Sir John Lavery RHA RA (1856-1941) Portrait of Mrs. C. F. S...

Hammer

€12,000

Sir John Lavery RHA RA (1856-1941) Portrait of Mrs. C. F. Shanks with her Dog Oil on canvas, 76.3 x 64cm (30 x 25¼) Signed; Also signed, dated 1934 and inscribed 'Mrs C. F. Shanks, Posthumous Portrait' verso Provenance: Collection of the Hon. Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., thence by descent Lavery is renowned for his society and political portraits. These works in many ways served both the artist and sitter in their outward expression of wealth and status achieved by both in the very act of commissioning the paintings. Mrs C.F.Shanks, is depicted in half-length, looking out directly at the viewer, she has a strong confident presence that was often found in Lavery’s high society portraits. Though clothed in a fairly modest dress, placing her against a stark pale background allows Lavery to pick out the lustrous highlights of her string of pearls and pearl earrings. She is portrayed with her arm around her pet dog, and Lavery’s inscription verso indicates that the portrait, dated to 1934, was done posthumously. Lavery’s agent Joseph Duveen had made his name in the modern art world by recognizing the opportunity that existed between the wealth, on two accounts, of art in Europe and money in the America. He was a staunch promoter of British art overseas and works that he introduced to the market became the basis for numerous museum collections across the country. Duveen had already played the important role in selling to self-made industrialists on the notion that buying art was also buying upper-class status.In the same way that commissioning artists such as Lavery to paint your portrait was a way of expressing that upper-class status for those who had massive fortunes but lacked the legacy that traditional landowning families had by virtue of their lineage.