Sir John Lavery

The Glasgow Exhibition, 1888

1888

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1840

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Artist: Sir John Lavery 1856–1941
Medium: Oil paint on wood
Dimensions: Support: 235 × 349 mm
frame: 405 × 502 × 90 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1941
Reference: N05271

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The International Exhibitions held in Britain’s great industrial cities became increasingly sumptuous towards the end of the century. The first Scottish Exhibition in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow attracted over five million visitors and led to the building of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. Lavery recorded the exhibition in 40 on-the-spot impressionist sketches. These small scenes provided the background for a commission to paint a commemoration picture of Queen Victoria’s State Visit in August 1888.

Gallery label, November 2016

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Catalogue entry

N05271 THE GLASGOW EXHIBITION, 1888 1888

Inscr. ‘J Lavery 88’ b.r.
Oil on panel, 9 1/4×13 3/4 (23·5×35).
Purchased from the Leicester Galleries (Knapping Fund) 1941.
Exh: (?) Craibe Angus Gallery, Glasgow, spring 1888; Leicester Galleries, April 1941 (1).
Lit: Shaw-Sparrow, n.d., p.173; Lavery, 1940, p.60.

Probably one of the about forty sketches of scenes in the grounds of the Glasgow Exhibition of 1888 whose exhibition (see above) led to the commission for the commemoration picture of Queen Victoria's State Visit, 22 August 1888, now in Glasgow (repr. Lavery, 1940, after p.267).

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I