拍品專文
On 9 July 1904, the wedding of Nancy La Primaudaye to John Henry Montague Shaw took place at Brompton Oratory in London. The present study, inscribed ‘with best wishes’, is likely to have been Lavery’s gift to the bride. Nancy (b. 1869) was the eldest of three sisters from an illustrious French family living in Jersey. She came to London around 1900 with her siblings and it is not known how all three met the painter. At various times they sat for portraits or, in the case of Idonea, the youngest, acted as a model, pupil and studio assistant, up to circa 1905.
It is likely that the present study predates the inscription. Lavery’s solo exhibition of ‘Cabinet Pictures’, in which it appeared in November 1904, while presenting his recent travels in France, Spain and Morocco, also contained two pictures of the lake at Ranelagh Gardens, one of his favourite haunts, and the possible setting for Summertime. From the start of his career boating subjects were close to Lavery’s heart. At Grez-sur-Loing in 1883 he was an onlooker as the more athletic members of the artist community took to the water in hired skiffs and canoes, and with The Bridge at Grez, 1883 (Private Collection) he achieved his first notable success – so much so that when it left for North America he resolved to retrace his steps and paint a new version, The Bridge at Grez (Ulster Museum, Belfast) in 1900.
However, the conditions at Grez were to be found closer to home, on the Thames or at Ranelagh, and the picture of Miss La Primaudaye reclining in a punt would surely epitomise those idyllic Edwardian summer days. Such scenes not only represented relaxation, for the painter they provided a welcome escape from the exigencies of the portraitist’s studio. The predictable palette was banished and there was an air of the impromptu in the handling. Indeed in the present instance Lavery’s acuity as a spontaneous composer is much in evidence, in the bold lateral tiers of the skiff. It was a theme that never left him, and to which he would return in such works as The Thames at Maidenhead, 1913 (Private Collection) and Sutton Courtenay, 1917 (Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin). Indeed, even in the 1930s the subject would reappear in sketches of the Henley and Maidenhead regattas. However, the present instance is more intimate: it represents a return to the theme of dolce far niente, which, for Lavery was now inextricably bound up with figures reclining in river boats. Comparisons with Sargent’s St Martin’s Summer (Private Collection), are apposite – although here even in a minor jeu d’esprit, Lavery was more formal.
KMc.
It is likely that the present study predates the inscription. Lavery’s solo exhibition of ‘Cabinet Pictures’, in which it appeared in November 1904, while presenting his recent travels in France, Spain and Morocco, also contained two pictures of the lake at Ranelagh Gardens, one of his favourite haunts, and the possible setting for Summertime. From the start of his career boating subjects were close to Lavery’s heart. At Grez-sur-Loing in 1883 he was an onlooker as the more athletic members of the artist community took to the water in hired skiffs and canoes, and with The Bridge at Grez, 1883 (Private Collection) he achieved his first notable success – so much so that when it left for North America he resolved to retrace his steps and paint a new version, The Bridge at Grez (Ulster Museum, Belfast) in 1900.
However, the conditions at Grez were to be found closer to home, on the Thames or at Ranelagh, and the picture of Miss La Primaudaye reclining in a punt would surely epitomise those idyllic Edwardian summer days. Such scenes not only represented relaxation, for the painter they provided a welcome escape from the exigencies of the portraitist’s studio. The predictable palette was banished and there was an air of the impromptu in the handling. Indeed in the present instance Lavery’s acuity as a spontaneous composer is much in evidence, in the bold lateral tiers of the skiff. It was a theme that never left him, and to which he would return in such works as The Thames at Maidenhead, 1913 (Private Collection) and Sutton Courtenay, 1917 (Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin). Indeed, even in the 1930s the subject would reappear in sketches of the Henley and Maidenhead regattas. However, the present instance is more intimate: it represents a return to the theme of dolce far niente, which, for Lavery was now inextricably bound up with figures reclining in river boats. Comparisons with Sargent’s St Martin’s Summer (Private Collection), are apposite – although here even in a minor jeu d’esprit, Lavery was more formal.
KMc.