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Fig 2 John Lavery,
The Palladian Bridge, Wilton,
1920, 24 x 35.5, Private Collection
Fig 3 Winston Churchill,
The Palladian Bridge, Wilton,
1920, 63.5 x 76, National Trust, Chartwell
Then, in a more striking plein air conversation-piece, the present picture (fig 4), the artist encountered Lady Patricia
Herbert (1904-1994) resplendent in pale vermilion leaning on the parapet of the bridge. Not yet sixteen, Lady Patri-
cia, was the eldest child of Reginald, 15th Earl of Pembroke. From where she was standing she could overhear her
mother, Beatrice, and the younger of her two brothers, the Hon David Herbert (1908-1995). In two years she would
be ‘coming out’; in 1928 she would marry William Smith (1903-1948) 3rd Viscount Hambleden, the WH Smith
stationary heir; and after the Abdication Crisis she would become Lady-of-the-Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth,
the Queen Mother, a post she held until her death. While all of this lay unrevealed in the future, at this time when
mother, brother and family pet sit patiently waiting for the painter to finish his sketch, there is a moment of calm.
Fig 4 John Lavery,
The Palladian Bridge, Wilton,
1920, the present picture
A year later, in the catalogue of Lavery’s exhibition at the Alpine Club Gallery, Churchill would describe Lavery
as ‘a plein-airiste if ever there was one, painting entirely out of doors, with his eye on the object and never touch-
ing a landscape in his studio … he is so quick that no coy transience of an effect can save it from his clutches …
In consequence there is a freshness and natural glow about [his] pictures which give them an unusual charm’. As is
obvious in Lady Patricia’s birthday gift, Lavery could seize the moment, but in so doing he may also have recalled
the ‘charm’ of those simple folk who gazed over that other less distinguished bridge at Grez-sur-Loing in the days
of his youth. Such scenes were close to the core of his life’s work.
Kenneth McConkey, November 2016