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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 4, 2016 | Bonhams | New York | 19th Century European Paintings | 89 | $****** - ****** | The bay of Tunis. Morning | |||
Jun 25, 2014 | Christie's | London | Modern British Art Evening Sale | 42 | $****** - ****** | The Bay Of Tunis, Morning | |||
Dec 15, 2010 | Christie's | London | Victorian & British Impressionist Pictures Including Drawings and Watercolours | 104 | $****** - ****** | The Bay of Tunis, Morning | |||
Dec 9, 2008 | Sotheby's | London | Victorian & Edwardian Art | 169 | $****** - ****** | Hammam Lif, Bay of Tunis, Evening, from Sidi Bu Said | |||
May 7, 2008 | Sotheby's | London | The Irish Sale | 154 | $****** - ****** | Hammam Lif, Bay Of Tunis, Evening, From Sidi Bu Said |
paintings
81.9 x 61 cm (32.25 x 24 in)
oil on canvas
Sir John Lavery, 1918, pub. Country Life, n.p.)Lavery's sense of place was well-honed. For all his admiration for Whistler, he was an instinctive composer on the motif, firm in the belief that an artist should be able to paint any subject in any conditions. In recent years he had painted the Grand Fleet massing off Scapa Flow, had worked in cramped naval vessels, munitions factories and aerodromes, and even taken his painting kit over the freezing North Sea in the 'gondola' of an airship. It comes as no surprise to discover that after the Armistice, when invited by their friend, Rodolphe d'Erlanger, to stay at the Moorish palace of Dar Ennejma Ezzahra, at Sidi bou Said overlooking the Bay of Tunis, the Laverys were keen to accept (Kenneth McConkey, John Lavery, A Painter and his World, 2010, Atelier Books, p. 145).
It is likely that the offer came as an expression of gratitude for Lavery's and Winston Churchill's support to the d'Erlanger brothers who, during the Great War, risked internment as enemy aliens. Lavery had already painted an interior of the fashionable d'Erlanger villa, known as Falconwood, on Shooter's Hill, as well as portraits of the brothers. Having been resident in Britain for over twenty years, they were highly respected as international bankers. Rodolphe, like Churchill, was a keen amateur painter who sought Lavery's advice, although he is now primarily remembered for his restoration of the picturesque hilltop village with its spectacular views of the Bay of Tunis. Dar Ennejma Ezzahra provided the ideal setting for painting forays and for his scholarly interests in Arab culture and ethnomusicology and it remains to this day, a centre for the study of Arab music.
Arriving in Sidi bou Said, Lavery's objective, he later claimed, was to find a beautiful Arab model (John Lavery, The Life of a Painter, 1940, Cassell, p. 104). He was however captivated by the still cerulean seascape fringed by the twin peaks of Mount Bou Kornine and by the dazzling white buildings of the town. Local legend has it that the distant peaks are petrified pilgrims returning from Mecca, transfixed by the paradise that lay before them. Immediately, the artist, standing on a high vantage point, embarked upon a series of majestic Whistlerian views of the bay observed in the morning and evening light, of which the present example is the most striking. In compositional format it instinctively recalls Whistler's Variations in Violet and Green, 1871 (Musée d'Orsay). But where Whistler might ignore forms and clothe the scene in mist, the mountain profiles are recognizable in Lavery and at his feet a winding road takes the eye down to the tiny port of Hammam-Lif. As Ross so charmingly put it, 'He does not tell beautiful scenic fibs about picturesque places'.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
