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I

rish

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nternational

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uction

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onday

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ecember

2016

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59

In the summer of 1920, on a visit to Wilton House in Wiltshire, the home of the Earl of Pembroke

and Montgomery, John Lavery’s primary purpose was to paint the Double Cube Room, designed

by Inigo Jones in the seventeenth century to house the magnificent series of family portraits by Van

Dyck (fig 1). Amidst the ornate furnishings a couple, caught in the sunlight, converse in the back-

ground, while almost masked by the back of a chair, a few feet from us, a woman sits reading. For

all its splendid formality the picture provides a glimpse into the vie inconnu of the English country

house.

Fig 1 John Lavery,

the Van Dyck Room, Wilton,

1920, 63.5 x 76, Royal Academy of Arts, London

Stepping into the garden, Lavery sketched the elegant Palladian Bridge, designed by the ‘architect’

9th Earl in 1737. On the opposite bank of the river Nadder, his pupil, Winston Churchill, produced

his own more conventional study of the bridge, and according to the Herbert family, there was a

friendly rivalry between the amateur and the professional (figs 2&3). The Irish painter’s talent and

training tell in the comparison.

59 Sir John Lavery RA RHA RSA (1856-1941) The Palladian Bridge, Wilton (1920)

signed ‘J Lavery’ lower left, signed, titled & dated August 1920 on reverse

oil on canvas board,

24 x 35.5cm (9 x 14in)

Provenance:

A birthday gift from the artist to Patricia, Viscountess Hambledon;

Thence by descent;

The Irish Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 7th May 2008 Lot 152;

Private Collection

Literature:

Kenneth McConkey, John Lavery, A Painter and his World, 2010 (Atelier Books), pp. 149, 235 (note 16)

€40,000-60,000 (£34,782-52,173)