Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Lot 21
Sir John Lavery R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A.(1856-1941)Moonrise; Tangier 25.1 x 35.3 cm. (9 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.)
29 May 2013, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£12,000 - £18,000
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Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Ingram Reid
Director
Sir John Lavery R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A. (1856-1941)
Moonrise; Tangier
signed 'J. Lavery' (lower right); further signed, inscribed and dated 'Moonrise; Tangier/John Lavery/1920' (verso) and signed, inscribed and dated again 'MOONRISE/TANGIER EVENING/LAVERY/1925' (on the backboard)
oil on canvasboard
25.1 x 35.3 cm. (9 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.)
signed 'J. Lavery' (lower right); further signed, inscribed and dated 'Moonrise; Tangier/John Lavery/1920' (verso) and signed, inscribed and dated again 'MOONRISE/TANGIER EVENING/LAVERY/1925' (on the backboard)
oil on canvasboard
25.1 x 35.3 cm. (9 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.)
Footnotes
PROVENANCE:
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 18 May 2000, lot 108, where acquired by the present owner
In January 1920 the Laverys returned to Tangier for what was to be their final Moroccan tour – one that would include a sea journey down the African coast to Rabat and from there, an overland journey to Marrakesh. However, much of the time was spent at Dar-el-Midfah, the painter's house on Mount Washington, to the south-west of Tangier, a 'beautiful suburb' according to Selwyn Brinton, '... where are some of the best European residences'. Here the painter revisited familiar motifs. At the 'cool, delicious hour of sunset' he would follow the local custom, repair to the flat rooftop of his house and there he would paint the moon rising above the villas on the distant ridges (Selwyn Brinton MA, 'An English Artist in Morocco', The Connoisseur, vol xix, 1907, p.37-8).
A number of these small skyscapes, from various winter sojourns have survived, as indeed have larger canvases showing his Arab servants listening to music or gazing out to sea from the house-top – one such, Evening on the Housetop, Tangier, (Private Collection) was painted on the current trip. The present work, with its sensuous rivulets of paint, must surely indicate that Lavery's lyrical feeling for the handling of materials had not deserted him. Its spontaneity provides further evidence of the exuberance that such moments on the motif produced.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for compiling this catalogue entry.
