During the Great War Lavery was commissioned as a war artist. Several of his war paintings are on display at the Lavery on Location Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery.

Mine-Laying Submarines Harwich 1917:-

Hendon 1917. Hendon was a Royal Flying Corps training base. I really liked this as I’m a sucker for biplanes:-

More sombrely this is The Cemetery, Étaples:-

Daylight Raid from my Studio:-

A Coast Defence. An 18-Pounder Anti-Aircraft Gun, Tyneside:-

Lavery was almost alone in portraying those who became casualties. Wounded, London:-

More of Lavery’s works can be seen on the Ulster Museum’s website, here.

Lavery made his name when he was commissioned to paint the State Visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition 1888. For this he had individual sittings for the privileged invitees so that he could then incorporate accurate portarits of them into his final composition.

He painted many pictures of the International Exhibition including this one of the main building. Along with many other depictions of various International or National Exhibitions, plus the Festival of Britain, I have a copy of this hanging on my study wall:-

Lavery also painted A View from the Canal, Kelvingrove, showing one of the gondolas which plied the waters of the River Kelvin as an amusement attraction:-

And this one of the exhibit The Blue Hungarians:-

One of the features of the international Exhibition was an array of restaurants and café including The Dutch Cocoa House (as depicted by Lavery below) which dispensed Van Houten products.

The above for some reason reminds me of both Edwin Hopper’s Nighthawks and Edgar Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker.

Lavery exhibited this painting in the Art Gallery at the International Exhibition. Dawn after the Battle of Langside. Mary, Queen of Scots in the aftermath of the battle:-

For some reason the title the Scottish National Gallery has given to its exhibition featuring the painter John Lavery is “An Irish Impressionist.”

I had always considered Lavery to be a Scottish painter, even if he was born in Ireland. He moved to Scotland as a child and started his career in Glasgow.

The Exhibition is on till 27^th October.

Lavery’s early work resembles paintings by The Glasgow Boys. This is The Intruders, very reminiscent of a painting by James Guthrie:-

His style soon developed as he took to painting more impressionistic works such as these two of the Bridge at Grès (Grez-sur-Loing):-

Then we have Windy Day:-

and The Harbour of St Jean de Luz:-

There are two versions of On The Loing in the exhibition. This one was a study for the larger painting exhibited beside it.