12
Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941)
Estimate:
€20,000 - €30,000
Sold
€32,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
Size
14 by 20in. (35.6 by 50.8cm)
Description
Title: HE WON'T BITE YOU
Note: Although its subject - an infant's cautious encounter with a curious dog in a Scottish garden - appears inconsequential at first, the watercolour, 'HE WON'T BITE YOU' gives us an early glimpse into the wealthy middle-class enclave of the Renfrewshire town of Paisley.Having exhibited at the town's Art Institute, John Lavery had recently secured the patronage of two of its most prominent citizens - James and Joseph Fulton, whose ancestors had introduced silk manufacture to Scotland in the eighteenth century. Modest beginnings grew into a major 'scouring' industry in the nineteenth century, in part due to the development of starch and dye stuffs that enabled the Fultons' father, William, to purchase a hillside estate adjacent to the town, known as The Glen. There, in 1859, he constructed a large 'Scottish baronial' pile, Glen House (1) which his son, James, filled with a formidable collection of French and Scottish paintings, 54 of which were donated to the Paisley Art Institute after his death (2). Then, in 1886, James's brother, Joseph, and sister-in-law, Elizabeth, commissioned Lavery to paint portraits of their daughters, the eldest of whom, Eva, also posed for the present watercolour (3). In return for his services, the painter was given free range of the estate and was offered Burn Cottage within walking distance of the house as a studio, while he worked on the portraits (4). With this as his base, Lavery painted a series of views of the nearby hills known as the Gleniffer Braes and part of the Fulton domain. Eva, with her shock of red hair, remained a favourite model and is likely to have posed for the girl in Convalescence 1885. While both house and cottage have been demolished, it is possible that the blossoming border with the 'burn' in the background is a continuation of that in the present work (5). A label fragment, preserved on the reverse of He won't bite you suggests that it is likely to have been shown at Lavery's first solo exhibition in Paisley (6). Thanks to the Fultons, the Coatses, the Smileys and Clarks, Paisley was booming in the 1880s, its factories supplying the empire, and Lavery, as he found his feet, received commissions from all four of its principal families.At this point, the painter, now approaching thirty, had returned from France, where the modern Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage held sway. Lavery was also aware of the growing public consciousness of the Impressionists, and watercolour at first seemed like a quick, convenient and translucent way of registering the passing scene. He won't bite you can therefore be comfortably placed within the Fulton suite of pictures when his use of the medium was at its height (7). Here, the soft colours of the hillside garden, overlooking the roofs and gables of the town are noteworthy, while uneven patches for grass in the foreground are reminiscent of the garden setting of On the Loing, An Afternoon Chat, 1884 (Ulster Museum, Belfast), that Lavery had brought back from Grez-sur-Loing, and recently shown at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (8). While he made use of Burn Cottage, Lavery's main studio was in central Glasgow close to the Art Club, where his radical approach drew the attention of other young painters who became members of celebrated 'Glasgow Boys'. With Arthur Melville, James Guthrie, Edward Arthur Walton and Robert Macaulay Stevenson, Lavery was part of the inner circle, described by one of its members as a 'brotherhood'. Several Scots contemporaries, from 1886 onwards, adopted the idea of painting figures surrounded by blossoming trees. Outside this avant-garde circle, however, the Fultons were the first to recognise Lavery's abilities as the charming He won't bite you indicates. Prof Kenneth McConkeySeptember 20231. Glen House was demolished sometime after Fulton's death in 1933, probably sometime in the 1960s. For further reference to Lavery's work at The Glen, see McConkey 2010, p. 31. Lavery painted the Fulton house and pond from a location close to his studio (Private Collection; see Hunt Museum, Limerick, Lavery & Osborne, Observing Life, 2019, exhibition catalogue, pp. 18-19). 2. The Fulton Bequest contains works by Courbet, Corot, Troyon and the Barbizon masters. 3. It also seems not unlikely that the infant, keeping well back from the straining border collie, is her younger sister, Alice. Lavery's portraits of Alice, 1886 and 1900 are in the Paisley Art Institute Collection, while an oil sketch inscribed to Alice, c. 1889 is in a private collection. James Fulton's portrait by Lavery is also part of the Art Institute bequest, as are views of the Gleniffer Braes. 4. Burn Cottage, renamed Lavery Cottage, fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1966 after its last occupant left. 5. McConkey, 2010, p. 32. Eva may also have modelled for one of the foreground spectators in The Tennis Party (Aberdeen Art Gallery). She later married Henry S Samuel, son of Sir Saul Samuel CB, KCMG, who had made a fortune mining for copper in New South Wales and was presented at court; see Portsmouth Evening News, 11 April 1895, p. 3. 6. Portraits, Pictures and Sketches painted in the Neighbourhood by John Lavery, opened at the Clark Hall, Paisley at the end of November 1886 and ran into the following month. 7. A reportedly 'heavily restored' oil version of the present subject passed through Phillips, London on 7 December 1991 as an 'attributed' work, and remains unlocated. Other watercolours, including the magisterial A Rally (Glasgow Museums), are known.8. On the Loing, An Afternoon Chat was first shown at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in February1885, (no. 697), and later that year at Paisley Art Institute, 1885, (no. 276).
Frame size: 23 by 29.5in. (58.4 by 74.9cm)
Note: Although its subject - an infant's cautious encounter with a curious dog in a Scottish garden - appears inconsequential at first, the watercolour, 'HE WON'T BITE YOU' gives us an early glimpse into the wealthy middle-class enclave of the Renfrewshire town of Paisley.Having exhibited at the town's Art Institute, John Lavery had recently secured the patronage of two of its most prominent citizens - James and Joseph Fulton, whose ancestors had introduced silk manufacture to Scotland in the eighteenth century. Modest beginnings grew into a major 'scouring' industry in the nineteenth century, in part due to the development of starch and dye stuffs that enabled the Fultons' father, William, to purchase a hillside estate adjacent to the town, known as The Glen. There, in 1859, he constructed a large 'Scottish baronial' pile, Glen House (1) which his son, James, filled with a formidable collection of French and Scottish paintings, 54 of which were donated to the Paisley Art Institute after his death (2). Then, in 1886, James's brother, Joseph, and sister-in-law, Elizabeth, commissioned Lavery to paint portraits of their daughters, the eldest of whom, Eva, also posed for the present watercolour (3). In return for his services, the painter was given free range of the estate and was offered Burn Cottage within walking distance of the house as a studio, while he worked on the portraits (4). With this as his base, Lavery painted a series of views of the nearby hills known as the Gleniffer Braes and part of the Fulton domain. Eva, with her shock of red hair, remained a favourite model and is likely to have posed for the girl in Convalescence 1885. While both house and cottage have been demolished, it is possible that the blossoming border with the 'burn' in the background is a continuation of that in the present work (5). A label fragment, preserved on the reverse of He won't bite you suggests that it is likely to have been shown at Lavery's first solo exhibition in Paisley (6). Thanks to the Fultons, the Coatses, the Smileys and Clarks, Paisley was booming in the 1880s, its factories supplying the empire, and Lavery, as he found his feet, received commissions from all four of its principal families.At this point, the painter, now approaching thirty, had returned from France, where the modern Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage held sway. Lavery was also aware of the growing public consciousness of the Impressionists, and watercolour at first seemed like a quick, convenient and translucent way of registering the passing scene. He won't bite you can therefore be comfortably placed within the Fulton suite of pictures when his use of the medium was at its height (7). Here, the soft colours of the hillside garden, overlooking the roofs and gables of the town are noteworthy, while uneven patches for grass in the foreground are reminiscent of the garden setting of On the Loing, An Afternoon Chat, 1884 (Ulster Museum, Belfast), that Lavery had brought back from Grez-sur-Loing, and recently shown at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (8). While he made use of Burn Cottage, Lavery's main studio was in central Glasgow close to the Art Club, where his radical approach drew the attention of other young painters who became members of celebrated 'Glasgow Boys'. With Arthur Melville, James Guthrie, Edward Arthur Walton and Robert Macaulay Stevenson, Lavery was part of the inner circle, described by one of its members as a 'brotherhood'. Several Scots contemporaries, from 1886 onwards, adopted the idea of painting figures surrounded by blossoming trees. Outside this avant-garde circle, however, the Fultons were the first to recognise Lavery's abilities as the charming He won't bite you indicates. Prof Kenneth McConkeySeptember 20231. Glen House was demolished sometime after Fulton's death in 1933, probably sometime in the 1960s. For further reference to Lavery's work at The Glen, see McConkey 2010, p. 31. Lavery painted the Fulton house and pond from a location close to his studio (Private Collection; see Hunt Museum, Limerick, Lavery & Osborne, Observing Life, 2019, exhibition catalogue, pp. 18-19). 2. The Fulton Bequest contains works by Courbet, Corot, Troyon and the Barbizon masters. 3. It also seems not unlikely that the infant, keeping well back from the straining border collie, is her younger sister, Alice. Lavery's portraits of Alice, 1886 and 1900 are in the Paisley Art Institute Collection, while an oil sketch inscribed to Alice, c. 1889 is in a private collection. James Fulton's portrait by Lavery is also part of the Art Institute bequest, as are views of the Gleniffer Braes. 4. Burn Cottage, renamed Lavery Cottage, fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1966 after its last occupant left. 5. McConkey, 2010, p. 32. Eva may also have modelled for one of the foreground spectators in The Tennis Party (Aberdeen Art Gallery). She later married Henry S Samuel, son of Sir Saul Samuel CB, KCMG, who had made a fortune mining for copper in New South Wales and was presented at court; see Portsmouth Evening News, 11 April 1895, p. 3. 6. Portraits, Pictures and Sketches painted in the Neighbourhood by John Lavery, opened at the Clark Hall, Paisley at the end of November 1886 and ran into the following month. 7. A reportedly 'heavily restored' oil version of the present subject passed through Phillips, London on 7 December 1991 as an 'attributed' work, and remains unlocated. Other watercolours, including the magisterial A Rally (Glasgow Museums), are known.8. On the Loing, An Afternoon Chat was first shown at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in February1885, (no. 697), and later that year at Paisley Art Institute, 1885, (no. 276).
Frame size: 23 by 29.5in. (58.4 by 74.9cm)
Condition
Excellent condition.
Medium
watercolour
Signature
signed and titled lower right; with artist's label on reverse; also with Fine Arts Society Ltd. [London] label on reverse
