Winter sun down Florida way

Sir John Lavery’s ‘Winter in Florida’ painting to go under the hammer

Sir John Lavery’s ‘Winter in Florida’ dates from around 1927

Another painting by Sir John Lavery – his Japanese Winter sold for £509,000 (€693,000) in last week's Irish Sale in London – is going under the hammer at Sotheby's.

The auction house said its sale of 19th century European art in New York on Tuesday includes Winter in Florida, with a top estimate of $250,000.

The painting dates from around 1927 when Lavery spent time in the luxurious Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach.

However, the painting is not of the hotel’s pool but rather the People’s Pool, otherwise known as “Gus’s baths”, a public swimming complex of two large pools on the corner of Worth Avenue and South Ocean Boulevard.

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The unframed painting is being sold by a private collector in Ohio.

In a catalogue note Prof Kenneth McConkey described the painting as a “joyous celebration of the health and vigour” that Lavery had observed in Florida.