Schooling the Pony – Sir John Lavery Art Print

In the winter of 1928, Sir John Lavery took his family to a villa near Mougins in the south of France, close enough to Cannes for his stepdaughter Alice to train with the tennis professionals at the Hotel Beau Site. When Alice's attention turned instead to a young chestnut pony in the nearby fields, Lavery painted this oil sketch — the study for a larger work, Schooling the Pony, that he later exhibited at the Royal Academy. The finished canvas is now held by Touchstones Rochdale.

This sketch was painted from life, a village visible in the distance, and was shown again in 1932 at a Colnaghi's benefit exhibition supporting the Artists' General Benevolent Fund, alongside eighty other sketches from across Lavery's career.

There's an odd postscript to the story: Alice, the pony's rider, went on to marry Irish horse trainer Jack McEnery and run Rossenarra Stud in County Kilkenny. Their son Martyn later trained Red Rum, three-time winner of the Grand National.

Sizes & Format

• 20 × 25 cm / 8 × 10″
• 40 × 50 cm / 16 × 20″
• 100 × 100 cm / 40 × 40″
• Available framed (black, white, wood) or unframed

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.

Free Worldwide Shipping

Framed prints are packed with protective corners and wrap, boxed with reinforced edges, and braced with internal supports for extra rigidity (max 3 frames per package). Every order ships free, made to order and delivered from the hub closest to you: Ireland 3–7 business days · UK 4–8 · USA 5–10 · Canada 6–12 · Australia 7–14.