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Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941) LADY IN GREEN (MRS. CARA H.), 1903 oil on canvas signed lower right; signed again and inscribed with titled and dated at 5 Cromwell Place, London on label on reverse; also with exhibition label, partially removed Caledonian Railway label and label indicating name and address of original owner, all on reverse 35 x 24in. (88.90 x 60.96cm) Provenance: The property of E.F.B. Johnston, Esq., K.C. Toronto; Harry Diamond, Toronto purchased circa 1958; His Estate, Toronto; Private collection Exhibited: The Art Museum of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario), the "Second Exhibition Catalogue of a Loan Collection of paintings of the English, Old Master, Modern Dutch, French and other European Schools Contributed by Private Collectors" from 24th November - 16th December 1909, catalogue no. 38 Literature: The Art Museum of Toronto, The Second exhibition catalogue The recovery of Lavery's previously unrecorded Lady in Green from a private collection in Canada sheds new light upon an important phase of his work in the early years of the twentieth century. Although much is known about his management of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers as its vice-president, his close relationship with its president, James McNeill Whistler, in the years leading up to the latter's death in 1903, has not been fully described. During the preceding five years, the Irish painter established his London base, was frequently in Berlin and Paris, made his first visit to the United States, and retained his close connections with Glasgow where he executed a large mural for the City Chambers. While his movements cannot be accurately plotted following the society's foundation in 1898, the consistent feature of his work during these years was the influence of Whistler. Both revered the work of Velazquez and from Lavery's early days as one of the leading 'Glasgow Boys', the American had been a guiding hand. Lavery admired the older artist's ceaseless search for harmony in colour and tone, and observed his readiness to remove hours of strenuous, concentrated labour on a painting, if he was not satisfied with the result. This often led to scraping down the picture surface, and removing excess paint, so as not to 'embarrass the canvas' - as the American put it. Visiting Whistler in the nineties he would have had the opportunity to admire small sketches such as Rose and Silver: Portrait of Mrs Charles Whibley (fig 1). Although he later came to the opinion that contact with Whistler prevented him from 'painting with any vigour' for a time, it is undoubtedly true that some of Lavery's subtlest and most evocative portraits were painted as a result. In these the sitter was often unidentified and the works, when shown, were simply entitled according to their particular colour harmonies - hence, A Lady in Green. In the present case the sitter's identity continues to remain a mystery, as does the picture's early history prior to its arrival in Toronto. At that point it became the property of Ebenezer Forsyth Blackie Johnston KC, described by his peers in the Canadian Club as 'an earnest patron of the fine arts and an assiduous collector of high class oil paintings and watercolours'. And while Johnston's collection remains to be explored we may note his wider interests in modern Dutch art - Hague School painting that allied him closely with Lavery's early Scottish patrons. Lady in Green (fig 2) was thus a sophisticated purchase by a sophisticated patron, and it slips seamlessly into the general pattern of Lavery's painting in the years leading up to 1903. During that year he exhibited the portrait of Idonea La Primaudaye at the New Gallery - a picture which, like the present example employs a gilded ladder-back chair as its only visible prop (fig 3). Described as 'quiet, yet accomplished', the portrait of Miss La Primaudaye carries the same air of distinction evident in Lady in Green and it forms part of a sequence that includes ladies in pink, purple and black. These pictures were often described as 'evocations', rather than detailed studies of character and physiognomy. They were decorous rather than dutiful and in at least one instance, that of Nora (Private Collection), harmonies of colour and tone were considered so subtle that reproduction would fail to do it justice. The sequence was however, best summed up by James Stanley Little in 1902, when he wrote, … Mr Lavery's art grows on one. More and more, as one looks at it, its subtle charm, both in the sense of refined and elegant craftsmanship, and in the sense of spiritual and intellectual qualities, pervades the onlooker … Everything that leaves Lavery's easel has the stamp of finality and spontaneity upon it which marks the master hand. Such an encomium applies as much to the present work as to others of the period.