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Lot Essay
By 1892 the flamboyant Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, Laird of Gartmore, had lost interest in Parliament and lost his seat in the General Election. A radical firebrand, he had been arrested in the ‘Bloody Sunday’ riot in Trafalgar Square in November 1887 for supporting a march organized by the Social Democratic League to protest against unemployment and Tory resistance to Irish Home Rule. Cunninghame Graham linked these current causes to that of Scottish nationalism and was a founder member of both the Scottish Home Rule Association and the Scottish Labour Party in 1886 and 1888 respectively. Up to this point the thirty-five year old MP’s career had been one extended gap year in which he had worked as a rancher, ridden the Pampas of Argentina, as ‘Don Roberto’, and even opened a fencing school in Mexico City under the assumed name of ‘Seňor Bontini’. Leaving politics temporarily behind, he found himself in Tangier in 1893 where he and Lavery met when, by repute, he managed to halt the artist’s runaway horse.
Arrangements were made for Lavery to paint Cunninghame Graham’s portrait when they returned, and thereafter the two became firm friends. Four years later Lavery returned to his subject to paint RB Cunninghame Graham and his horse, ‘Pampa’, (Museo Nacionale de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires) for the Paris Salon of 1898. It is likely that the present canvas was painted in preparation for this grand performance, and only given to Graham when Lavery saw him three years later.
Their story did not end there, for in 1904, Don Roberto penned the introduction to Lavery’s solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, and three years later they travelled to Fez together. (McConkey, 2010, pp. 96-7.) As late as 1933, when passing Tangier on a cruise, Lavery wrote fondly to the adventurer-laird, reminiscing about their early days together in ‘the White City’.(loc cit., p. 19.)
While Lavery’s Glasgow and Buenos Aires portraits of Don Roberto play up to his ego, the smaller sketches – a head study (Private Collection), and the present example – are more informal in character. Here Pampa is given as much weight as its rider. It had been a rescue animal spotted by Graham when it was harnessed to Glasgow tramcar. Ill-suited to a life of drudgery, its character complemented that of its new owner, and here it calmly poses in the long grass, as for a photographer. Cunninghame Graham’s colourful cloak is there, but this time it is given in full song, and the adventurer laird addresses us from under his grey Stetson, with his distinctive theatrical air.
KMc.
Arrangements were made for Lavery to paint Cunninghame Graham’s portrait when they returned, and thereafter the two became firm friends. Four years later Lavery returned to his subject to paint RB Cunninghame Graham and his horse, ‘Pampa’, (Museo Nacionale de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires) for the Paris Salon of 1898. It is likely that the present canvas was painted in preparation for this grand performance, and only given to Graham when Lavery saw him three years later.
Their story did not end there, for in 1904, Don Roberto penned the introduction to Lavery’s solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, and three years later they travelled to Fez together. (McConkey, 2010, pp. 96-7.) As late as 1933, when passing Tangier on a cruise, Lavery wrote fondly to the adventurer-laird, reminiscing about their early days together in ‘the White City’.(loc cit., p. 19.)
While Lavery’s Glasgow and Buenos Aires portraits of Don Roberto play up to his ego, the smaller sketches – a head study (Private Collection), and the present example – are more informal in character. Here Pampa is given as much weight as its rider. It had been a rescue animal spotted by Graham when it was harnessed to Glasgow tramcar. Ill-suited to a life of drudgery, its character complemented that of its new owner, and here it calmly poses in the long grass, as for a photographer. Cunninghame Graham’s colourful cloak is there, but this time it is given in full song, and the adventurer laird addresses us from under his grey Stetson, with his distinctive theatrical air.
KMc.