Palm Beach, New Year's Day, 1927. The Breakers Hotel. Ireland feels very far away, and nobody here seems to mind.
Winter in Florida is one of the most unusual paintings in Lavery's entire body of work — a celebration of warmth, leisure, and the particular pleasure of escape. Bathers lounge around the Breakers Hotel pool as Florida sun does what Florida sun does: convinces everyone that this is the only reasonable way to live. Lavery was seventy-one years old when he painted it. He was still chasing light.
It hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland. A painting about sun-drunk happiness, made by an Irishman who understood the weight of what he was leaving behind.
Sir John Lavery (1856–1941) was born in Belfast, trained in Glasgow and Paris, and became one of the most celebrated painters of his era. His work is hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, the Tate, and major collections worldwide.
archival print on 250gsm fine-art matte paper. Printed to order. Free worldwide shipping.
