A historic early painting of the Swiss Alps, created by the artist on his ski holiday more than a century ago and which hasn’t been seen in public from more than 30 years, is to be sold at auction by Sotheby’s on 27th September.
‘The Summit of Jungfrau’ by Sir John Lavery has a guide price of £ 150,000-250,000 from the auction house.
The British love of the Alps dates back to the early nineteenth century, to Turner, Byron, Shelley and Ruskin, and Lavery painted three views of Jungfrau on his skiing holiday in 1912 – choosing this particular one to exhibit at the Royal Academy.
During that year, he had received a commission to paint the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace (a portrait that went on view at the Royal Academy at the same time) and dates for the commencement of the work were fixed in the King’s diary for February 1913, when the painter would normally be staying at his winter studio overlooking the Straits of Gibraltar.
So, on the recommendation of Lady Gwendoline Churchill, Lavery, his wife, Hazel and stepdaughter, Alice, booked the Regina Hotel Blümlisalp at Wengen for a two month stay from the beginning of December 1912.
Although this was a winter holiday, the painter was intensely active. The highlight of the holiday was a journey up to Jungfraujoch station, belatedly opened in August 1912 and the terminus of the Jungfrau railway.
Back in December 1894, Adolph Guyer-Zeller, a Zurich financier, had submitted ambitious plans to take a little rack-and-pinion train to the top of the mountain. This enormous engineering feat, costing 12 million francs and 27 lives, took almost eighteen years to complete, and opened just in time for Lavery to make his ascent with a full painting kit.
“A powerful and masterly work, the mountain’s lyrical curves lead the eye up to the pinnacle whilst maintaining an Oriental sense of composure and innate design,” said a Sotherby’s spokesperson.
The work – which hasn’t been seen for over three decades – comes from ‘Property from a Hampstead Collection’.
“An extremely personal, intellectual and quintessentially British collection, it is being offered across ten of our auctions starting in autumn,” the Sotherby’s spokesperson added