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Sir William Orpen RA RI RHA (1878-1931)
GLADYS COOPER
oil on canvas
signed upper right; with exhibition label on reverse
30 x 25in. (76.20 x 63_cm)
Provenance:
The sitter’s family;
Thence by descent;
Private treaty sale, Sotheby’s, 2001; Private collection
Exhibited:
‘158th Summer Exhibition’, Royal Academy, London, 1926, no. 19; ‘54th Autumn Exhibition’, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool,
1926, no. 143
Literature:
Cooper, Gladys, Gladys Cooper, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1930, p.264,265 (illustrated on frontispiece)
Konody, P.G. & Dark, Sidney, Sir William Orpen, Artist and Man, Seeley Service & Co. London, 1932, p.273 (Appendices,
Chronological list of Paintings (1924);
Arnold, Bruce, Orpen Mirror to an Age, Jonathan Cape, London, 1981, pp.409, 417
In 1924 former Gaiety girl and future screen star Gladys Cooper sat for one of the most sought- after society portrait
painters of the 20th century, Sir William Orpen. Both artists were at the height of their celebrity at this juncture. The
present work is a testament to the beauty of the performer and the skill and enduring quality of the artist.
Gladys Cooper, born in 1888, had her stage debut in 1905. In 1913 she began a mutually successful theatrical
partnership and lasting friendship with actor /manager Gerald du Maurier. She also ran the Playhouse Theatre on the
Embankment with thespian and businessman Frank Curzon. The variety of plays produced at the Playhouse brought
financial success and praise from the critics. Her celebrity was further consolidated through her famed collaborations
with Somerset Maugham in the 1920s.
Among the fêted shows at London’s
Adephi Theatre in the 1920s was J. M.
Barrie’s Peter Pan. At the time the present
work was painted Gladys Cooper was
rehearsing for the title role; that of the
impish eternal boy with the gift of flight,
and leader of his gang of Lost Boys on the
island of Neverland. In her autobiography
published in 1930 she records her time sitting
before Orpen and lifts the curtain on their
respective mindset.
“... I was never allowed to catch even a glimpse of it while it was being done, and when it was finished I found that I
had been given a distinct Peter Pan-ish sort of look. This was rather strange, but I think I can explain it. While Orpen was
painting me I was thinking very hard about playing Peter and it may be that he saw something in my face which was
from my mind.
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 26IMPORTANT IRISH ART · 25 MAY 2015 AT 6PM