.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Mary in Black is one of the most sensitive portrayals of Mary Auras, Lavery's favourite model in the early years of the 20th Century.1 Its simplicity and directness demonstrates the painter's consummate ability to engage the spectator without recourse to studio props, fashionable dresses and expensive millinery. Mary's pensive gaze locks the viewer into a moment of quiet contemplation and provides an eloquent riposte to those contemporary critics who felt the painter was trapped in a recreation of Whistlerian colour harmonies.
Lavery was introduced to the sixteen year old Mary Auras in Berlin in 1901 by the painter Auguste Neven du Mont.2 For about five years she acted as a kind of elder sister to Eileen, the painter's daughter. She began to appear in Lavery's work in 1902, and sat for important full-length portraits - such as Mary with Roses, 1902 (Johannesburg Art Gallery), Mary in a Green Coat, 1903 (Bradford Art Gallery) and the exceptional Printemps, 1904 (Musee d'Orsay, Paris). In addition to half-lengths and head studies she also posed as The Mother, circa 1902 (Ulster Museum, Belfast).3 She followed the painter to Brittany and Tangier and appears with Eileen and 'The President' (Lavery) in the sketchbook of Joseph Crawhall.4 It was in Tangier that she met her future husband, an eccentric British army officer, Nigel d'Albini Black Hawkins.5
When Lavery's first portraits of Mary Auras were exhibited in London, Paris and Berlin, her youth, beauty and flaming hair were taken as the epitome of the new woman. There were some difficulties to negotiate when the news got out that she was not English, but German. Arnold Bennett for instance, could not understand the French fascination for Lavery's 'English girls' in 1904, only to discover, when he met 'K', an artist friend, that she was 'the rage of Berlin' and had 'received five proposals in three months'.6 This came at a time of the Entente Cordiale, when there were dark suspicions in Britain and France about the military ambitions of the Kaiser.
It was nevertheless the case that the young German model arrived at one of the high points in Lavery's career. He had moved to London in 1896, not to cultivate a British reputation, so much as to construct the springboard for an international career. Within a short time his works were acquired by American, Belgian, German and French national and municipal galleries, and he was awarded honorary membership of many European academies. Mary in Black appears to have been selected for the St Louis Exhibition of Irish Art in 1904, a show that was something of a cause célèbre. At a late stage, the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, the body responsible for coordinating the exhibition under the colonial administration, faced with a high insurance bill, removed its support and the exhibition was cancelled.7 Sir Horace Plunkett and Hugh Lane then persuaded A.G. Temple to take it at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.8 Lavery who had shortened an exhibition at Schulte's Gallery in Berlin to have work available for St Louis, appears, during the period of uncertainty, to have substituted larger works.9
1 Lavery used the title Mary in Black on more than one occasion. W. S. Sparrow, John Lavery and his work, n.d. [1911], p. 142, for instance refers to a Mary in Black, painted on a 30 x 25 in. canvas. A work of this title was given by the artist to his friend, the sculptor, Auguste Rodin.
2 J. Lavery, The Life of a Painter, London, 1944, p. 76; K. McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Edinburgh, 1993, p. 108.
3 For a fuller discussion of works featuring Mary Auras, see K. McConkey, 1993, pp. 108-112.
4 V. Hamilton, Joseph Crawhall, 1861-1913, One of the Glasgow Boys, London, 1990, p. 71-73.
5 K. McConkey, 1993, p. 148.
6 N. Flower (ed.), The Journals of Arnold Bennett, London, 1932, pp. 167, 170 (entries for 19 April and 6 May 1904). 'K' was either Gerald Kelly or Milner Kite.
7 Recent forest fires across the United States had sent insurance costs soaring.
8 For fuller accounts of this series of events see Lady Gregory, Hugh Lane's Life and Achievement, 1921, J. Murray, pp. 46-50; see also R. O'Byrne, Hugh Lane 1875-1915, Dublin, 2000, pp. 48-52.
9 Mary in Black does not appear in the catalogue of the Guildhall Art Gallery exhibition. Lavery showed twenty-five works in Schulte's Gallery in Berlin, 15 of which are listed by W. S. Sparrow, John Lavery and His Work, London, n.d. [1911], p. 184. It is not unlikely, given the transfer of pictures to the St Louis project, and in view of Bennett's comments (see note 6) that the present version of Mary in Black was also included in the German exhibition.
K.M.
Lavery was introduced to the sixteen year old Mary Auras in Berlin in 1901 by the painter Auguste Neven du Mont.
When Lavery's first portraits of Mary Auras were exhibited in London, Paris and Berlin, her youth, beauty and flaming hair were taken as the epitome of the new woman. There were some difficulties to negotiate when the news got out that she was not English, but German. Arnold Bennett for instance, could not understand the French fascination for Lavery's 'English girls' in 1904, only to discover, when he met 'K', an artist friend, that she was 'the rage of Berlin' and had 'received five proposals in three months'.
It was nevertheless the case that the young German model arrived at one of the high points in Lavery's career. He had moved to London in 1896, not to cultivate a British reputation, so much as to construct the springboard for an international career. Within a short time his works were acquired by American, Belgian, German and French national and municipal galleries, and he was awarded honorary membership of many European academies. Mary in Black appears to have been selected for the St Louis Exhibition of Irish Art in 1904, a show that was something of a cause célèbre. At a late stage, the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, the body responsible for coordinating the exhibition under the colonial administration, faced with a high insurance bill, removed its support and the exhibition was cancelled.
K.M.