Images Dated 13th September 2010

Under the Cherry Tree

Under the Cherry Tree (1884). Lavery, Sir John 1856-1941. Born in Belfast, Lavery began his artistic training in Glasgow. During the early 1880s he studied in Paris and made visits to the artists? colony at Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau. At Grez Lavery was one of many young artists to set up their easels in the fields around the picturesque village and work en plein-air, a term used to describe painting in the open air. Under the Cherry Tree is larger and more ambitious than any Lavery had previously attempted. It is a youthful masterwork, heavily influenced by Bastien-Lepage and was intended to display the painterly techniques he had recently acquired through study in France. The composition of Under the Cherry Tree is divided into three distinct areas and Lavery employed a different technique in the painting of each. Date: 1884

© National Museums NI / MARY EVANS

The Three Dancers

The Three Dancers (1945). Luke, John 1906-1975. The Three Dancers is a prime example of Luke?s highly stylised and precise technique. The flowing lines of the dancers? arms, the bending boughs of the bush and the wavy undulations of the landscape, create the rhythm of the dance in a powerfully immediate way. The subtle finish and intense colour derives from the use of tempera, a medium Luke began experimenting with in 1933 and which fascinated him. By the 1940s, Luke had become virtually obsessed with the craftsmanship involved in creating works like The Three Dancers. Indeed, such was his preoccupation with the making of the picture that he produced lengthy notes on its technical construction. Luke spent almost his entire career living and working in Belfast with the exception of a period in County Armagh during the war years. This picture, painted whilst he was living there, is the first of a number of almost visionary compositions produced in the mid-1940s possibly inspired by the closing stages of the war. Date: 1945

© National Museums NI / MARY EVANS

Allegory of Fortune

Allegory of Fortune. Lippi, Lorenzo 1606-1665. The depiction of a human figure personifying an abstract concept such as youth or beauty is called an allegory. The young woman in this painting is an allegory of fortune and the monkey, who appears to be selecting playing cards, symbolises chance. The association of fortune with man?s ability to shape his destiny by swift, decisive action was a popular concept during the Renaissance. It derived from the classical idea of fortune being an unpredictable force which must be seized to ensure success. Born in Florence, Lippi was a pupil of Matteo Rosselli from whom he learnt the fine, searching drawing skills of the Florentine workshop tradition. During the 1630s Lippi drew increasingly from nature, a skill described by his biographer Balducci as ?his pure imitation of reality?. Lippi also developed a restrained, classical style that abandoned the richly patterned fabrics and elaborate jewellery favoured by other Seventeenth century Florentine painters. Date

© National Museums NI / MARY EVANS