William Orpen facts for kids

William Orpen, photograph by George Charles Beresford, 1903

Charles Sackville-West by Orpen National Portrait Gallery, London

Gardenia St George by Orpen

Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen KBE RA (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish portrait painter, who worked mainly in London. He was an official war artist during World War I.

Most of these works, 138 in all, he gave to the British Government. They have simple white frames and are kept together in the Imperial War Museum in London. For his war work, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1918 King's birthday honours list.

Otherwise, Orpen was seen at his best in personal family portraits.

"Orpen was fond of painting women sitters against a black background, lighting the figure from two sides, an arrangement which gave luminosity and a certain ethereal appearance to his unfaltering but matter of fact statement".

Images for kids

The Mirror (1900) (Tate)
Grace reading at Howth Bay (c.1908-1912)
Ready to Start (1917) (Art.IWM ART 2380)
The Schwaben Redoubt (1917) (Art.IWM ART 3000)
The Refugee (B) (1917), modeled by Yvonne Aubicq, (Art.IWM ART 3005)
Zonnebeke (1918) (Tate)
The Mad Woman of Douai (1918) (Art.IWM ART 4671)
The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June 1919 (1919)
To the Unknown British Soldier in France (1921)
Le Chef de l'Hôtel Chatham, Paris (1921)
Self-portrait with glasses, (1907), National Gallery of Australia
The Man from Aran, (1909)
Leading the Life in the West, (c. 1910), Metropolitan Museum of Art
Self-Portrait, (1917) (Art.IWM ART 2382)