Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A.

Miss Molly Lawrence, Belfast

Ross's, Belfast, 'The Lawrence Collection', 6 February 2002, lot 226 (as Portrait of a Lady)

Private collection

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Mlle Molly Lawrence, Belfast

Ross's, Belfast, "The Lawrence Collection", 6 février 2002, lot 226 (as Portrait of a Lady)

Collection privée

The picture formerly known simply as Portrait of a Lady, and dated c. 1930, purely on stylistic grounds, can now be identified as that listed for probate among the contents of Lavery’s studio at the time of his death, and titled thus: ‘An Indian Lady (Madame Meta?)’.[1]

The subject of ongoing research, the sitter is thought to be the wife of Jamna Das Mehta, a longstanding member of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council. Mehta was presented at court in Buckingham Palace on 20 May 1931, when Lavery sketched the event from the musicians’ balcony. Portrait studies of individual attendees followed and were combined in Their Majesties’ Court, (unlocated) his principal exhibit in the Royal Academy of 1932.[2] Known only from illustrations, it is highly likely that Madame Mehta is one of two Indian women seen prominently in the foreground of this painting.[3]

Kenneth McConkey

[1]             Miss Lawrence, the daughter of a county Antrim farmer, lived in Portstewart and Belfast, while building a large collection of Irish art. She owned one other study for Their Majesties’ Court and The Housetops, Tangier, 1912.

[2]             Mr Mehta passed through Pyms Gallery, London in 1993; see An Ireland Imagined … 1993 (exhibition catalogue, Pyms Gallery, London, entry by Kenneth McConkey), no. 20 (p. 35, illus).

[3]             See ‘A Court at Buckingham Palace’, The Sphere, 4 May 1935, pp. 186-7 (illus in colour); also, Kenneth McConkey, Sir John Lavery, A Painter and his World, 2010, (Atelier Books, Edinburgh), pp. 187-190. Back views of two Indian gentlemen, can be seen in the background.