Violet and Gold

Sir John Lavery 1856 - 1941

Summary

A three-quarter length, left side portrait of an anonymous young woman in high-necked Edwardian dress, standing posed with her left hand resting on her hip. She is accompanied by a pet dog, seated on a sideboard to her right, with it's head at her shoulder level. She stands against a dark background, and a chair back is visible in the bottom left foreground.

Display Label

Violet and Gold 1905 also called L’Entente Cordiale 1906 John Lavery 1846-1951 Oil on canvas John Lavery had a habit of exhibiting a painting, re-working it, and exhibiting it again. This is the case with Violet and Gold, as it was first known, which became L’Entente Cordiale in 1906. L’Entente Cordiale was the document signed by the British Foreign Secretary and the French Ambassador in London on 8 April 1904. It was a crucial agreement in paving the way for Franco-British military and diplomatic co-operation in the run up to the war. The joke that the painter is making rests on the fact that the woman’s companion is a French bulldog. Lavery was an Irish painter, educated in Scotland, who was associated with the ‘Glasgow Boys’, painters committed to a naturalist style. Purchased 1906.100