The Ratification of the Irish Treaty in the House of Lords by Lavery

Sir John Lavery - The Ratification of the Irish Treaty in the House of Lords, December 1921 at Bellmans.

A rediscovered study by Sir John Lavery of The Ratification of the Irish Treaty in the House of Lords, December 1921 will come up at auction in England in November. The Treaty passed for ratification from the Commons to the Lords on December 16, 1921. It was a moment when the British Empire changed from rapid expansion from the 1870s to a steep decline in the 20th century.

By then in his 60s Lavery, who had been knighted for his services as an official war artist, sought assistance from Sir Patrick Ford and Lord Birkenhead to paint while the house was in session. Armed with these sketches he began work immediately on the large version now in the Glasgow Museums. Lavery frequently gifted his preparatory sketches and gave this one to sculptor George Henry Paulin in gratitude for his portrait of Lavery, a cast of which is in the Glasgow Museums. The study has remained with the family and it will lead Bellmans auction of Modern British and 20th-century art on November 21 with an estimate of £20,000-£30,000 (€23,460-€35,190).