46
62
Paul Henry
KEEL VILLAGE,
oil on canvas
signed lower le
18 by 20in. (45.
Provenance:
Private collecti
Adam’s, 28 May
Whence purcha
Exhibited:
‘Paintings by M
Russell (AE), Lei
Literature:
Kennedy, S.B.,
P
London, 2007, c
In original Waddi
The form of the si
signify that this c
August 1911.The
seen from the hig
the middle distan
moderate impast
painting at this ti
blues and greys t
influence that wo
foreground, is ch
composition of t
is larger, althoug
excitement at his
Dr SB Kennedy
February 2013
!
50,000-
!
70,0
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
Lot 29
Sir William Orpen RA RI RHA (1878-1931) PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN COLIN DAVID
BRODIE, 1928
oil on canvas signed lower left 30 by 23in. (76.20 by 58.42cm)
Provenance A wedding gift from the artist to Daphne Cecil Rosemary Harmsworth,
daughter of Lord Harmsworth, on her marriage to the sitter; Given by the sitter to Lord
Swinfen;1 Thence to Averil, Lady Swinfen; With James Robson 1983; de Vereʼs, 21
November 2000, lot 276; Private collection
With an original letter from the sitter to Lord Swinfen, 6 May 1964.
In 1937, remembering Orpen, Seán Keating produced the most succinct assessment of his
masterʼs abilities, ʻWhat he observedʼ, he wrote, seemed to go in through his eyes, be analysed
and arranged by his brain, and written down with inevitable rightness by his unerring hand, as
one complicated movement of his willʼ.
There was a sense of immediacy in this: the painter could uncannily read the mindʼs construction
on the face of his sitter and express it with concision.The glimpse, not the gaze, was enough. His
later work was as ʻauthoritative as the shot of a pistolʼ, Keating concluded.While later critics,
coloured by the vitriolic comments of his nephew, John Rothenstein, dismissed the portrait
cavalcade of Orpenʼs closing years, his pupilʼs encomium rings true as we examine the Portrait of
Captain Colin David Brodie.
This present work sets out the essential character of a man who despite his chequered career,
was handsome and debonair. His strong jaw, regular features and trimmed moustache indicate a
Scot, secure in his class identity.3 The second son of an insurance company secretary, Colin
David Brodie (1893-1969) was born in Edinburgh. At the age of seventeen he was dispatched to
Manitoba, Canada to work on a farm, but only remained there for a short time, before travelling to
East Africa where, in 1915, he enlisted in the Uganda Volunteer Reserve, rising through the ranks
of the Kingʼs African Rifles Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He repatriated to the family
home, by that stage at Wokingham, Berkshire, in 1919. Failing to settle, he returned to Canada
and the United States in 1923, describing himself as a ʻretired Army Officerʼ and giving his
occupation as ʻsalesmanʼ. However, by the time of his return to England in July 1923, he had
upgraded to ʻstockbrokerʼ and during the next four years his fortunes improved. Probably through
his friend, ʻCarolʼ Charles Swinfen Eady, second Baron Swinfen, he met, and in March 1928,
married Daphne Cecil Rosemary Harmsworth, the daughter of Lord Harmsworth, the publisher
and newspaper proprietor.4 It was probably through Cecil, Harmsworthʼs son, that the contact
with Orpen was established, he having painted various members of the Harmsworth dynasty
since 1907.5 In this instance the painter agreed to produce the portrait as a wedding present and
no fee is recorded in his studio book.6 Orpenʼs wife, Grace, along with one of their daughters
attended the wedding.
What appeared before Orpen was a young man in his mid-thirties wearing a ʻBalmoralʼ bonnet
with his clan insignia and an ʻArgyllʼ waistcoat and jacket, traditionally worn for stalking in the
Highlands. His tie is knotted and pulled forward, and after the fashion of the day, a brightly
coloured handkerchief emerges from his breast pocket. Although this is not a military costume, it
must have called to mind Orpenʼs eighteen months as an Official War Artist and he even shows
Brodie facing right and turning to engage the viewer, in a favourite pose used for his own self-
portraits. Despite the claim that these last years were fuelled by alcohol, there is no diminution of
Orpenʼs powers in the handling of the portrait.The figure is confidently executed and brushstrokes
crossing the left shoulder follow the direction of the form down into the sleeve before they fade
into under-paint. Close examination reveals that the hat ribbons have been repositioned, and its
contour softened and sharpened around the crown of the head. Keating accurately observed Van
Dyck, Hals and Goya in Orpen – but in this instance we have a sitter who is ʻassured and well-
bred like the people of Raeburnʼ. Sadly Brodieʼs marriage ended in divorce in 1937 and twelve
years later he emigrated to Australia. But this too did not last, and by 1956 he was back in
Scotland where he married for a second time. He died in Montrose in 1969, aged 75.
€20,000-€30,000 (£17,090-£25,640 approx.)
