasgow, from which it was sold in 1997.
The present canvas is one of two that relate directly to the motif chosen for this major work - the other being The Golf Links, North Berwick (Christie's, London, 20 May 1999, lot 55) (fig. 1, Private Collection).
Confusion arose in the 1980s over the identity of the principal golfer in this small version. It has been thought to represent Lady Astor, one of the keenest women golfers of the day (see McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Edinburgh, 1993, p. 146) until the removal of an old and unnecessary lining canvas, at the time of the sale, revealed that the figures seated on the left were Hazel Lavery, Asquith (presumably H.H. Asquith, former Liberal Prime Minister) Alice, Jesse Ford and Sir Patrick Ford. The identity of the elegant girl driving off is confirmed by a note from Alice Gwynn, Lavery's step daughter. Written in old age, in a shaky hand, this has been transcribed as follows:
'You ask about the golfing picture I gave your parents, it was done in North Berwick Scotland, we went every autumn to stay there with Sir Patrick Ford, who was MP for Edinburgh at the time, they had a lovely house just beside the Golf Links called Westerdunes, my father meant to play golf, and relax, but he never did, and he sent for his paints the week after he arrived, and ask [sic] me to pose for a figure in the foreground, and the result in your picture was quite good, but it must worry (?) serious golfer(s), because I was driving in the direction of other players, not seemingly safely far enough away, who could be in some danger, perhaps, [the] artist has 'artistic licence' just like poets, and such details as misdirected [sic] shots would not have worried him. What he was looking to portray was the best swing for a drive that I could produce, and on the whole the picture is a pleasant one on that lovely and famous links at North Berwick.
I used to play with my Father, he was only a moderate player, impatient and always in a hurry, he said his golf was more like 'dismounted polo' and so it was, I was more seriously competitive, and did not enjoy when he beat me, usually, mostly because he was always in such a hurry! Considering his age, against mine, the boots should have been on the other foot, don't you think, I have laughed about it since, but he was such a nice person, and I loved him dearly. I seem to stay almost indecently healthy, in spite of being wheelchair bound, all best wishes to you and yours from Alice (Gwynn)'.
Alice thus confirms the essential circumstances of the making of the whole suite of pictures. The present work was one of five golf pictures which are listed in the inventory of the contents of the artist's studio at the time of his death and it is likely to have been one of two entitled The Golf Course, North Berwick. Along with St Andrews, the North Berwick course has a venerable history having been used by the kings of Scotland for the antecedent to the game of golf, known as 'shinny'. The modern club was founded in 1836 and was one of the first to establish its own ladies' section.
Ford, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh, and Solicitor General for Scotland, was a noted connoisseur and collector of contemporary Scottish painting. In addition to Lavery, he was a particular friend of Francis Campbell Boileau (Bunty) Cadell and he possessed an extensive collection of the work of the Scottish Colourists. It was he and Lord Birkenhead who arranged for Lavery to paint commemorative canvases of the moving of the Irish Treaty in the houses of Commons and Lords in the winter of 1921. He also arranged an important Lavery Retrospective exhibition at Dundee in 1935 and wrote in the catalogue that 'his [Lavery's] experience and reputation are world-wide ... he tackles every subject from his own point of view'.
'Point of view' was clearly important for the present work since it differs from Playing Golf at North Berwick and the ex-Christie's version in several important ways. Firstly the young female golfer was moved to the right of the composition in the two other versions. In both of these the two figures on the left, dramatically cut in the present canvas, were brought into the picture and in both, the figure of Ford stands immediately behind the golfer. Here he climbs up from the fairway with his bag over his arm. The marker, replaced by Lady Ford in the ex-Christie's version, was returned to its place for the Nicol Paton Brown version. All of these changes may have occured as a result of the sense, given by Alice, that the main figure was too close to the group on the green in the middle distance. However, while all of these things are important, they do not reduce the compositional strength of the present arrangement, in which the right of the picture is punctuated by the figure of Ford and the position of the island of Fidra, on the horizon.
In two other respects the present canvas differs from the other two. Firstly its viewpoint gives a high horizon, while in the others, four-fifths of the canvas is taken up by sky. Secondly, in this version, light and colour are more evenly balanced and more subtle. For the large version, Lavery proposed a bright, blustery late afternoon, in which the whole foreground is lit by a shaft of sunlight. For the present picture, the late afternoon colours are cooler and although Alice is lit from the west, the land around her is painted in even tones of khaki and green.
If anything this serves to accentuate the slim elegance of her figure, dressed in the cardigan and knickerbockers which Lady Astor made fashionable for the sport around this time. Ladies golf in the first twenty years of the century was seen as efficacious for body and mind; it was classless and healthy. Alice, who later married Peter McEnery of Kilkenny, was a keen horsewoman and a combative tennis-player - hence her remarks about her, and Lavery's golfing prowess. He, of course, made no secret of his lack of distinction at the game. The artist records that he 'once told a Scottish caddie that I was not much of a golfer and he agreed with me. To the same confession an Irish caddie replied, "Ah, sir, there are very few men can play like you" (J. Lavery, Life of a Painter, Edinburgh, 1940, p. 183).
We are grateful to Professsor Kenneth McConkey for providing this catalogue entry.
Some fifteen pictures have been identified in the golf series, although there are related landscapes, beach and garden scenes painted nearby at Tyninghame and at Ardilea, the home of Lavery's painter colleague, Patrick William Adam. In addition Lavery painted scenes of the miniature Japanese garden which Ford installed at Westerdunes. Of the golf pictures, there are depictions of The Putting Course, North Berwick, The Ladies Links, North Berwick and The First Green, North Berwick, as well as general views of the course. Lavery was working towards the definitive rendition of the subject, now known as Playing Golf at North Berwick, a large canvas, 68½ x 79¼ in., for his other important Scottish patron, Nicol Paton Brown. Brown later donated it to the Western Club, Glasgow, from which it was sold in 1997.
The present canvas is one of two that relate directly to the motif chosen for this major work - the other being The Golf Links, North Berwick (Christie's, London, 20 May 1999, lot 55) (fig. 1, Private Collection).
Confusion arose in the 1980s over the identity of the principal golfer in this small version. It has been thought to represent Lady Astor, one of the keenest women golfers of the day (see McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Edinburgh, 1993, p. 146) until the removal of an old and unnecessary lining canvas, at the time of the sale, revealed that the figures seated on the left were Hazel Lavery, Asquith (presumably H.H. Asquith, former Liberal Prime Minister) Alice, Jesse Ford and Sir Patrick Ford. The identity of the elegant girl driving off is confirmed by a note from Alice Gwynn, Lavery's step daughter. Written in old age, in a shaky hand, this has been transcribed as follows:
'You ask about the golfing picture I gave your parents, it was done in North Berwick Scotland, we went every autumn to stay there with Sir Patrick Ford, who was MP for Edinburgh at the time, they had a lovely house just beside the Golf Links called Westerdunes, my father meant to play golf, and relax, but he never did, and he sent for his paints the week after he arrived, and ask [sic] me to pose for a figure in the foreground, and the result in your picture was quite good, but it must worry (?) serious golfer(s), because I was driving in the direction of other players, not seemingly safely far enough away, who could be in some danger, perhaps, [the] artist has 'artistic licence' just like poets, and such details as misdirected [sic] shots would not have worried him. What he was looking to portray was the best swing for a drive that I could produce, and on the whole the picture is a pleasant one on that lovely and famous links at North Berwick.
I used to play with my Father, he was only a moderate player, impatient and always in a hurry, he said his golf was more like 'dismounted polo' and so it was, I was more seriously competitive, and did not enjoy when he beat me, usually, mostly because he was always in such a hurry! Considering his age, against mine, the boots should have been on the other foot, don't you think, I have laughed about it since, but he was such a nice person, and I loved him dearly. I seem to stay almost indecently healthy, in spite of being wheelchair bound, all best wishes to you and yours from Alice (Gwynn)'.
Alice thus confirms the essential circumstances of the making of the whole suite of pictures. The present work was one of five golf pictures which are listed in the inventory of the contents of the artist's studio at the time of his death and it is likely to have been one of two entitled The Golf Course, North Berwick. Along with St Andrews, the North Berwick course has a venerable history having been used by the kings of Scotland for the antecedent to the game of golf, known as 'shinny'. The modern club was founded in 1836 and was one of the first to establish its own ladies' section.
Ford, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh, and Solicitor General for Scotland, was a noted connoisseur and collector of contemporary Scottish painting. In addition to Lavery, he was a particular friend of Francis Campbell Boileau (Bunty) Cadell and he possessed an extensive collection of the work of the Scottish Colourists. It was he and Lord Birkenhead who arranged for Lavery to paint commemorative canvases of the moving of the Irish Treaty in the houses of Commons and Lords in the winter of 1921. He also arranged an important Lavery Retrospective exhibition at Dundee in 1935 and wrote in the catalogue that 'his [Lavery's] experience and reputation are world-wide ... he tackles every subject from his own point of view'.
'Point of view' was clearly important for the present work since it differs from Playing Golf at North Berwick and the ex-Christie's version in several important ways. Firstly the young female golfer was moved to the right of the composition in the two other versions. In both of these the two figures on the left, dramatically cut in the present canvas, were brought into the picture and in both, the figure of Ford stands immediately behind the golfer. Here he climbs up from the fairway with his bag over his arm. The marker, replaced by Lady Ford in the ex-Christie's version, was returned to its place for the Nicol Paton Brown version. All of these changes may have occured as a result of the sense, given by Alice, that the main figure was too close to the group on the green in the middle distance. However, while all of these things are important, they do not reduce the compositional strength of the present arrangement, in which the right of the picture is punctuated by the figure of Ford and the position of the island of Fidra, on the horizon.
In two other respects the present canvas differs from the other two. Firstly its viewpoint gives a high horizon, while in the others, four-fifths of the canvas is taken up by sky. Secondly, in this version, light and colour are more evenly balanced and more subtle. For the large version, Lavery proposed a bright, blustery late afternoon, in which the whole foreground is lit by a shaft of sunlight. For the present picture, the late afternoon colours are cooler and although Alice is lit from the west, the land around her is painted in even tones of khaki and green.
If anything this serves to accentuate the slim elegance of her figure, dressed in the cardigan and knickerbockers which Lady Astor made fashionable for the sport around this time. Ladies golf in the first twenty years of the century was seen as efficacious for body and mind; it was classless and healthy. Alice, who later married Peter McEnery of Kilkenny, was a keen horsewoman and a combative tennis-player - hence her remarks about her, and Lavery's golfing prowess. He, of course, made no secret of his lack of distinction at the game. The artist records that he 'once told a Scottish caddie that I was not much of a golfer and he agreed with me. To the same confession an Irish caddie replied, "Ah, sir, there are very few men can play like you" (J. Lavery, Life of a Painter, Edinburgh, 1940, p. 183).
We are grateful to Professsor Kenneth McConkey for providing this catalogue entry.