Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.H.A., R.S.A. 1856-1941

Patrick Smith Dunn, a gift from the artist and thence by descent;
Their sale, Sotheby’s, London, 22 November 1983, lot 67, whence purchased by Mr and Mrs René Rivkin, Sydney, Australia;
Their sale, Sotheby’s, London, 18 May 2001, lot 173, whence purchased by the present owner

London, Spink and Son, Sir John Lavery RA, 1856-1941, 1971, no. 17;
Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society, Sir John Lavery RA, 1856-1941, 11 August - 8 September 1984, with tour to London, Belfast and Dublin, no. 16A, illustrated in the catalogue.

Kenneth McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Edinburgh 1992, pp. 42-7, fig. 46.

The present Sketch is Lavery’s preparatory study for The Tennis Party (fig 1, Aberdeen Art Gallery). It relates closely to what has been regarded as his most famous painting – a work which was extensively exhibited, reproduced, sold to the Neue Pinakothek in Munich and in a groundswell patriotic feeling, repatriated to Scotland in 1926. Although clearly inscribed as a ‘sketch’, the present version is a complete realization of the whole composition and it would be fair to claim that the Aberdeen canvas would not have achieved the success it did, were it not for the essential planning which the present version represents. Its remarkable fluidity, freshness and compositional control echoes that of the large picture.

Painted at Cartbank, Cathcart, near Paisley in Renfrewshire, it shows one of a number of courts established for the newly popular game of lawn tennis, a game invented by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. Within a decade it had swept the country and was spreading to the Empire as a rival to cricket – the traditional garrison sport. From its inception the great virtue of lawn tennis was, as the present canvas indicates, that it could be played by both women and men – although women’s clothing was more restrictive than men’s. The game provided new opportunities for social interaction, under the watchful gaze of chaperones, as is clear from Lavery’s observations. It was also a more private pursuit, in that although clubs were established, courts could easily be added to the suburban villas of the wealthy middle classes.

In later years, Lavery considered that The Tennis Party, his ‘first successful picture’ after his return from France, expressed his debt to the training he had recently received (John Lavery, The Life of a Painter, 1940, Cassell and Co., p. 57). He linked the picture directly with a celebrated encounter with Jules Bastien-Lepage, the young hero of the Salon, whose tragic death at the end of 1884 had stunned the artist community. Bastien-Lepage famously instructed him to,

‘Always carry a sketch-book. Select a person – watch him – then put down as much as you remember. Never look twice. At first you will remember very little, but continue and you will soon get complete action’ (John Lavery, The Life of a Painter, 1940, Cassell and Co., p. 57). 

Lavery is not known for his sketchbooks – in fact none have survived. He carried ‘pochade’ boxes of various sizes, for producing small on-the-spot oil sketches, but other than using a light sable brush to provide outlines for figures in paintings, he seldom drew in the conventional sense. Every other aspect of Bastien-Lepage’s advice was taken up. It is obvious from the present work that he had studied figure movement and had, within a comparatively short time, developed a prodigious visual memory. As a former photographer’s assistant, Lavery was also aware of recent technical advances in photography, with the goal of providing small portable cameras and instantaneous images. Nevertheless freezing a figure in the midst of some energetic activity often did not convey the full sense of action and it was through close observation and careful recall that the significant pose could be found. This is what ultimately commended the finished version of The Tennis Party to George Moore; reviewing the Salon in 1888, Moore declared The Tennis Party, ‘a work of real talent’ (The Hawk, 8 May 1889, p. 259).

Both the present Sketch and the Aberdeen canvas, indicate Lavery’s total immersion in the game. Two dramatic, related works, A Rally and Played!! focus upon the action of the female player, while The Tennis Match and Beg Sir! (fig. 2) shift the eye to the spectators and resting players. These informal gatherings became the subject of an aerial view of Paisley Lawn Tennis Club in 1889 (fig. 3, Renfrew Museums and Galleries).

Lavery became the centre of attention while these pictures were in progress. Other ‘Glasgow Boys’ – Arthur Meville, Edward Arthur Walton and James Guthrie - visited him and offered advice. Sometimes the models changed, depending on who was on court. Two years after Lavery’s death, the leading player, Alix MacBride wrote to the Keeper of Aberdeen Art Gallery explaining that the picture showed,

‘… no special occasion but was just a composition in which at odd times my sister, a cousin and I posed for the principle [sic] figures – and in these old tennis days we had a good number of friends coming about us and the other figures were taken from some of them’ (Letter dated 18 December 1943, (Aberdeen Art Gallery); quoted in McConkey 1993, p. 44).

Some of the changes that have occurred between the Sketch and the finished picture, may be attributed to the advice Lavery received. These principally concern the placing of the male player on the extreme left, who lunges to return Miss MacBride’s serve. In the Sketch, the figure, in full sunlight, punctuates the composition satisfactorily. However, on a larger scale, this did not work so well and Lavery introduced the new figure of a man leaning on the fence at the edge of the court, smoking. A girl, thought to be Eva Fulton, is also added, beside the central seated female, thought to be her relative. Both sitters had appeared in Convalescence (fig 4, sold Sotheby’s 13 May 2005, lot 36), painted slightly earlier in 1885. Additional figures were also added to the row of onlookers at the far side of the court. The only other major change was to the lighting which in the sketch is slightly more dramatic, with more gaps between the trees.

However the most extraordinary aspect of both the Sketch and final painting, is the daring nature of the idea. No major work celebrating this new pastime, despite its prevalence, had been produced up to this point. Although Lavery was undoubtedly aware of the formal innovations, dramatic space cutting and greater technical freedom of the Impressionists, he opted in this instance to give a complete statement of the spatial theatre of the game. The horizontal double square format of both canvases enables the viewer to become a participant who has just arrived at the court and surveys the scene. It defines the stage upon which players and audience perform. With great acumen it completely describes a phenomenon that is very familiar today. So powerful was the imprint of this first experience, that when in the 1920s Lavery returned to paint tennis matches at Trent Park, London, Palm Beach, Florida and at the Hotel du Beau Site, Cannes he adopted a vantage point which afforded a full view of the play. Lavery’s step-daughter, Alice Trudeau, see lot 47, was a keen tennis player in the late twenties and her participation, along with the publicity associated with the repatriation of The Tennis Party, is likely to have led to the painter’s return to this subject matter.

Kenneth McConkey