William Orpen, Irish, 1878 - 1931
 

These are for my friend Allan Rahbek. ;)

Allan, Sybil Sassoon married Lord Rocksavage, so the portrait of her is titled 'Lady Rocksavage'. It's showing up as the bottom image here. The book that I have about him is William Orpen, Politics, Sex & Death, a publication of the Imperial War Museum in London.

Thank you,Linda,
This is the lady and what fantastic colors, purple and gold but almost in black and white, elegant. That Orpen had a lot on his mind.
However, my version of Lady Rocksavage is another, for some reason I imagine that she is in red.
I could post the few paintings that I found if you think so.

Although he spent most of his career in London, Orpen was born in Ireland.

Simon

Great stuff!

Was familiar with him, but haven't seen a lot of images. One notable thing...he gets good mileage out of a double light source, similar to Zorn, but more subtle and softer (not better, just different).

Thanks--TE

One seems to be Irish while the lady's are Londoners.

Simon, you're right about that. (Edit: I changed the title of this thread to reflect his Irish roots.)

Allan, thanks for posting these! I love the design of the girl with the pheasant feather hat, it's wonderful.

Tom, interesting point, I hadn't thought of that. One of the things I like about Orpen is his non-formulaic approach to much of his portraiture. Here's an interesting quote by him:
"You paint men in different ways, in the same way that you talk to different men in different ways. Painting and talking are merely two different methods of expressing your own character and that of the other fellow."

Linda, of course you ordered that book thru my bookstore, right? ;)
http://fineartbooks.com/masters-after1800.htm (in the right column)

John Sanden features him on his World of Portrait Painting site:
http://www.worldofportraitpainting.c...nden/orpen.htm

Another Orpen
 

Linda thank you for starting this thread and for kindly posting the photos. Orpen has a interesting history and worth the reed. Sargent thought quite highly of him.

Cynthia, sometime ago I visited Sanden's page on Orpen and saw the painting of the young boy. Such simplicity of pose but masters hand.

Here is another with a feather.

Allan, I would love to see your version of the Lady R in color. I hope someone will come across it and post.

Cynthia, what a terrific collection of books! (Everybody: please stop right now and click on that link. And order the Sorolla book while you're there, too.) To tell you the truth, I'm not sure where I bought the Orpen book, but I should have bought if from your site. :) Thank you also for other link, it was very interesting.

Mischa, good work! Look at that masterful red hair. What an extraordinary painting.

(By the way, I'm hoping a zealous artist will open a thread about Mancini, hint hint.)