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拍品專文
As well as its beaches and Medina, the Straits coastline in the vicinity of Tangier contained a lush green landscape. Attracted to the exotic vegetation of Moorish gardens, including his own at Dar-el-Midfah, Lavery roamed the hills to the west of the city in search of new motifs. While tales of kidnappings of wealthy foreigners within recent memory were enough to caution the foolhardy, the imposition of French government in 1912, backed by a strong offshore naval presence in 1914 and coupled with the construction of a new palace for the Sultan, made these areas relatively safe.
Although a new departure, Lavery had produced pure landscapes before. In the late 1880s for instance, he had painted scenes on the Glen estate at Paisley, but he never cast himself as a rival to his friend, the landscape painter, Alfred East. It was only before the outset of the Great War, on his Irish tour that he began to take landscape painting in the traditional sense more seriously, and this practice continued in 1917 when he crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, and in the twenties when he produced scenes in Scotland and Switzerland.
The location of the present work is Merkala, Tangier, and is likely to represent a view of one of the sub-tropical defiles close to the city by the Jews River. These occasionally flooded with rain water and flowed onto the beach - as in the present instance. A larger canvas dated 1913 with Hazel Lavery and her daughter, (sold Sotheby's, 23 November 1993, lot 16), shows one of the narrow gorges in a more parched condition, not far from Lavery's house. It is likely that the tiny figures in the foreground of the present work are also Hazel and Alice, clothed in red and white and that the painter observed them making their way to the beach as he worked (see lot 99). The extraordinary freshness and spontaneity of the present sketch is noteworthy. Working from the background, down the canvasboard to the immediate foreground Lavery has blocked in the landscape in strong, confident strokes that convey the tumbling sides of the gorge. He has then added the tall, tendril Eucalyptus trees on top of the wet background of sky, headland and sea, as a final finishing act.
We are very grateful to Kenneth McConkey for providing the catalogue entry for this lot.
Although a new departure, Lavery had produced pure landscapes before. In the late 1880s for instance, he had painted scenes on the Glen estate at Paisley, but he never cast himself as a rival to his friend, the landscape painter, Alfred East. It was only before the outset of the Great War, on his Irish tour that he began to take landscape painting in the traditional sense more seriously, and this practice continued in 1917 when he crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, and in the twenties when he produced scenes in Scotland and Switzerland.
The location of the present work is Merkala, Tangier, and is likely to represent a view of one of the sub-tropical defiles close to the city by the Jews River. These occasionally flooded with rain water and flowed onto the beach - as in the present instance. A larger canvas dated 1913 with Hazel Lavery and her daughter, (sold Sotheby's, 23 November 1993, lot 16), shows one of the narrow gorges in a more parched condition, not far from Lavery's house. It is likely that the tiny figures in the foreground of the present work are also Hazel and Alice, clothed in red and white and that the painter observed them making their way to the beach as he worked (see lot 99). The extraordinary freshness and spontaneity of the present sketch is noteworthy. Working from the background, down the canvasboard to the immediate foreground Lavery has blocked in the landscape in strong, confident strokes that convey the tumbling sides of the gorge. He has then added the tall, tendril Eucalyptus trees on top of the wet background of sky, headland and sea, as a final finishing act.
We are very grateful to Kenneth McConkey for providing the catalogue entry for this lot.