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Sir John Lavery
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Lot 29
Result:
Not Sold
Estimate:
€100,000 - €150,000
Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA, 1856-1941
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Oil on canvasboard, 20" x 24" (51 x 61cm), signed and inscribed 'To Lennox, from Hazel, Sep: 31'; signed, inscribed and dated 1928 verso.
Provenance: Gifted to Lennox Robinson b... Read more
Lot 29
Sir John Lavery
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
DVTV Click Here To View VideoDUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Oil on canvasboard, 20" x 24" (51 x 61cm), signed and inscribed 'To Lennox, from Hazel, Sep: 31'; signed, inscribed and dated 1928 verso.
Provenance: Gifted to Lennox Robinson b... Read more
Lot 29
Sir John Lavery
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Estimate:
€100,000 - €150,000
Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA, 1856-1941
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Oil on canvasboard, 20" x 24" (51 x 61cm), signed and inscribed 'To Lennox, from Hazel, Sep: 31'; signed, inscribed and dated 1928 verso.
Provenance: Gifted to Lennox Robinson by Lady Lavery, 1931; by descent; Christie's 6 November 1981, Private Collection, Dublin.
Exhibited: London and Edinburgh, Fine Art Society, Belfast, Ulster Museum and Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Sir John Lavery RA, 1856-1941, 1984 no. 106 (illus in catalogue, p. 102).
Literature: Kenneth McConkey, John Lavery, A Painter and his World, 2010, (Atelier Books), p. 179 (illus fig 209).
In 1931, when the poet, playwright and actor-manager, Lennox Robinson, was about to be married to Dolly Travers Smith, Hazel Lavery selected a painting to have it inscribed by her husband as a wedding gift. It must of course be Irish, and ideally allude to shared experience. And, while The Dublin Horse Show was not the only appropriate Irish picture that she may have pulled from the studio racks - there were other landscapes and figure-pieces, some more theatrical in character - the present canvas was a souvenir of the social firmament in which its recipient was a star. A confidante of the Laverys, Robinson shared Hazel's Yeats-ian 'Celtic Revival' sympathies, even though, like George Yeats, she must have been aware of rumours of the 'Oscar Wilde-ish sort' that swirled around him.[1]
Back in January 1924, following her husband's appointment to the Board of Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, John and Hazel Lavery returned to Dublin in the summer to attend Aonach Tailteann, popularly referred to as the Irish Olympic Games.[2] The artist had the idea that he would stage an Irish-themed exhibition of recent work, and to achieve this goal, they motored south, down through the Wicklow hills to Tramore and across to the Ring of Kerry. Thereafter, summer visits for the Dublin Horse Show in August became a regular fixture - such that in 1926, following a brief holiday in Deauville, Lavery obtained special permission to paint the 'Hunter Class' event at Ballsbridge from the judges' box (fig 1). The conditions were cramped, and the canvas was small, but it contained enough information to suggest the possibility of a larger work of the type he had recently achieved at Epsom and Ascot.[3] Even though this summer fell between two exhibitions and extended sojourns in New York and Florida, Lavery still retained his Irish ambition.
Fig ??????? The Hunter Class at the 1926 Dublin Horse Show, 1926, 49.5 x 59, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin
An immediate follow-up was however delayed, as a result the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins, the Irish Justice Minister, in July 1927. O'Higgins had been a close friend of Hazel Lavery and an ally of Michael Collins during the Civil War. For remnants of the Anti-Treaty IRA, he had long remained a divisive figure, and with the consequent rise in tensions, the Laverys decided to cancel their plans for Dublin that year and the painter waited to revisit the show in 1928 when the present work was painted.[4]
Two years then separate the first and second paintings of the arena at Ballsbridge. On this second occasion, Lavery looked beyond the window stanchions and striped awning to concentrate on the main arena, including the roof of the stand over which the Irish flag, the focal point, proudly ripples in the breeze. Beyond this, on the left, is the tower of St Mary's, the Donnybrook Church of Ireland parish church. While in the earlier study, a horse and rider are framed at the water jump, here a group of officials await the next contestant - one bearing a scarlet flag that, according to international rules, is used to indicate the right-hand-side of the jump. The formality of the occasion demands top hat and tails, while the formalist abstraction of the painting, with its downward foreground diagonal, calls for rigorous control.
Lavery was a master of such moments. If something was there in front of him, he would paint it while everyone waited. Figures in the middle distance were a joy. Each an individual. We know that his men are checking their programmes and looking in the direction of the unseen jumper, and on this moody August day, amidst the crazy zigzags of fences and ramps, at each equine leap we wait to hold our breath, hoping for a clear round. In that instant of anticipation, and when our eyes are off-stage, the busy painter is at work.
Kenneth McConkey
[1] ??????????? RF Foster, WB Yeats, A Life II, The Arch-Poet, 1915-1939, 2003, (OxFord University Press), p. 351.
[2] ??????????? McConkey 2010, pp. 164-166. The Laverys attendance at the games was at the invitation of WB Yeats.
[3] ??????????? Ibid, pp. 160-163.
[4] ??????????? By this time Lavery's Irish-themed exhibition plan had developed into the possibility of presenting two collections of his work to museums in Dublin and Belfast.
DUBLIN HORSE SHOW, 1928
Oil on canvasboard, 20" x 24" (51 x 61cm), signed and inscribed 'To Lennox, from Hazel, Sep: 31'; signed, inscribed and dated 1928 verso.
Provenance: Gifted to Lennox Robinson by Lady Lavery, 1931; by descent; Christie's 6 November 1981, Private Collection, Dublin.
Exhibited: London and Edinburgh, Fine Art Society, Belfast, Ulster Museum and Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Sir John Lavery RA, 1856-1941, 1984 no. 106 (illus in catalogue, p. 102).
Literature: Kenneth McConkey, John Lavery, A Painter and his World, 2010, (Atelier Books), p. 179 (illus fig 209).
In 1931, when the poet, playwright and actor-manager, Lennox Robinson, was about to be married to Dolly Travers Smith, Hazel Lavery selected a painting to have it inscribed by her husband as a wedding gift. It must of course be Irish, and ideally allude to shared experience. And, while The Dublin Horse Show was not the only appropriate Irish picture that she may have pulled from the studio racks - there were other landscapes and figure-pieces, some more theatrical in character - the present canvas was a souvenir of the social firmament in which its recipient was a star. A confidante of the Laverys, Robinson shared Hazel's Yeats-ian 'Celtic Revival' sympathies, even though, like George Yeats, she must have been aware of rumours of the 'Oscar Wilde-ish sort' that swirled around him.[1]
Back in January 1924, following her husband's appointment to the Board of Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, John and Hazel Lavery returned to Dublin in the summer to attend Aonach Tailteann, popularly referred to as the Irish Olympic Games.[2] The artist had the idea that he would stage an Irish-themed exhibition of recent work, and to achieve this goal, they motored south, down through the Wicklow hills to Tramore and across to the Ring of Kerry. Thereafter, summer visits for the Dublin Horse Show in August became a regular fixture - such that in 1926, following a brief holiday in Deauville, Lavery obtained special permission to paint the 'Hunter Class' event at Ballsbridge from the judges' box (fig 1). The conditions were cramped, and the canvas was small, but it contained enough information to suggest the possibility of a larger work of the type he had recently achieved at Epsom and Ascot.[3] Even though this summer fell between two exhibitions and extended sojourns in New York and Florida, Lavery still retained his Irish ambition.
Fig ??????? The Hunter Class at the 1926 Dublin Horse Show, 1926, 49.5 x 59, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin
An immediate follow-up was however delayed, as a result the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins, the Irish Justice Minister, in July 1927. O'Higgins had been a close friend of Hazel Lavery and an ally of Michael Collins during the Civil War. For remnants of the Anti-Treaty IRA, he had long remained a divisive figure, and with the consequent rise in tensions, the Laverys decided to cancel their plans for Dublin that year and the painter waited to revisit the show in 1928 when the present work was painted.[4]
Two years then separate the first and second paintings of the arena at Ballsbridge. On this second occasion, Lavery looked beyond the window stanchions and striped awning to concentrate on the main arena, including the roof of the stand over which the Irish flag, the focal point, proudly ripples in the breeze. Beyond this, on the left, is the tower of St Mary's, the Donnybrook Church of Ireland parish church. While in the earlier study, a horse and rider are framed at the water jump, here a group of officials await the next contestant - one bearing a scarlet flag that, according to international rules, is used to indicate the right-hand-side of the jump. The formality of the occasion demands top hat and tails, while the formalist abstraction of the painting, with its downward foreground diagonal, calls for rigorous control.
Lavery was a master of such moments. If something was there in front of him, he would paint it while everyone waited. Figures in the middle distance were a joy. Each an individual. We know that his men are checking their programmes and looking in the direction of the unseen jumper, and on this moody August day, amidst the crazy zigzags of fences and ramps, at each equine leap we wait to hold our breath, hoping for a clear round. In that instant of anticipation, and when our eyes are off-stage, the busy painter is at work.
Kenneth McConkey
[1] ??????????? RF Foster, WB Yeats, A Life II, The Arch-Poet, 1915-1939, 2003, (OxFord University Press), p. 351.
[2] ??????????? McConkey 2010, pp. 164-166. The Laverys attendance at the games was at the invitation of WB Yeats.
[3] ??????????? Ibid, pp. 160-163.
[4] ??????????? By this time Lavery's Irish-themed exhibition plan had developed into the possibility of presenting two collections of his work to museums in Dublin and Belfast.
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PLEASE BID EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.
In order to allow rival bidders the opportunity to respond to a late bid the following extensions will apply:
IF A BID IS RECEIVED WITHIN THE FINAL 45 SECONDS OF THE COUNTDOWN THE CLOCK WILL RESET TO 60 SECONDS.
At any point you can leave a maximum bid, representing the highest price you are prepared to pay for a particular lot. Bidding only advances when there is competition from a rival bidder. In that case the system bids on your behalf, only up to the maximum if required. All bids are relayed to you be email, along with notification if you have been outbid.
All maximum bids are confidential and not disclosed. The system will endeavor to purchase the lot for you for the least price. Bids are subject to buyer’s premium of 25% (incl vat), with no additional charges.
In the event of a tied bid, the preference will be given to the bid submitted first. The second bidder will receive immediate notification of being outbid.
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