Details

Object type

painting

Title

A Conquest, or A Heart for a Rose

Artist/Maker

John Lavery artist

Culture/School

Glasgow Boys

Date

1882

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 887 mm x 787 mm x 85 mm;unframed: 610 mm x 508 mm

Description

Lavery became one of the leaders of the group known as the Glasgow Boys who revolutionised Scottish painting in the 1880s. Among the other members were Guthrie, Walton, Hornel, Henry and Crawhall. The general principles they shared were an enthusiasm for realism or naturalism in subject matter, strong, fresh colours and freer brushwork. Their artistic heroes were Whistler, the Barbizon and Hague Schools and above all, Jules Bastien-Lepage.

In A Conquest, Lavery shows little indication of these tendencies. Instead this anecdotal picture, probably shown at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1883 as A Heart for A Rose, reflects the influence of the Scottish genre painters, John Pettie and Sir William Quiller Orchardson and also the popular Victorian Academy exhibitor, Marcus Stone. The last excelled in the depiction of Regency love affairs.

The reasons for Lavery adopting this type of subject were probably financial. He did not commit himself to any specific genre in his earliest work. By producing a variety of costume pieces, sentimental pictures, head studies and landscapes, he hoped to test the market, establish a clientele for his work and achieve commercial success.

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased, 1944

ID Number

2365

Location

Kelvingrove Scottish Art