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73

Sir John Lavery RA RHA RSA (1856-1941) MOONRISE T

Currency:EUR Category:Antiques / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 40,000.00 EUR
Sir John Lavery RA RHA RSA (1856-1941) MOONRISE T
<B>Sir John Lavery RA RHA RSA (1856-1941)</B><BR>MOONRISE TANGIER BAY<BR>signed and inscribed lower left; signed again, inscribed and dated [1910] on reverse<BR>oil on canvas board<BR>25 by 36cm., 10 by 14in.<BR>Provenance:<BR>Gift from the artist to his best man, Robert Cunninghame Graham MP (1852-1936); By descent to his niece; Private collection After 1903, when he resumed his regular annual visits to Tangier and acquired the winter retreat of Dar-el-Midfah, Lavery was keenly attracted to panoramic vistas of the Straits of Gibraltar to the west of the city and the Mediterranean, overlooking Tangier Bay to the east. The low-lying land around the bay, which accommodated the city's expansion in the twentieth century, provided splendid views of sea and sky looking towards Cape Matabalah, and close to the Villa Harris, home to Walter Harris, the acclaimed Times correspondent. Here Lavery painted a large number of beach scenes, looking back towards the walled city at sunset and over the sea at moonrise. Numerous travel writers comment upon the quality of light at such moments on this stretch of the North African coast. None of the many artists who visited the city, from Eugène Delacroix in the early nineteenth century, to Henri Matisse in the early twentieth, responded to its extraordinary effects with the enthusiasm of Lavery. In small oil sketches such as Moonrise and Dawn (lot xx) he delighted in the subtle blues of morning and the creamy pinks and mauves of twilight. Kenneth McConkey
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