WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART Monday 19 October 2020

40 23 Sir William Orpen RA RI RHA (1878-1931) THE BEGGAR GIRL oil on canvas signed upper left 30 by 22in. (76.2 by 55.9cm) Frame size: 38 by 29.5in. (97 by 75cm.) Provenance: Thomas Howarth, Westmoreland, 1932; Christie’s, 4 November 1983, lot 64; Vincent Ferguson, Dublin; Christie’s, 20 May 1987, lot 277; Private collection; Christie’s, 8 May 2008, lot 86; Private collection; Whyte’s, 18 May 2009, lot 66; Private collection Exhibited: ’Sir William Orpen, R.A’, Beaux Arts Gallery, London, July 1924, catalogue no. 5 Literature: P.G. Konody and S. Dark, Sir William Orpen: Artist and Man, London 1932, pp. 277 (Appendix - List of Works - Uncertain Date) Cara Copland Ref : H03:13 In September 1904, Orpen accompanied his friend, the art dealer and connoisseur, Hugh Lane, to Europe on a buying expedition to acquire works for Lane’s project - a Modern Art Gallery for Dublin. The tour took them first to Paris and then to Madrid. As Lane’s forte was the Old Masters, Orpen went along ostensibly as a guide and adviser in the field of modern European art. However, for Orpen, who had for years been studying images of the Old Master paintings whilst learning his trade at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and then the Slade School of Fine Art in London, it was an opportunity to come face to face with works that until then he only knew from reproductions. He embraced them like old friends, and their sight did not disappoint. In letters to his wife from Madrid, he enthuses ‘We have seen the Prado! We have seen San Fernando! And I have no great wish to see anything more here except these two again and again till I leave …’ and: ‘I have spent nearly the whole morning looking at Goya’s. They are the most amazing things I have ever seen all wonderful [sic] in paint and composition…’; and again : ‘I am learning so much from Velázquez and Goya that I am nearly off my head with excitement.’ 1 Orpen returned to London with renewed vigour and an almost insatiable desire to translate the experience into paint. What followed throughout 1905 and into 1906 was an explosion of energy and a willingness to explore and assimilate the techniques of the Old Masters, mainly, but not exclusively, inspired by the Spanish artists such as Goya, Velázquez, Pereda, Ribera and others, with a zest not matched since his Slade days when he drew on the likes of Watteau, Hogarth, Goya, Rembrandt and Chardin, for his master work of that period, the Play Scene from Hamlet, 1899 (Private Collection). For the new canvases of 1905 his choice of male and female models was inspired. Foremost amongst these were Mr Green and Lottie Stafford of Paradise Walk, Mr Green featuring in The Saint of Poverty, 1905 (Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries) and the Flycatcher, 1905 (Private Collection) with their echoes of Ribera, while Lottie Stafford was portrayed as a washerwoman after Chardin in such works as At the Tub, 1905 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and The Wash House, 1905 (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and the half-length Resting, 1905 (Ulster Museum, Belfast). Working class characters were devoid of idealism; their ‘lived-in’ hands and faces permitted a display of virtuosity, conveyed, for the most part, in an earth-based palette. It is into such groupings that the present work, The Beggar Girl, falls. Orpen’s revitalised Old Master enthusiasm caused him to revisit his early affection for the Dutch Masters. He had looked at the Dutch before, with New English Art Club submissions such as The Mirror, 1900 (Tate) in which P.G. Konody found echoes of Metsu and Terborch (Footnote 2), but now he turned to Frans Hals. Whether it was Hals that inspired the choice of model or the model that called the Dutch master vividly to mind, is not certain, and although her identity is not known, her striking features, especially her teeth, may have been the catalyst for the racy brushwork that recalls Hals’ works. Her looks and expression have a remarkable resemblance to Hals’The Laughing Boy (Tête d’enfant), c.1625 (Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague) and A Young Fisherman of Scheveningen (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin). Since the latter work was acquired by the gallery in 1881, resemblances would not have been lost on Orpen. He may then have drawn on two other of Hals works, The Gypsy Girl (La Bohémienne 1628-30 (Louvre, Paris), for pose and Malle Babbe, c.1635 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), for the palette and technique. Thus, in contrast to the ‘Lottie’ and ‘Mr Green’ groups, in the Beggar Girl, Orpen’s application is looser and freer, and features such as the hands, are less detailed. Hals now stands in the same firmament along with Ribera, Velázquez and Chardin. This is especially clear when comparing The Beggar Girl, with Resting and the Saint of Poverty, (a second version, was sold in these rooms, 24 November 2008 as lot 126) - three paintings of half-length figures with similar poses. These works are not merely an expression of prowess, of showing off, they remind us that Orpen’s education had not ended with the Slade. His avaricious eye had been unleashed in the great collections of Paris and Madrid and in 1905 he was still honing his talent. Orpen Research Project, 2009 Footnotes: 1. Extracts from unpublished letters from Orpen to his wife Grace, September 1904, quoted by Bruce Arnold, Orpen Mirror to an Age, Jonathan Cape, London, 1981, p.145 2 . P.G. Konody and Sidney Dark, Sir William Orpen: Artist & Man, Seeley Service, London, 1932, p.141. €40,000-€60,000 (£35,560-£53,330 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot23