Personal Life
Lavery's first wife, Kathleen MacDermott, whom he married in 1889, died of tuberculosis in 1891, shortly after the birth of their daughter, Eileen (later Lady Sempill, 1890–1935). In 1909 Lavery married Hazel Martyn (1886–1935), an Irish-American known for her beauty and poise; by her he had one daughter, Alice (Mrs. Jack McEnery). Hazel Lavery was to figure in more than 400 of her husband's paintings. The sumptuous The Artist's Studio: Lady Lavery with her Daughter Alice and Step-Daughter Eileen, currently is in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Hazel Lavery modelled for the allegorical figure of Ireland he painted on commission from the Irish government, reproduced on Irish banknotes from 1928 until 1975 and then as a watermark until the introduction of the Euro in 2002. The Laverys' marriage was tempestuous, and Lady Lavery is reputed to have had affairs with Kevin O'Higgins and Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary leader.
Read more about this topic: John Lavery
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