In the early months of 1892 John Lavery made his second visit to Tangier, producing sketches and studies that would eventually inform A Moorish Dance, his major Royal Academy exhibit of the following year. With his friend, the Glasgow School painter, Alexander Mann, he left the city at the end of March and travelled to Seville where he remained for around a fortnight before moving on to Madrid, registering as a copyist in the Prado Museum on 6 May. The weeks in Seville saw him attending a bullfight, a flamenco performance in the city's Triana district, and visiting the great Real Fabrica de Tabacos (Royal Tobacco Factory).

This was one of the largest factories in the world at the time of its construction in the 18th century and at its height in the 1880s, around 5-6000 women were employed there (early in the century, it was discovered that women were better employees than men, when it reopened after the Peninsular War, it was to an exclusively female workforce). Employees, many of gypsy origin, were mostly recruited from the Triana, and although from humble backgrounds these young women had a sense of their worth, striking in 1885 for better conditions. In the event, they could for instance bring their babies to work and factory managers were compelled to supply cradles.
In April 1892, at the time of, Lavery's visit, the weather was cooler than mid¬summer when the cavernous courts of the Fabrica were notoriously airless and visitors often found that cigarreras had stripped to the lightest of garments. A near contemporary account describes the scene Lavery would have encountered: " almost all of the women work in three immense rooms .., [and] the first view is astounding: eight hundred girls present themselves before one's eyes in groups of five or six, sitting around work-tables as close as possible ... eight hundred jet-black heads and eight hundred brown faces from every province of Andalusia" (Edmond() de Amicis, Spain, 1880, Merrill and Baker, 1895 ed., vol 2, pp.108-9).

Lavery's interest in the cigarreras was shared by many artists of his day. He had no doubt heard about, if not seen, Bizet's enormously popular opera, Carmen. The story of the eponymous cigarette girl, was performed in his home city of Glasgow, and at Windsor for Queen Victoria in 1891. This, like the bullfight, and the Feria, brought numerous artists to Seville.

Five small paintings of cigarreras are known - two which are head studies and one shows a general view of the interior. The present is the only one showing a cigarette girl in back view. It is possible that Lavery contemplated a larger picture of the Fabrica of which this may have been a section. Swift and sure in its execution, the present sketch provides a perfect example of the artist's working method, Notes, studies, vivid in-the-moment perceptions, as here, would always remain his stock-in-trade.
We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for compiling this catalogue entry.