The vigorous brushwork and penetrating light of Sir John Lavery’s paintings mark him out as an Irish Impressionist – his perceptive portraits, meanwhile, are on a par with those of his exact contemporary, Sir John Singer Sargent . And yet few art-lovers know of the Belfast-born artist whose career spanned more than 60 years and survived changing tastes in a fast-moving world. The scale of his achievement is reflected in the largest exhibition for three decades devoted to his life and work.
Curated by the National Gallery of Ireland, and first seen in Dublin, then in Belfast, Lavery on Location is now in Edinburgh, for Scotland played an important role in his life. Born in 1856, Lavery was an official war artist in the First World War, was appointed Royal Academician, given the freedom of the cities of both Dublin and Belfast, and was knighted. His later work may have eschewed the radicalism of early 20th-century movements, but his out-and-out painterliness has cried out to be reassessed, which this far-ranging exhibition does magnificently, putting eye-catching pieces into context.
Among the 70-plus works on display, which represent his huge output in portraiture, landscape and society vignettes is An Irish Girl, a painting of huge personal significance for a man with a very high public profile. The strikingly beautiful flower-seller who caught the attention of Lavery as he stepped out of a Covent Garden supplier of artists’ materials revealed herself to be a fellow chi.