Sir John Lavery

The Lakes of Killarney

Belfast-born John Lavery was one of many Irish artists who studied in France in the late nineteenth century. Determined to become a painter, in 1881 he went to Paris and then to the artists' colony at Grez-sur-Loing. Like many of his Irish colleagues, he was influenced by the innovative plein-air techniques of the French painter Jules-Bastien Lepae. Unlike the French artist, however, Lavery was more interested in portraying scenes of leisure than of the peasantry at work. Later in his life, Lavery became a society portraitist of international reputation.

The artist painted this Irish scene from the perspective of an upstairs window, two weeks before fire gutted Killarney House, the residence of the Earl of Kenmare. Lavery depicts the lakes of Killarney and Macgillycuddy's Reeks, County Kerry's most magnificent tourist attractions, as backdrop for a great house and formal garden in which Ascendancy figures take tea.