One of Ireland’s leading society portraits painters of the last century, Belfast-born John Lavery (1856-1941) was orphaned as a child and sent to school in Scotland, later attending the Glasgow School of Art. Following a commission to paint Queen Victoria’s visit to the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, he then moved to London as a highly successful society painter. Following the beginnings of the War of Independence, he and his wife became close friends of the Irish delegates to the Treaty talks in London, entertaining Michael Collins and his co-signatories during 1921.