All is fair in love and war — society portrait painter Sir William Orpen was entangled in the chaos of both. He began his prolific career painting the sumptuous and unsmiling patrons of aristocratic Edwardian society, whilst for leisure, he captured on canvas the many women he became intimate with. When the First World War started, however, he traded his Rolls-Royce for trench boots and endeavoured to portray the brutal art of war.
This week on the Casemate UK Blog, author Patricia O’Reilly explores the inspiration behind her new book, Orpen at War, and the artistic, eccentric, romantic, complicated life of Sir William Orpen.
The Real Sir William Orpen by Patricia O’Reilly | 5 min read
A Burgeoning Talent
William Orpen (1878-1931). Image © National Gallery of Ireland
CC BY 4.0
It’s not surprising that I’m writing about Irish artist Sir William Orpen (1878-1931). I was more or less reared on him as my father was interested in the Irish arts scene and we lived near ‘Oriel’, the Orpen family home in south county Dublin. From my earliest research, I was hooked on this talented, complex, vulnerable man. There was nothing about him that wasn’t fascinating – even his name: William Montague Newham Orpen. Billy to his friends.
For the core of the story, I settled on using his time as a war artist during WW1, softened with personal cameos. Sorting out the facts of his life was rather like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle.
William was born into a wealthy legal family, the youngest of four sons and two daughters. From an early age, he showed an exceptional talent for painting. At 13, he was the youngest student to be accepted by the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (the Met), against his father’s wishes, but supported by his mother.
As a student both in Dublin and London, he shone, and was spoken of as one to watch. His Play Scene from Hamlet won the painting prize in the Slade’s 1899 summer competition. From then on, his success was assured; his going price for a commissioned portrait being in the region of 200 gns.
Marriage, Affairs & Infatuation
At little more than 5’2”, he was an unlikely Lothario and self-portraits show him with gnarled features, but from an early age he held a fascination for women and had several affairs. In 1901, he married Grace Knewstub and they settled in a stylish house in Chelsea. She was the model for several paintings, including Grace by Candlelight and Grace Reading at Howth Bay. He spent time in Dublin during the summer teaching at the Met and catching up on family.
In summer 1906, he attended a dinner hosted by Evelyn, and Howard St George the Connemara Land Agent, at their home in Howth Co Dublin. From his first sight of Evelyn, he was besotted, ignoring the fact that she was older, married, and a foot taller than him. When her portrait, commissioned by Howard, was completed, William sent her a note, ‘You are certainly the most wonderful thing that ever happened.’ She didn’t reply. He was a copious note writer, paying little attention to grammar or punctuation, frequently decorating the notes with pen and ink drawings in the margin and signing with uncials.
Two years later, he and Evelyn began a relationship that was mutually satisfying. She influenced his artistic life, suggesting he should be more selective with his subjects; despite finding ugliness a deterrent, he didn’t turn down commissions. He fulfilled her craving for excitement and assuaged her boredom with ‘domestic matters’.
When war was declared in 1914, Grace wanted to move the family to Ireland, but William refused. In 1915, he was commissioned into Kensington Barracks for clerical duties. With Evelyn’s connivance, he campaigned to get to the front. Eventually, to Grace’s horror, he succeeded.
Unique Honour for Irish Artist
Daily Mail 30 January 1917
Sir Douglas Haig has conferred a unique honour on a distinguished Irishman, Mr. W. Orpen RIA, who has been appointed official artist with the Army in France. Mr. Orpen joined the Army Service Corps some time ago.
On 17 April 1917, complete with a batman, his aide, and a driver for his Rolls-Royce, Major Orpen arrived in France and was based in Amiens. He regarded the commission as a bit of a Boy’s Own style adventure – but nothing in his privileged life had prepared him for the sights he came across in the war zones – half-starved soldiers crawling through rat-infested, water-sodden trenches, before charging across the tortured earth with fixed bayonets and, when injured, if they were lucky, ending up in hell-hole hospitals.
Initially, he was unable to capture on canvas what he was seeing. He was horrified at the disparity between officers and men – luxurious accommodation and fine dining versus poor quarters and skimpy rations. But Ready to Start, a self-portrait wearing the uniform of a major provided the necessary impetus and from then on, his output was prolific. His canvasses had to be approved before being forwarded to London. From the beginning his approver was more impressed with painting officers and quantity; whereas William sought to produce quality, capturing the activities of the ordinary soldier, using detail-drenched images like The Thinker on the Butte de Warlencourt to convey the agony of war.
His exhibition of paintings, titled WAR, was the talk of London and coincided with him receiving a knighthood, but reviews were mixed. The Times bemoaning: ‘His work produced in France adds to our knowledge of himself, but nothing to our knowledge of war.’ While the Daily Telegraph assured, ‘the paintings vibrate through our hearts’.
At War’s End
In 1919, prime minister David Lloyd George commissioned William to paint the Peace. He moved to Paris with his young French mistress, Yvonne Aupicq. One painting turned into three. With the Conference and the Signing of the Treaty completed, he started on the third canvas that was to include the military and naval leaders. At the time, he was drinking heavily, suffering the aftermath of the Spanish flu, erratic, and generally depressed. He wrote to Grace, “… a mass of Khaki is a dreadful thing to manage… and I’ve got the black dog… the frocks* reign supreme.”
He renamed the third painting To the Unknown British Soldier in France, a decision that caused a furore in Whitehall, nonetheless he salvaged his reputation by modifying the painting and presenting it to Sir Douglas Haig.
At the War’s end, William left Yvonne in Paris, having gifted her the Rolls-Royce, and resumed his life of portrait painting in London, but his marriage had broken down. His relationship with Evelyn was over and he was suffering the effects of the aftermath of the war. Aged 53, he died of alcohol related illnesses.
*Note: Orpen referred to uniformed officers as “frocks”
Orpen at War by Patricia O’Reilly is published by The Liffey Press
Cover image: Self-Portrait, William Orpen (1878-1931). Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0
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Patricia O’Reilly writes biographical historical fiction. She teaches writing in University College Dublin, the Irish Writers’ Centre, and elsewhere, and has experience in newspaper journalism and radio writing.
Her latest book Orpen at War is about Irish artist Sir William Orpen’s time at the front as an official British war artist during WW1. Featuring dozens of Orpen’s paintings and drawings, her book is an enthralling insight to the brutal reality of war, as well as appreciation of Orpen’s remarkable personal and creative journey.
You can find the Orpen at War here.
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