PRESENTING A BEAUTIFUL Oil on Canvas of The Roscommon Dragoon after Sir William Orpen.
“The Roscommon Dragoon” after Sir William Orpen, oil on canvas, circa 1918.
Sir William Orpen was one of the premiere British and Irish Artists of the Early and Mid 20th Century and is regarded as a British Master.
This is one of Orpen’s most popular and sought after paintings and subjects – It depicts Mrs. Vera Hone in a Red Dragoon uniform. The painting became known as the Roscommon Dragoon (After the County in Ireland called Roscommon where Orpen spent some considerable time). Vera Hone (nee Brewster) was Orpen’s all time favorite model. She was an American beauty and moved to the UK where she and her husband lived next door to the Orpen’s for about a year. Orpen was a little besotted with Vera, as were many other artists, referring to her as the “Lovely Vera”. She modelled for so many paintings that Orpen began to use a numbering system rather than keep on inventing titles for his pictures of her.
This is probably a Gallery copy and the rear of the painting has labels confirming that it was exhibited at the Ballyrickard Irish Art Gallery in Ireland.
Orpen’s original works are exhibited in all major Galleries and have sold for Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars.
One recently unearthed original painting by Orpen *The Refugee” was valued by the British Antiques Roadshow at circa $500,000 (250,000 GB Pounds).
Signed on back (not authenticated).
If this was an original it would be worth a ‘fortune’, but as we cannot authenticate it, we are selling it as ‘After” Sir William Orpen.
If it is, indeed, a Studio or Gallery copy then it is an exceptional one!
Limited edition prints of the original sell for thousands of dollars.
Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, KBE, RA, RHA (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in Edwardian society, though many of his most striking paintings are self-portraits.
During World War I, he was the most prolific of the official war artists sent by Britain to the Western Front. There he produced drawings and paintings of ordinary soldiers, dead men, and German prisoners of war, as well as portraits of generals and politicians. Most of these works, 138 in all, he donated to the British government; they are now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. His connections to the senior ranks of the British Army allowed him to stay in France longer than any of the other official war artists, and although he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 Birthday Honours, and also elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, his determination to serve as a war artist cost him both his health and his social standing in Britain.
After his early death a number of critics, including other artists, were loudly dismissive of his work, and for many years his paintings were rarely exhibited, a situation that only began to change in the 1980s.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orpen
Oil on Canvas of The Roscommon Dragoon after Sir William Orpen.
Provenance: Bought at Auction in Ireland. Previously on display at Ballyrickard Irish Art Gallery.
Dimensions: Canvas is 23.5 inches x 19.5 inches. In frame it is 30.5 inches x 26.5 inches
Condition: In original frame. Very good original condition.
SALE PRICE NOW: $2,000
