Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A. Tangier
Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A
1856 - 1941
Tangier
oil on canvas
unframed: 33 by 41 cm.; 13 by 16 1/4 in.
framed: 38.5 by 46.5 cm.; 15 by 18 1/4 in.
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Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A
1856 - 1941
Tangier
huile sur toile
sans cadre: 33 by 41 cm.; 13 by 16 1/4 in.
avec cadre: 38.5 by 46.5 cm.; 15 by 18 1/4 in.
Condition Report:
The canvas is unlined. There is some rubbing to the paint surface and canvas at the extreme edges and corners of the work, in keeping with a work of this age. There are a couple of tiny scratches at the extreme edges, only visible upon close inspection. There are a couple of tiny flecks of loss in the extreme upper left corner. The work appears to be in excellent overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals one small area of retouching in the extreme upper left corner, one in the upper left quadrant and three very small instances in the extreme lower left corner. The work is held within a simple gilded wooden frame.
Catalogue Note:
When John Lavery arrived in Tangier for the first time in 1891, its busy marketplace was one of his first ports-of-call.[1] Deserted most days of the week, this large compound outside the walls of the Medina sprang to life on Thursdays and Sundays when traders flocked to the city in large numbers to sell their wares at any vacant patch of earth they could find.
For many Orientalists before him, this ‘Grand Socco’ was an authentic site of enchantment. Contemporary accounts list the commodities – everything from fruit and fish to cloth and cooking pots - for which haggling was the norm. Storytellers, jugglers, fire eaters, and other wayside performers hoped to entrap indifferent passers-by; as is clear from Lavery’s Snake Charmers (Private Collection) the largest work he painted during that first visit.[2]
On subsequent explorations of the city and its environs in the early years of the twentieth century, the experience was revisited. Taking a rooftop vantage point looking north-east over the teeming square the artist mapped the scene.
Hidden from view, the little harbour that faces the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar, lies at the foot of the promontory on the right. Stretching off towards the Kasbah on the left, the roofline is broken by the tower of Djama el Kebir, the city’s oldest mosque.[3] Sketches like this, produced from other rooftops around the perimeter of the marketplace in 1906-7, reveal Lavery’s preoccupation with the ebb and flow of human traffic. It was a return to the aerial views of crowds he had observed from the tobacconist’s balcony at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888. The moving throng in the dusty north African space before him is indicated in a rapidly applied staccato of brushstrokes.[4] These notes accumulate towards a major work, The Market Place, Tangier, the largest and most important exhibit in the artist’s solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in June 1908.
Greatly praised by contemporary critics, this canvas was described by ACR Carter as an ‘ambitious composition’ in which,
… In a swirl of movement and life the crowd lives and breathes in the foreground and middle distance against a noble and reposeful foil of buildings on the rising hill, while beyond stretches the belt of cool blue sea.
These words could equally be applied in the present instance. Such fascinations were endless; Lavery was a student of the pulsing mass of humanity. And while in Tangier in 1920, on what would be his last sojourn in the city, he felt compelled to return to the rooftop from which the present canvas was painted.[5]
How different was this grimy spectacle from the Armistice Day parade or the high society murmuration on an average day in the stand at Ascot – and yet, the same. Such canvases, Carter concluded, provide ‘hope for the welfare and appreciation’ of contemporary art.[6] As time and place stand still, the eagle-eye of the painter swoops down, and the hand reveals its mastery.
Kenneth McConkey
[1] For a survey of artists in Tangier including Lavery, between 1880 and 1920, see Kenneth McConkey, Towards the Sun, The Artist Traveller at the turn of the Twentieth Century, 2021 (Paul Holberton Publishing), pp. 152-171.
[2] Kenneth McConkey, with Brendan Rooney, Lavery On Location, 2003-4 (exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Ireland), p. 89 (no 28); see also The Soko, 1891 (sold Whyte’s 21 May 2012).
[3] While it has not been possible to identify the artist’s viewpoint, construction around the perimeter of the Socco continued throughout the thirty years when Lavery frequented the city.
[4] One of these, of similar size, is listed as having been sold to the Venice Chamber of Commerce (unlocated), while another appeared at Adam’s Dublin, 30 May 2007.
[5] From similar, but not the same viewpoints Lavery painted The Market Place, Tangier, 1920 (sold Christie’s 12 May 2006) and The Moorish Flag hoisted on the German Legation, 1920...
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Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A
1856 - 1941
Tangier
oil on canvas
unframed: 33 by 41 cm.; 13 by 16 1/4 in.
framed: 38.5 by 46.5 cm.; 15 by 18 1/4 in.
-----------------------------------------------------
Sir John Lavery, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A
1856 - 1941
Tangier
huile sur toile
sans cadre: 33 by 41 cm.; 13 by 16 1/4 in.
avec cadre: 38.5 by 46.5 cm.; 15 by 18 1/4 in.
Condition Report:
The canvas is unlined. There is some rubbing to the paint surface and canvas at the extreme edges and corners of the work, in keeping with a work of this age. There are a couple of tiny scratches at the extreme edges, only visible upon close inspection. There are a couple of tiny flecks of loss in the extreme upper left corner. The work appears to be in excellent overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals one small area of retouching in the extreme upper left corner, one in the upper left quadrant and three very small instances in the extreme lower left corner. The work is held within a simple gilded wooden frame.
Catalogue Note:
When John Lavery arrived in Tangier for the first time in 1891, its busy marketplace was one of his first ports-of-call.[1] Deserted most days of the week, this large compound outside the walls of the Medina sprang to life on Thursdays and Sundays when traders flocked to the city in large numbers to sell their wares at any vacant patch of earth they could find.
For many Orientalists before him, this ‘Grand Socco’ was an authentic site of enchantment. Contemporary accounts list the commodities – everything from fruit and fish to cloth and cooking pots - for which haggling was the norm. Storytellers, jugglers, fire eaters, and other wayside performers hoped to entrap indifferent passers-by; as is clear from Lavery’s Snake Charmers (Private Collection) the largest work he painted during that first visit.[2]
On subsequent explorations of the city and its environs in the early years of the twentieth century, the experience was revisited. Taking a rooftop vantage point looking north-east over the teeming square the artist mapped the scene.
Hidden from view, the little harbour that faces the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar, lies at the foot of the promontory on the right. Stretching off towards the Kasbah on the left, the roofline is broken by the tower of Djama el Kebir, the city’s oldest mosque.[3] Sketches like this, produced from other rooftops around the perimeter of the marketplace in 1906-7, reveal Lavery’s preoccupation with the ebb and flow of human traffic. It was a return to the aerial views of crowds he had observed from the tobacconist’s balcony at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888. The moving throng in the dusty north African space before him is indicated in a rapidly applied staccato of brushstrokes.[4] These notes accumulate towards a major work, The Market Place, Tangier, the largest and most important exhibit in the artist’s solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in June 1908.
Greatly praised by contemporary critics, this canvas was described by ACR Carter as an ‘ambitious composition’ in which,
… In a swirl of movement and life the crowd lives and breathes in the foreground and middle distance against a noble and reposeful foil of buildings on the rising hill, while beyond stretches the belt of cool blue sea.
These words could equally be applied in the present instance. Such fascinations were endless; Lavery was a student of the pulsing mass of humanity. And while in Tangier in 1920, on what would be his last sojourn in the city, he felt compelled to return to the rooftop from which the present canvas was painted.[5]
How different was this grimy spectacle from the Armistice Day parade or the high society murmuration on an average day in the stand at Ascot – and yet, the same. Such canvases, Carter concluded, provide ‘hope for the welfare and appreciation’ of contemporary art.[6] As time and place stand still, the eagle-eye of the painter swoops down, and the hand reveals its mastery.
Kenneth McConkey
[1] For a survey of artists in Tangier including Lavery, between 1880 and 1920, see Kenneth McConkey, Towards the Sun, The Artist Traveller at the turn of the Twentieth Century, 2021 (Paul Holberton Publishing), pp. 152-171.
[2] Kenneth McConkey, with Brendan Rooney, Lavery On Location, 2003-4 (exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Ireland), p. 89 (no 28); see also The Soko, 1891 (sold Whyte’s 21 May 2012).
[3] While it has not been possible to identify the artist’s viewpoint, construction around the perimeter of the Socco continued throughout the thirty years when Lavery frequented the city.
[4] One of these, of similar size, is listed as having been sold to the Venice Chamber of Commerce (unlocated), while another appeared at Adam’s Dublin, 30 May 2007.
[5] From similar, but not the same viewpoints Lavery painted The Market Place, Tangier, 1920 (sold Christie’s 12 May 2006) and The Moorish Flag hoisted on the German Legation, 1920...
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