Lavery's Horse Show painting for sale at RDS

VISITORS TO the Dublin Horse Show in the RDS next week will have a chance to see an important painting of the event, from 88 years ago, by Sir John Lavery.

The picture, titled The Horse Show, Dublin, 1928, will be on display at the stand taken by auctioneers Whyte’s (stand S7 in hall 3) and is “for sale by private treaty”. Auctioneer Ian Whyte said the price was “on request . . . and well into six figures”.

An inscription on the painting reveals it was originally given by the artist’s second wife, Hazel, or Lady Lavery, to Lennox Robinson – an Abbey Theatre playwright and producer. It last changed hands when it was sold at Christie’s in 1981 to the current owner.

Lavery was born in Belfast in 1856 and became a renowned painter in London. He served as an official British war artist during the first World War, for which he was knighted.

Lavery’s most famous paintings include Michael Collins, Love of Ireland, which now hangs in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, and a portrait of his wife which was used on Irish banknotes for many years.

During the second World War, Lavery retired to Ireland to escape the bombing Blitz in London and died in Co Kilkenny, in 1941, aged 84.