WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 7 March 2022 from 6PM

34 22 Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941) THE EARL OF LONSDALE K. G., 1931 oil on canvas signed lower left; signed, titled and dated on reverse; with partial framer’s label also on reverse 26 by 16.50in. (66 by 41.9cm) Frame size: 31.50 by 22.50in. (80 by 57.2cm) Provenance: Christie’s, London, 6 March 1986, lot 51; Private collection; Whyte’s, 28 September 2015, lot 21; Private collection Exhibited: ‘Their Majesties’ Court, Buckingham Palace, 1931, ‘Portrait Studies and Other Sketches by Sir John Lavery RA’, P&D Colnaghi & Co, London, 1932, catalogue no. 65, as Study for the Portrait of the Earl of Lonsdale KG (illustrated in catalogue) Literature: Anon, ‘The Court at Buckingham Palace painted by Sir John Lavery’, The Studio, vol 104, November 1932, p. 271 (illustrated full page in colour); John Lavery, ‘The Life of a Painter’, 1940 (Cassell, p. 176; Kenneth McConkey, ‘Sir John Lavery’, 1993, (Canongate), p. 181- 182; Kenneth McConkey, ‘John Lavery, A Painter and his World’, 2010 (Atelier Books), p. 186 ‘To me he was the most paintable – not to say the best dressed – Englishman I knew’, Lavery wrote when he recalled his sittings in 1930 with Hugh Cecil Lowther, Fifth Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944). The previous year he had been approached by the city of Doncaster for a large portrait of the ‘Yellow Earl’ in Garter Robes to hang in its Mansion House, in commemoration of his beneficence to the city. Lonsdale had promoted its racecourse and recently performed the Doncaster airport opening ceremony. Although Lavery included his flamboyant sitter’s yellow coach and liveried flunkeys in the finished product, he was privately critical with the result (fig 1). 1 Of course the ‘State Portrait’ embodied a set of conventions stretching back to Tudor times. It was, as John Berger and others have pointed out, more to do with the trappings of status and power than with individual personality. 2 These immediately created tensions for the modern portrait painter who was already losing ground to photography. Although he came from an age when such things remained possible – as his State Visit of Queen Victoria… 1888 (Glasgow Museums) testifies – Lavery, like the younger painters, William Orpen, William Nicholson and Augustus John, realized that the purposes underwriting such conventions were gone. Catching the mind’s construction in the face was much more important and even though some critics admired the ‘dazzlingly magnificent’ rendering of the celebrity sitter, others inevitably regarded the extraneous inclusions of the Doncaster portrait as a mark of its failure. One even remarked that St James’s Park with the Houses of Parliament in the background, was ‘perilously near to Hollywood’s notion of the stately homes of England’. 3 Although Lavery might agree before sending the grand portrait to the Academy, there is little doubt that he was impressed by Lowther’s radiant personality. His striking face, marked by years in the boxing ring, transcended all. The second son of the third Earl, he was not expected to inherit the title and as a youth had to be rescued from unwise entanglements by his family – he ran away from Eton to join the circus, and then sold his inheritance to invest in a cattle ranch in Wyoming which failed. 4 At twenty-one he married the daughter of the Marquis of Huntly against her parents’ wishes, and disgraced himself by having an affair with an actress ten years later – necessitating a long penitential expedition through the frozen wastes of Canada. 5 Thereafter he settled down to enjoy himself in sporting activities, becoming first President of the National Sporting Club, inaugurating the Lonsdale Belt in 1909, becoming a Senior Steward at the Jockey Club, and later, chairing both the Automobile Association and Arsenal Football Club. He was also a keen yachtsman, racing Kaiser Wilhelm II at Cowes in the 1890s and defeating him in seventeen of the twenty-two races they contested. The two, nevertheless were firm friends up to the Great War, Lowther hosting Wilhelm at Lowther Castle, his country seat in Cumberland, in 1907. 6 What impressed Lavery in the aging roué however, was his dapper appearance. He habitually wore a pale grey lounge suit, with a gardenia buttonhole. 7 His silk tie carried his racing colours, and he was always seen holding a large Havana cigar – of the type named after him. It was in this form that the painter decided to represent him in a separate portrait (fig 2) destined for the Society of Portrait Painters and the Paris Salon. 8 Despite his misgivings, Lavery followed normal custom and practice with the Doncaster commission. This entailed making an oil sketch of the ensemble – the present canvas. In this instance it was essential on account of the detail required in the regalia. As is often the case, works of this type have a freshness and spontaneity which grand manner productions sometime lack. Here for instance, the proportions of the figure are more satisfactory than in the Doncaster version, and the warm colouring of drapes and carpet work better with the overall scheme than its chequered floor and cooler palette. In bravura touches, Lavery catches the sheen of the cloak lining and gold braid of the uniform, accentuating their decorative effect. Lowther may well be steering his family fortunes towards the rocks, but none of this is apparent in the face or indeed, the outward pageantry that the painter was asked to record. Prof. Kenneth McConkey September 2015 1 A study for the state coach in the background of the portrait, formerly in the collection of Paul Getty, was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 29 November 2007. A full size replica by another hand was placed in Lowther Castle, the family’s ancestral home in Cumberland. 2 See for instance John Berger, ‘The Changing View of Man in the Portrait’, in Selected Essays and Articles, 1972 (Penguin Books), pp. 35-41. 3 ‘This Lively “Modern” Academy’, Western Daily Press, 2 May 1931, p. 7; ‘Scotland at Royal Academy’, Aberdeen Journal, 2 May 1931, p. 7. 4 The family’s immense fortune had mostly derived from the Cumbrian mines, which were exhausted by the 1930s. 5 Lowther’s affair with Violet Cameron (1862-1919) led to two illegitimate children. His resulting collection of Inuit artefacts was donated to the British Museum. 6 Winning the Kaiser’s respect was critical at a time when his country’s rapid militarisation struck fear into the western powers. 7 Lowther’s suits were reputedly woven from the wool of sheep which grazed the fells around Lowther Castle, by Henry Poole of Savile Row. 8 See McConkey 2010, p. 187. €25,000-€40,000 (£18,380-£29,410 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot22 Fig 1. Sir John Lavery, The Right Honourable Earl of Lonsdale, KG, GCVO, 1931, Doncaster Mansion House Fig 2. Sir John Lavery, Hugh Cecil Lowther, Fifth Earl of Lonsdale, 1930, National Portrait Gallery, London