Sir John Lavery

 

Mrs Lavery sketching, 1910

This is a portrait of his wife, Lady Lavery, by John Lavery. It was completed in 1910. She was the lady who later appeared on the Irish banknotes.

National Gallery of Australia

Mrs Lavery sketching, 1910
National Gallery of Australia

Mrs Lavery sketching, 1910

This is a portrait of his wife, Lady Lavery, by John Lavery. It was completed in 1910. She was the lady who later appeared on the Irish banknotes.

National Gallery of Australia

Enlarge image

John Lavery was born in Belfast in 1856.  He attended the Haldane Academy in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1870s and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s.  It was while in Paris that he would have first befriended Frank O'Meara.

He is most famous for his portrait painting.  During World War I, John Lavery became an official artist for the British government.  He was knighted after the war. 

His second wife, Lady Hazel Avery, is the subject of his most famous portraits.  She was one of the great beauties of the times and her protrait appeared on Irish banknotes before the introduction of the euro in 2002.