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'Hazel in Rose and Gold', Sir John Lavery

Full length portrait of a woman against a dark background. Her body is side on to us, but she is looking out of the painting towards us.

Oil on canvas, painted in 1918

Acc. No. WAG 2879

Lavery was born in Belfast and as a young man studied in Glasgow, becoming associated with the Glasgow School of artists. By the early years of the 20th century he was part of the British artistic establishment, receiving royal commissions and being chosen as an Official War Artist.

In 1910 he married Hazel Trudeau, daughter of a Chicago industrialist and the widow of a Canadian doctor. She modelled extensively for her husband and other fashionable portrait painters including John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and Ambrose McEvoy (1878-1927).

In this particular portrait, Lavery does not study character. Instead, he concentrates on creating a feeling of debonair elegance through the elongation of Hazel’s pose and the choice of rich, slightly strident colours.

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