Maggie Teyte

Maggie Teyte — the Wolverhampton-born soprano who would become one of the great interpreters of French mélodie and Debussy's chosen successor to Mary Garden in Pelléas et Mélisande — was only nineteen when Lavery painted her in 1907. She was at the outset of a career that would make her internationally famous, and the portrait captures her at the threshold of public life. Lavery's connections in artistic and musical London overlapped considerably, and his portraits of performers and cultural figures form a significant strand of his career alongside his society commissions. The work is held at the National Portrait Gallery, which collects portraits of notable British cultural figures across artistic disciplines.

The portrait is handled with a warmth and directness appropriate to a young performer — the palette is light, the face modelled with fresh, responsive brushwork. Lavery avoided the heavy formality he reserved for civic and political sitters, giving the image a quality of spontaneous observation that suits the youthful and musical subject.