[Sir John] Lavery, 1917-1918

Lavery requested permission to paint scenes at the Front in March 1917. Although it was a purely personal request, it was forwarded to Masterman and effectively became an official arrangement. (21) discusses the arrangements that Lavery had in mind: to go for 6-8 weeks, making oil drawings of battle scenes and other documentary subjects, not portraits, estimated at 50-60 in number, some of which he would make available for "national purposes". He was seen as particularly useful for American propaganda, as he was particularly well known there. Some of this early correspondence also discusses plans for, and relative merits of, Nevinson and Kennington. After he was involved in a car accident, arrangements for Lavery were changed to keep him in the UK, combining Naval and Military subjects, although in fact he had to keep getting extra permissions to gain access to many locations. In October 1917 Charles ffoulkes wrote to Lavery regarding the possibility of commissions for the Imperial War Museum, to paint naval subjects; these were primarily arranged with Commander Walcott. The file also discusses arrangements for the Lavery edition of 'British Artists at the Front' (1918). Lavery presented a number of his naval subjects to the Museum and a number of them were included in the "Sea Power" exhibition at the Grosvenor Galleries in 1918.

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