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

Probably Manchester, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 1929 as Lady in Brown, no.13;
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, 28^th International Exhibition, 1929, and touring to Baltimore and St Louis;
London, Pyms Gallery, The Irish Revival, 1982, no.25;
Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society, Sir John Lavery RA 1856-1941, 1984-5, no.106, and touring to Fine Art Society, London, Ulster Museum, Belfast and National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

Annette Wilson, 'Celtic Splendour', Ulster Tatler, June 1982, p.111;
Kenneth McConkey, 'Hazel in Black and Gold', Irish Arts Review, vol 1, no 3, Autumn 1984, p.17, illustrated on the cover;
Kenneth McConkey, Sir John Lavery, Canongate, Edinburgh, 1993, p.186, illustrated p.188;
Sinéad McCoole, Hazel, A Life of Lady Lavery, 1880-1935, Lilliput Press, Dublin, 1996, p.175;
Kenneth McConkey, Lavery, A Painter and his World, Atelier Books, 2010, pp. 179-180, illustrated.

This report has been prepared by the independent conservator, Hamish Dewar Ltd., Fine Art Conservation, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London, SW1Y 6BU, unconditional and without prejudice: Structural Condition The canvas is unlined on what would certainly appear to be the original wooden keyed stretcher. There is a pattern of slightly raised craquelure which is stable and secure. Paint surface The paint surface has a rather uneven varnish layer and revarnishing would be beneficial. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows some areas of retouching. The most significant of these are in the dark background in the upper right corner and also along the lower horizontal framing edge. There is a vertical line of retouching running up from the lower horizontal framing edge which is approximately 12 cm in length with surrounding retouchings including a thin horizontal line in the lower right corner. The majority of these retouchings are undoubtedly considerably larger than is really necessary; only small losses can be identified beneath these retouchings. If these excessive retouchings were removed, together with the discoloured varnish layers, I would be confident that the amount of retouching could be considerably reduced. There should also be a worthwhile improvement in the overall appearance as a result of cleaning. Summary The painting is therefore in good, stable condition and could benefit greatly from further restoration work.
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The Gold Turban is the most important late portrait of Lavery's most glamorous subject. Although he painted numerous female sitters including Mary Auras, Anna Pavlova, Diana Manners, Marguerite von Höllrigl and Alice Wimborne, Hazel Lavery, (1880-1935) the painter's second wife, was undoubtedly his favourite model, posing for numerous single and group portraits, as well as holiday and other scenes between 1905 and 1934. They met in 1903 at Beg-Meil in Brittany when, chaperoned by her mother, Hazel was visiting Europe prior to her marriage to a young New York doctor, Edward Livington Trudeau Jnr. They met, according to Lavery, when his friend, Joseph Milner Kite called for assistance when his portrait of Hazel got into difficulties. He recalled,

'Staying at the same hotel I used to see two girls on their veranda at morning coffee, as I passed on my way to work with my 6-foot canvas strapped to my shoulders. Kite in formed me that ... he was trying to paint the elder one who, I could see was very beautiful; and added that he would be for ever indebted to me if I could give him a hand. I was only too glad to show off, especially before such loveliness; and ... in a very short time I was looked upon by the sitter as a master and treated with great respect, not to say admiration...' (John Lavery, The Life of a Painter, Cassell and Co, 1940, pp. 128-9)

Hazel's mother instantly witnessed her growing fascination with a painter in his late forties and was alarmed. Her daughter was swiftly extricated and promptly married. However, after Trudeau's tragic and untimely death in 1904, the young and beautiful widow's friendship with Lavery resumed, and he painted his first portrait of her in 1905 when she was recovering from nephritis and staying at Malvern Wells (fig.1). Although Mrs Martyn heartily disapproved of this middle-aged Irish painter, the couple remained in contact, secretly met in Paris in 1907 and were eventually married in July 1909 at Brompton Oratory.

Comparison between this first portrait and the present work reveals striking similarities and differences. Separated by twenty-four years, the pictures show the same woman swathed in fur, but while the early work is a painstaking rendition of the sitter looking directly at the spectator, the later one shows her glancing to the side. The first is calm, centred and staring; the second is racy, immediate and animated. Stasis in the work of 1905 is reinforced by a painted oval frame within the rectangle, while movement is accentuated in that of 1929 by overlapping curves in the coat, collar and hat. In the first, the painter is studying a new face, while in the latter he is finding new expression in a very familiar one.

After their brief honeymoon in Southend-on-Sea, sandwiched between sitters' appointments, Lavery produced two important portraits of Hazel – Mother and Child, 1909 and Mrs Lavery Sketching, 1910 (both Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin) – before embarking on the monumental Artist's Studio, 1910-13 (National Gallery of Ireland) as he worked towards the International Exhibition in Rome and a major retrospective at the Venice Biennale in 1910. The irony was that this painter who had been a leading 'Glasgow Boy' and the guiding hand behind the first eight years of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, who was honoured by the French, German, Belgian and Italian governments and had served as a Carnegie juror in Pittsburgh, was not a member of the Royal Academy. After ten years in which this had been ceaselessly pointed out by critics, Lavery was finally elected in 1911 and one of his early exhibits was a portrait of Hazel entitled The Silver Turban (fig.2).

A cavalcade of portraits followed as Hazel was prominently placed in a variety of costumes as centre-pieces. Hazel in Black and Gold at the Academy was followed by Hazel in Rose and Gold at the International Society and critics searched an appropriate language to describe their belle allure (figs 3 and 4). Observers at the Academy  Private View in 1916 noted Hazel with her friend, Clementine Churchill standing in front of her portrait. Whistler had produced similar colour harmonies in full-length portraits but he often lacked Lavery's conviction. Sargent applied more brio, but risked mechanical repetition – to the point where in 1907 he could no longer take the strain of constant commissions. Lavery, with a splendid in-house model who was keen to court publicity, was less constrained. Of Hazel in Black and Gold, one critic observed,

'It is impossible to help thinking that in the distant future this portrait will only have gained by lapse of time, and that it will be regarded as one of the world's pictures. It has not very much colour, but as much as in many of the old masters' portraits which have gained renown...' (quoted in McConkey, op.cit., 1984, p. 17) 

Black and Gold had become Hazel's colours.

Although he was a renowned figure in London society before their marriage, Lavery consistently maintained that he owed his reputation to Hazel and whilst in objective terms, this is by no means the case, her social ambitions undoubtedly complemented his artistic ones. As a society hostess she brought glamour to the dinner table at Cromwell Place, entertaining the Churchills, the Coopers, the Asquiths and many other glitterati of the period. She was sketched by Sargent, Birley and McEvoy, was miniaturized by Praga, and photographed by Hoppé. She posed as the Madonna, stood in for Pavlova, was the face of an early Pond's Cream advertising campaign and achieved present and posthumous fame as Kathleen ni Houlihan on the Irish currency (figs 5 and 6).

However it was as herself, that Hazel Lavery occupied a dominant role in the Lavery canon posing for full-lengths, half-lengths, ovals and head studies which punctuated the twenty-five years of their marriage. By 1929, the 'silver' turban had turned to 'gold' and Lavery produced the extraordinary Gold Turban. Here the 'belle allure' of the earlier portraits rises to a level of intensity not seen elsewhere in Lavery's art. Hazel is caught mid-sentence, her Uhlan-style head-gear throws her eyes into shadow as she glances towards an unseen friend. The animated Hazel was something many of her portraits had not yet revealed. Sadly, The Gold Turban was to be Lavery's last great portrait of Hazel. Here was a ghostly figure, suddenly sparkling as she moved. In 1929 she underwent an operation to remove an impacted wisdom tooth and the effects of the anaesthetic left her debilitated. The following four years were marked by bouts of illness which became severe in 1934 and despite vigorous attempts on the part of her husband to consult a range of doctors, she died on 3 Jan 1935. His last sentimental painting of the debilitated Hazel on her deathbed was appropriately entitled The Unfinished Symphony (Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin). However, the animated sitter of The Gold Turban, sharp, scintillating and seductive, may be a more fitting souvenir. 

Kenneth McConkey