STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET.- Sworders is selling an intimate work by Irish artist Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) on March 4. La Belle Mère – a portrait of the artist’s wife Hazel and his daughter Eileen - is among the highlights of a single owner collection titled: Better by Design | The Principal Contents of Boden Hall to be held in Stansted Mountfitchet. Last on the market more than three decades ago, it is estimated at £180,000-250,000.
La Belle Mère, a 1.28m by 90cm oil on canvas that is signed, inscribed and dated 1911 brings together two of his two favourite models for a family double portrait. Lady Hazel Lavery (1880-1935), born Hazel Martyn in boomtown Chicago to a wealthy industrialist of Irish ancestry, was considered ‘the most beautiful girl in the Mid-West’. After a long courtship, opposed by her mother, she married Lavery, 24 years her senior, in 1909.Bringing his professional and domestic arrangements together, the couple established a home at his studio at Cromwell Place, South Kensington which became a hub for societal gatherings.
Hazel was herself a talented artist who exhibited together with her husband and advised Winston Churchill on his technique. However, she is best remembered for her friendship with the Irish republican, Michael Collins, a relationship rumoured, but never proven, to be romantic. She developed a passionate interest in Irish politics and was an unofficial go-between the opposing factions in the fractious Home Rule debate. Her portrait (based on the painting Lady Lavery as Kathleen Ni Houlihan by Lavery) appeared on Irish Free State currency for much of the 20th century.
Eileen Marion Lavery (1891-1935) was Lavery’s daughter from his first marriage to Kathleen MacDermott. She appears in several of Lavery’s works including Portrait Group (Père et Fille) in the Musée d’Orsay and in large full-length portraits in Newcastle upon Tyne, Liverpool, Belfast and the Hugh Lane Gallery. Hazel and Eileen also appear together alongside Alice (Hazel’s eight-year-old daughter from her first marriage) in the monumental work The Artist’s Studio in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Double portraits were something of a Lavery trademark. He was fascinated by the comparison of faces and the overlapping of sitters in the same picture. He kept La Belle Mère until he died, and the picture descended to his granddaughter, Lady Ann Forbes-Sempill. It was acquired by the owner from Irish art specialist Pyms Gallery, London, c. 1990. Lavery specialist Kenneth McConkey, Emeritus Professor at the University of Northumbria, has assisted in the cataloguing of the picture.
The sale of the principal contents of Cheshire country house Boden Hall continues Sworders’ run of exceptional single-owner auctions. The carefully curated selection of period furniture, objects and fine paintings were assembled for the Georgian home by its most recent custodians. The late William Wrather, a Manchester surveyor and developer, and his wife Victoria, a successful designer and interior designer, purchased the estate 27 years ago. Together, they embarked on a major restoration project that returned the house, garden and outbuildings to their former glory and transformed its interiors.
