Sir John Lavery RHA RA RSA (1856 - 1941) A Street in Rabat, Morocco (1920) Oil on board, 25.5 X 30.5cm (10 x 12) Signed, also signed, inscribed with title and dated 1920 verso From the 1830s...

Sir John Lavery RHA RA RSA (1856 - 1941) A Street in Rabat, Morocco (1920) Oil on board, 25.5 X 30.5cm (10 x 12) Signed, also signed, inscribed with title and dated 1920 verso From the 1830s North Africa and the Middle East became places of artistic pilgrimage, but while painters such as Lewis, Lear and Holman Hunt preferred the eastern Mediterranean, in Lavery's era an instant Orient was to be found by simply crossing the Straits of Gibraltar. Where Orientalist painters concentrated upon narrating the Eastern way of life, the rituals of the Mosque and the Harem, Lavery's generation looked to this environment for its colour. His first visit to Morocco took place in 1891, at the instigation of his friends, the Glasgow artists Arthur Melville and Joseph Crawhall. After almost annual visits, in 1903 he bought Dar-el-Midfah ('the House of the Cannon', for a half buried cannon in the garden), a small house in the hills outside Tangier which he continued to visit with his family over the next 20 years. Dr Kenneth McConkey has documented Lavery’s journey to Rabat. Due to the war Lavery had not been to Morocco for six years returning in January 1920. He was present when with great fanfare the Moroccan flag was raised over the German Legation building in the market square in Tangier. The Lavery’s then sailed down the coast of Spanish North Africa to Rabat where he sketched the harbour and “Rue des Femmes” before travelling inlaid by car to Marrakesh. It has been claimed that for Lavery the strong light, cloudless sky, white walls and bright colour of Arab dress helped to cleanse his eye after sustained periods of studio portraiture. Within a few years of visiting Morocco for the first time, the light sable sketching of his Glasgow period gave way to a richer and more sensuous application. With thanks to Dr Kenneth McConkey whose research and writing formed the basis of this note.

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