SIR JOHN LAVERY RA RSA RHA (IRISH 1856 - 1941), BAILLIE ROBERT CRAWFORD oil on canvas, signed 35.5cm x 25.5cm Framed Label verso: Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow Provenance: George Smith Collection, Exhibited at the Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow. Private collection 1999 - present. George Smith (1907-1997) was a Glasgow-based accountant who bequeathed many of the works in his collection to the Hunterian gallery. Note: Baillie Robert Crawford came to Glasgow in the late 1850s, where he became partner in the firm of Burns, Crawford & Co. In 1883 he entered Glasgow Town Council where he threw himself at once into the work of health and sanitation, and was Chairman of the Health Committee for eleven years promoted many drastic and far-reaching reforms. Crawford was a strenuous advocate of parks and open spaces, of music for the people, and of all movements towards the improvement of public amenities. He was also Deputy-Chairman of the historic Glasgow Commission on the Housing of the Poor, and as Chairman of the Committee on art Galleries and Museums, Crawford bought Whistler's portrait of Thomas Carlyle for the Corporation, and he took a strong part in the movement which resulted in the building of the new Corporation Art Galleries at Kelvingrove. Amongst his many positions, Crawford held the important position of Joint-Chairman of the Fine arts and Scottish History Sections at the Glasgow International Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901. The commission for this portrait may have arisen out of Lavery's major work, 'The State Visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition, 1888,' completed in 1890.