A Fair Spaniard, Mrs Chowne – John Lavery Art Print

A Fair Spaniard, Mrs Chowne (1909) – Sir John Lavery

Lavery painted this in early 1909 at his studio outside Tangier, where he'd received a visit from the young painter Gerard Chowne and his wife. Chowne, nearly twenty years Lavery's junior, had studied alongside William Orpen and Augustus John at the Slade and was a distinguished flower painter in his own right — for a spell around 1908 he was even described as a devoted student of Lavery's technique.

London had developed a taste for pictures of Spanish beauty around this time, driven by painters like Sorolla and Zuloaga, and Tangier's close ties to Andalusia gave Lavery the perfect opportunity. He dressed Mrs Chowne in unmistakably Spanish dress: the peineta comb that would normally lift a mantilla, a floral hairpiece, and a magnificent silk manton draped across her shoulders — the kind of shawl reserved for Seville's Feria and worn with flourish in flamenco.

The title plays on more than her beauty. Mrs Chowne was fair-skinned and fair-haired, a striking departure from the classic Andalusian look — a genuine rarity by the standards of the day — while still carrying, in Lavery's rendering, the composure and directness of gaze considered distinctly Spanish traits.

Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), born in Belfast, trained in Glasgow and Paris and became one of the leading portrait painters of his generation, painting everyone from London society to the Irish Treaty delegation. His work hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Sizes & Format

• 30 × 40 cm / 12 × 16″
• 60 × 80 cm / 24 × 32″
• Unframed in every size; framed in black, white or wood at 30 × 40 cm, 60 × 80 cm and 45 × 60 cm

Print & Frame Details

Archival matte paper, 250gsm (110lb), acid-free and FSC-certified — off-white, uncoated. Framed prints: solid oak or ash wood frame, 20mm thick, with shatterproof protective glazing. Ready to hang, hanging kit included. Unframed prints up to A4 ship flat; larger sizes ship rolled in a protective tube.

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