Bronze Age Gold from Wales

This portrait of Lloyd George was painted in 1935. Twenty five years before, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had masterminded the investiture of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales, before becoming Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922, and leading Britain to victory in the First World War. Its artist, the Ulster-born John Lavery trained in Glasgow and Paris, and settled in London, where he became a successful painter of society portraits, which can compared with those of Sargent. An Irish Nationalist, he painted several Republican figures, as well as Britain's war leaders.