From the Mixed-Up Files of The J. Lavorre Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. No. P6
Title: Untitled (Weasel with two dicks)
Date: ca. 840
Technique: Oil painting on linen canvas
Dimensions: 160 cm x 200 cm x 3 cm
Signature: Yes: J. Lavorre, bottom right hand corner
Description: A red weasel wearing a green bow around its neck, framed by two phallic shapes, also wearing green bows.
Location at time of publication: Unknown.
Provenance:
F. Lavorre
V. Brenatto
F. Lavorre
V. Brenatto
F. Lavorre
V. Brenatto
L. Brenatto
L. Brenatto II

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Among the Menagerie coast painters of the early 800s, Jester Lavorre is without a doubt the most idiosyncratic: you know immediately when you are looking at a Lavorre painting. Where her contemporaries were largely constrained to portraits and still lifes commissioned by the rich merchants of Nicodranas, Lavorre’s works are concerned with travelers and people on the fringes of society: sailors, courtesans, hermits, criminals, all treated with frankness, equanimity and irreverence. [...]

Lavorre painted many people, but she had her favorite subjects, as all artists do. Her portraits of her husband are well-known, and for good reason: they are teasing, intimate, depicting Fjord Lavorre bent over a map, his strong jaw picked out by the light of a swaying lantern; leaning on the railing of a deck, illuminated by luminescent jellyfish; laying in a hollow of sand, wrangling their son and a teenaged kenku, a turtle threatening to nip at his heels. Her portraits of her mother are warm, loving, yet dignified, the presence of this renowned courtesan and patron of the arts keenly felt. And just when her subjects begin to seem predictable, you will find a formal portrait of Bright Queen Leylas Kryn in full ceremonial wear in her tenth life, at a time when the Dynasty and the Empire still nursed a fresh, begrudging peace.

It is only in the past thirty years that Lavorre’s work has come to be known. For a long time, Lavorre was mostly known as half of one of the most notorious and eccentric partnerships from the era of Menagerie Coast merchant-pirates. It is only recently that her artistic work has come to light, and even more recently that it has been given recognition in formal art establishments. After the predictable wave of headlines along the lines of “Pirate Queen’s Paintings Found in an Attic!”, the depth and skill of her oeuvre has gradually revealed itself as it emerged from the possession of a few scattered descendants and private collectors. [...]

What has been found of Lavorre’s early work could be called cloying in its determination to find joy and color in her subjects, but there is a distinct shift in her work in the early 830s, when she began the life of travel that would define her oeuvre. The exact travels of Lavorre during this year are hard to ascertain, though her surviving notebooks are useful in tracking her travels with a group of adventurers. This relatively short period led to a period of creative flourishing that is widely considered to be her most accomplished work.

Still, Lavorre remains a strangely solitary figure in the period, unmoored from the predominant trend of coastal landscapes that emerged in the late 840s. Hers is a world populated by the strange, the irreverent, the fey. And color, always color, suffusing every corner of the canvas. It is an oeuvre both baffling and electric, the work of a woman who touched, unnoticed, the highest corridors of power in Wildemount–and painted many, many penises.

Adorna, Iris. “Introduction (Unpublished draft).” J. Lavorre: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings and Other Works Nicodranas: Brenatto Foundation Publishing, 1441.

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Weasels in Menagerie coast portraiture of the period are generally understood to be status and fertility symbols. They are often found in wedding portraits of the upper merchant class, where women shown with a weasel pelt hung at the waist or grasped in the hand. Some more unusual contemporary portrayals of weasels can be found in J. Lavorre’s portraits, where they are both more and less ambiguous in their symbolism; the weasels found in her work are decidedly more phallic, yet unattached to a more traditional context of fertility or wealth. Connections have been made with the symbology of a brief, obscure cult from the 840s known only as the worship of the Traveler, which Lavorre participated in before it died out, presumably repressed by religious authorities.

Hillhide, Fokhubera. “Sex, Money, and Mustelids: Weasels in 8th-Century Menagerie Coast Portraiture.” Journal of the Society of Menagerie Coast Art 45, no. 5 (Grissen 1439): 75-90.

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Dear M. Biylan,

I am afraid I cannot make a positive identification of your painting as an authentic Lavorre work, although it matches the description of a Rosohna-era Lavorre painting thought to be previously lost. The material analysis confirmed that the paint and canvas are contemporary to her oeuvre (see attached report).

The authentication of Jester Lavorre’s works remains a challenge due to the artist’s own practice of making several copies of her work with subtle variations that could be seen as the work of a skilled forger. Several Lavorre works that were previously thought to be forgeries have since been revised to be considered part of her oeuvre, and then revised to be forgeries, then once again revised to be Lavorre works; this is not to mention the forgeries she made of other Menagerie coast artists.

As you can imagine, this creates an ambiguity around her oeuvre that persists to this day. My excuses.

Yotul Bonebreaker to Lord Biylan, Folsen 5, 1431, Den Biylan Archives, Den Biylan. MSS-39, 15/7, 1-4-4.

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Anecdotal evidence in Platinum Church records reference an elaborate and highly-sacrilegious repainting of a Platinum Dragon effigy possibly executed by Jester Lavorre with the aid of frequent artistic collaborator Veth Brenatto. As is often the case, it is difficult to tell if this work was executed as a deliberate act of resistance to the religious hegemony of the Empire at the time, or if it was an artistic work first and foremost. Whatever its purpose, it produced a very confused account of vandalism in Platinum church records, and was later taken as inspiration for artistic acts of resistance by several artistic activist collectives in the city, both in the Innerstead Sprawl and Outersteads. The result of these activities still persists in modern-day Zadash as the annual tradition of attempting to vandalise or burn down the straw effigy of the Platinum Dragon before Winter’s Crest.

Hogshine, Jildove. “Artistic Resistance to Religious Hegemony in 4th-century Zadash.” Residuum: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 35, no. 2 (Yulisen 1440): 20-25.

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Courtroom sketches and cartoons of this period were generally made for popular consumption, with reproductions printed for newspapers or displayed through programmed illusions in public spaces. [...] Although not primarily known as a courtroom artist, J. Lavorre notably made a series of courtroom charcoal sketches of Cobalt Soul Inquisitor Beauregard Lionnett during the Cerberus Assembly Trials, an event that shook both arcane and political structures in the Empire. Lavorre’s sketches of the Cerberus Assembly members are irreverent, to put it kindly; it is clear where her sympathies lay in this matter. In contrast, Lavorre’s sketches of Lionnett at the stand are solid and dynamic, the charcoal strokes bold, uncompromising. Lavorre also takes care to create sympathy for Lionnett and her cause: one of the most widely-circulated sketches of the trial is Lionnett with her head in her hands, her forehead resting on her wife’s broad shoulder, fatigue and frustration bearing her down. This proved a successful strategy; although one cannot directly link these sketches to the sway in public opinion against the assembly, these depictions remain one of the most enduring images of the events leading to the upheaval and unrest in the Empire in the following decade.

Wagglefirm, Welsa. Take the Stand: A Brief History of Courtroom Artists in Wildemount. Zadash: Zadash University Press, 1435.

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Condition report notes:
Firbolg in garden, Jester Lavorre (852), oil on canvas

Generally in good condition. Small 2-cm tear in upper right corner. Small losses and delamination of the paint in the lower left hand corner due to mushrooms growing in lower left hand corner (unknown species; sample taken for analysis). Possibly part of artist’s intent?

Conservation proposal: Consolidation of the delaminated paint layer to prevent further losses. Localized use of mending cantrip for tear. Strategy for the mushrooms needs to be discussed with stakeholders.

(Note attached to condition report: Another Lavorre!! Man I love her stuff but is it ever a nightmare to deal with. I think she liked messing with people, honestly. Let me know when’s good to chat about the mushrooms.)

“Condition Report for Firbolg in Garden,” 1435, Conservation Department, Condition Reports, Menagerie Coast Art Foundation Archives, Menagerie Coast Art Foundation, 0300-01, 40/2, 20-01-58.

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There is a profound, strange loneliness to some of Lavorre’s paintings. Sometimes it is enigmatic and grand, a winged figure alone in a field of thorns, and sometimes it is stark and brutal, an unmarked grave in the snow, and sometimes it is oblique and quiet: a series of views of a street from a cloistered window, the remains of a lily held in the palm.

The motif of red eyes returns intermittently several times in Lavorre’s oeuvre. These paintings are strange, unsettling, and do not appear to have been kept by Lavorre; only sketches have been found of these works, which she might have destroyed. Only two examples of these works with these motifs remain, which have only recently been discovered. They might constitute an ongoing experiment in abstraction, far before these ideas were common currency in Menagerie painting.

Iceforged, Aegis. “The Uncanny and the Abstract in Mid-850s Lavorre Paintings.” Twenty-Five: A Short Essay Journal no. 3 (Yulisen 1438): 15-20.

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It is hard to avoid the motif of duplicity that persists in Lavorre’s work, from her self-portraits with her own duplicate to the striking use of reflections in her portraits of Veth Brenatto.

One of Lavorre’s most arresting and frequently-debated series of paintings are the Widogast portraits: ten portraits of her friend Caleb Widogast with a series of men clad in dark clothing at his side. Interpretations of these portraits vary. Some scholars have argued that these paintings could be symbolic, Widogast’s difficulties in life given flesh as a constant dark companion at his side, while alternate interpretations argue that these are domestic portraits depicting Widogast’s many lovers.

The Widogast portraits could be read as an antiparallel to Lavorre’s series of portraits of an unnamed tiefling, both tackling the idea of multiplicity in presentation and identity. The facial features of the tiefling painted in the second series are identical, always a purple-skinned tiefling with curling horns and red eyes, but the bearing and manner of presentation are entirely distinct. In contrast, Widogast's companion ranges from a half-elf with a long braid over his shoulder to a human with cropped curls, but all share a similar bearing and presentation, poised and neatly-dressed. In one series, a face is seemingly shared across different identities; in the other, an identity is seemingly shared across several faces.

Lavorre is interested in these contradictions and layers of presentation and persona: the masks we wear, conscious and unconscious, the people we become when we are seen by others.

[BLAURGHjsdafdf someone finish this paragraph i have no more brain for this paper -iris]

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Adorna, Iris, et al. Unpublished Draft and Notes from Undergrad Paper for ARTH 201, University of Zadash, 1420. Personal Archive, Adorna I.

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Re: J. Lavorre catalogue

Dear Ms. Adorna,

I was pleased to receive your letter regarding the catalogue raisonné of Jester Lavorre. Congratulations on finding a mailing address: I am duly impressed. I would be available to discuss your project in the following weeks. I can arrange for a viewing of Jester's pieces that are currently in my possession.

Yrs in art appreciation,

E. Widogast

Essek Widogast to Iris Adorna, Folsen 4, 1441, J. Lavorre Catalogue Archives, Menagerie Coast Art Foundation. MSS-39, 15/7, 1-4-4.

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Re: Lavorre analysis

Please find attached the results of the true seeing analysis. A permanently spelled illusion layer was found on the painting, revealing another painting underneath the portrait of the hag. The underpainting appears to be a self-portrait of Lavorre with scrolled writing above, which reads “Made you look! Lots of love, send to me soon Isharnai!!” Analysis of the spellwork’s age could help date the painting.

Leokas Stillspark to Peleas Dorna, Miresen 15, 1439, Conservation Department, General Correspondence, Nicodranas Fine Arts Museum Archives, 3302-01, 9/3, 18-03-12.

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Cat. No. P450
Title: Untitled (The Feast in the Garden)
Date: ca. 850
Technique: Oil paint on linen canvas
Dimensions: 150 x 200 x 3 cm
Signature: Yes: J. Lavvore, bottom right corner. (Note: Authenticity in question because of misspelling of signature.)
Description: Painting of a stone house at night surrounded by a garden with gravestones. A group of assorted figures are seated at a table outside the house, seen in silhouette against a garland of lights.
Location at time of publication: Private collection.
Provenance: Unknown.