Dancing at the Art Club Costume Ball

During the 1880s Lavery showed his recent work at informal, uncatalogued exhibitions at Glasgow Art Club which promoted the work of Glasgow Boys. In 1889 the management and members decided to stage a Grand Costume Ball at St Andrew's Hall in aid of the newly-formed Scottish Artists' Benevolent Fund.1 Lavery was a keen supporter of this venture and the present canvas is perhaps the most important evidence of involvement.2.

The Ball, staged on Friday, 29 November 1889, was an enormous success. It attracted 967 subscribers who arrived, wearing exotic costumes - caliphs and ancient Greeks rubbed shoulders with characters from Shakespeare and Scott. The Glasgow Boys came dressed as great artists of the past, with Lavery attired as Rembrandt, and the evening began with grand pageant displaying the different periods and schools of art, followed by a tableau vivant of Paul Delaroche's Hemicycle of the Beaux Arts, from the dome of Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.3 Thereafter, 'Herr Iff' and his 'efficient orchestra' took the stage. Dancing was initially somewhat difficult due to the 'crowded state of the hall', but 'everyone was good-humoured'.

The painters set up the artist's studio in an adjacent room where, during the evening guests could see 'A fresh old master at work every half hour'.4 Lavery in the guise of Rembrandt was kept busy. He painted Mrs Langtry as a Bacchante (sold Christie's, London, 12 May 2005, lot 27), The Grand Costume Ball (sketch; A Man in 18th century Costume) (sold Christie's, Edinburgh, 26 October 2000, lot 61) and Hokusai and the Butterfly (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh).5 A contemporary photograph shows him centre-stage, wigged and costumed, painting one of the tiny canvases supplied for lightning sketches.6 He also ventured into the hubbub and produced A Corner of the Ballroom (fig. 1, unlocated), in what must have been one of the quieter moments of the evening.7

The present canvas is probably the most elaborate of the dance programmes - the one displayed beside the stage. It may well have been painted during one of the planning meetings for the event, since alterations to the order of the dances are clearly visible as artist's corrections.8 Its style partly imitates contemporary French poster design, with the woman at the piano in the foreground as a simple pastiche of the female pianist in his earlier canvas, Finale (private collection).9 At the end of the evening, Herr Iff 'relinquished his baton' and 'the most brilliant and successful Costume Ball which Glasgow has yet witnessed' came to an end. On completing their accounts the committee realised that a profit of £1,317 was made on the night, and this could be donated to the Scottish Artists' Benevolent Association.



1 For further reference see Glasgow Art Club, Souvenir of the Grand Costume Ball in [sic] behalf of the Scottish Artists' Benevolent Association, n.d. [1890]. The Scottish Artists' Benevolent Association had been formed in February 1889.
2 Lavery, along with the other Glasgow Boys, James Guthrie, William Kennedy, James Paterson and Edward Arthur Walton, was a member of the General Committee, planning the event.
3 Two 'boys' - James Guthrie and Corsan Morton - came as Apelles.
4 Souvenir, 1890, p. 8. A selection of their efforts was reproduced in the Souvenir.
5 For Hokusai and the Butterfly, see McConkey, 1993, fig. 68, marks both the occasion and the betrothal of E.A. Walton (Hokusai), to his fiancé, Helen Law (The Golden Butterfly).
6 McConkey, 1993, fig. 67.
7 Illus. Souvenir, 1890, pl. III; Lavery's A Milkmaid, pl. XVIII, also remains unlocated.
8 Close examination of the calligraphy indicates that changes were also possibly made to correct misspelling.
9 This canvas passed through Richard Green Galleries in 2005.

K.M.