Laurence Henry Irving’s Chinese Theatre Scene

Posted: July 20th, 2022 | No Comments »

I came across this interesting watercolour at a local auction recently and decided to bid…and won for a modest fee. It has an interesting story I only partly know at the moment.

It is by Laurence Henry Irving (1897-1988) who was the grandson of the great Victorian actor and theatre impressario Henry Irving and son of the actors HB Irving and Dorothea Baird (who starred in the lead role on the original production of Trilby). Laurence Irving trained at the Royal Academy and was in the Royal Navy Air Service in WW1. He started as a set designer in the West End and, after meeting Douglas Fairbanks, went to Hollywood to design sets for his movies including The Iron Mask (1929). He also collaborated with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. He returned to the UK in the 1930s and worked on both films and in the theatre. I can’t work out when this painting was done but it suggests 1930s.

To the best of my knowledge Irving never went to China so this painting was presumably done from photographs and other images. It does seem very accurate and representative. Which play it was for is also noted noted – I will dig deeper. Still hence the paintings title ‘Chinese’ ‘Theatre’ indicating it is a suggestion for a Chinese set for a theatrical play.

Irving worked on numerous films and stage productions. He exhibited at the RA, the School of Fine Art (London) and the Glasgow Insitute of Art. He lived in Whitstable. He rejoined the RAF in 1939 and after the war did set for the J Arthur Rank film studios. He died in 1988.

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