Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Sir William Orpen
Sketch of a woman's head in profile

c. 1900-1910

About the Item

Sketch of a woman's head in profile Graphite on paper, c. 1900-1910 Unsigned Condition: Excellent Tiny tear upper right near hinge (repaired and bearly visible) Sheet size: 4 5/8 x 3 1/2 inches Provenance: see photos Colnaghi, London, D. 24911 Davis Galleries, New York, Eagle stamp & number Columbus Museum of Art, Accession 64.41 CMA This study sheet bears some resemblance to Mrs. Evelyn St. George, with whom the artist had a long affair in London starting in 1908. (see photos of sister related drawings) William Orpen showed a talent for art at an early age, and in 1891 was admitted into the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. He soon came to the attention of his teachers and contemporaries as an immensely gifted draughtsman, and won several prizes for his drawings. In 1898, he transferred to the Slade School of Art in London, where his drawings continued to impress all who saw them. At the Slade, where his professors included Philip Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks, he met and befriended Augustus John. The two young artists soon came to dominate their class at the school, where they were quickly recognized as head and shoulders above their fellow students in terms of talent. Orpen joined the New English Art Club, and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was appointed an Official War Artist in 1917, and his powerful paintings and drawings of the trenches in France were exhibited in London the following year. Knighted in 1918, Orpen later published more of his scenes of the war in An Onlooker in France, 1917-1919, which appeared in 1921. The 1920’s found the artist at the height of his success, firmly established as one of the leading portrait painters in England, with a fashionable clientele and no shortage of commissions. Yet after his death at the age of only fifty-two his reputation lapsed into obscurity, and it has not been until relatively recently that he has regained something of the stature he once enjoyed. Throughout his career, William Orpen was admired as one of the finest draughtsmen of his day. He drew for long hours every day, and left behind a large corpus of drawings and sketches. As the critic of The Art News commented of a publication of a portfolio of ten photogravure reproductions of his drawings in 1915, ‘These drawings are remarkable not only for their delicacy of handling, but for the loving care with which the pencil has revelled in beauty of form. Mr. William Orpen is thoroughly modern, yet he continues a tradition which has been handed down from the great draughtsmen of the past. His work does not suffer when placed by the side of the work of the Old Masters, a supreme but dangerous test.’ Another critic, writing at the same time in The Ladies’ Field, noted that ‘Mr. Orpen may be described as a tender draughtsman, tender in his care of and love for his materials. His hand is so marvellously delicate. His pencil hovers over the paper with the grace of a butterfly…He does not strive for the beauty of feature, as the French draughtsmen of the eighteenth century tried to capture those qualities. At times he is almost ugly and brutal; but he never loses the beauty of form.’ Courtesy Stephen Ongpin Fine Art
  • Creator:
    Sir William Orpen (1878 - 1931, Irish)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1900-1910
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 4.63 in (11.77 cm)Width: 3.5 in (8.89 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA85531stDibs: LU14015913542

More From This Seller

View All
Preliminary Study for the painting Rose and Gold, 1913
By William McGregor Paxton
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Preliminary Study for the painting Rose and Gold, 1913 Graphite on paper, 1913 Signed in pencil lower left (see photo) Titlted "Lizzy Young" in pencil upper left (see photo) Lizzy was a modle that Paxton depicts numerous times. The painting that this drawing is related to, is illustrated in Lee & Krause, William McGregor Paxton, 1869-1941, Plate 32, text on page 132. The painting was formerly in the collection of Victor Spark and the Honorable Paul Buchanan. It is currently in a Texas Collection. Provenance: Private Collection, Florida William McGregor Paxton (June 22, 1869 – 1941) was an American painter and instructor who embraced the Boston School paradigm and was a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists. He taught briefly while a student at Cowles Art School, where he met his wife Elizabeth Okie Paxton, and at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. Paxton is known for his portraits, including those of two presidents—Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge—and interior scenes with women, including his wife. His works are in many museums in the United States. Early life He was born on June 22, 1869, in Baltimore to James and Rose Doherty Paxton. William's father moved the Paxton family and established a catering business in Newton Corner, Massachusetts, in the mid-1870s. Education Paxton attended Cowles Art School on a scholarship he attained at the age of 18. He studied with Dennis Miller Bunker...
Category

1910s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Portrait of a resting young lady (Marjorie Organ)
By Robert Henri
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portrait of a resting young lady (Marjorie Organ) Black chalk on paper. c. 1907 signed in ink by Henri's nephew, John C. LeClair, the executor of the Henri estate "Robert Henri JLC" Note: The sitter for this portrait is depicted in two drawings of similar size, illustrated in Chapellier Galleries Inc., Robert Henri 1865-1929, 1976, nos. 15 & 16. Please see the attached photo of Marjorie Organ, Henri's second wife Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 10 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches Provenance: Estate of the Artist John C. LeClair, Estate Adminitrator Private Collection, Pawling, New York Biography Robert Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 24, 1865, the son of a professional gambler and real estate developer. The family lived in Nebraska and Colorado, but fled east when the father shot and killed a rancher over a land dispute and was indicted for manslaughter. They changed their last name because of the ensuing scandal and eventually settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the early 1880s. In 1886 Henri enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz, Thomas Hovenden...
Category

Early 1900s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

red ballboy or Studies for "Tennis Tournament"
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Red Ballboy or Studies for "Tennis Tournament" Crayon on paper, c. 1920 Unsigned Condition: three vertical folds created by the artist to transport the drawing from the tennis match ...
Category

1910s Ashcan School Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Untitled (Standing man with umbrella behind)
By Charles Maurin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Standing man with umbrella behind) Graphite on paper, c. 1890's Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Lucien Goldschmidt (1912-1992), noted art ...
Category

1890s French School Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Seated Couple
By Raphael Soyer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Inspiration (Seated Couple) Graphite on paper, c. 1967 Signed twice in pencil by the artist on recto (see photos) Condition: Excellent Image size: 13 x 16 inches Note: Although not t...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Untitled (Woman working in the fields)
By Daniel Ridgway Knight
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Woman working in the fields) Graphite on wove paper Unsigned Exhibited: Spanierman Galleries, In Praise of Women, Oct. 21-Nov. 20, 2010 Illustrated: Lisa N. Peters, In Praise of Women, Spanierman Galleries (see catalog entry in photos) Condition: Excellent Sheet size (sight): 14 1//2 x 10 5/16 inches Provenance: Spanierman Galleries, New York The young woman is a known model for Knight. She is depicted in numerous paintings. The striped skirt and wooden shoes she wears also is repeated in Knight's oeuvre. "Daniel Ridgway Knight was born in Philadelphia to a Quaker family and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1858 to 1861, the year he became a founding member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club. He went to Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1861 to 1863 with Charles Gleyre (1808-1874) and Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), and attended the Accademia di San Lucca, then in Venice, in 1863. Knight returned to Philadelphia that year, married, and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He went back to France in 1871 and lived there for the remainder of his long and successful career. He settled in Seine-et-Oise near Poissy to study with the noted academic painter Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) in 1873, and the two artists became close friends. Influenced by his French contemporaries Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) and Jules- Adolphe-Aimé-Louis Breton...
Category

1890s Abstract Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

You May Also Like

Charles Ware "Mary Magdalene" Original Watercolor on Linen c.1969
By Charles Ware
Located in San Francisco, CA
Charles Ware (1921-2005) Mary Magdalene Original Watercolor on Linen c.1969 A superb 1960s original graphite and watercolor painting on linen by listed American artist Charles Ware....
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite

Figure Study For 'Science'
By John Singer Sargent
Located in New York, NY
This charcoal drawing is a preliminary study for the figure of Science, the subject that comprises the far right panel above the entrance to the library at the Museum of Fine Arts, B...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Graphite

Studies for Medusa
By John Singer Sargent
Located in New York, NY
This is a study for the body of Medusa in Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa, 1922-25, the mural panel installed on the ceiling side aisle of the Huntington Avenue stairway at the Mus...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Graphite

Self Portrait with Brushes, 9x11", pencil drawing, framed
By Lu Haskew
Located in Loveland, CO
Self Portrait with Brushes by Lu Haskew Pencil 9x11" image size 15x18.5" framed as pictured, behind glass with archival matte Graphite drawing of the artist with her tools Shipping ...
Category

Early 2000s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Planes of the Head, 10x8", pencil drawing, framed
By Lu Haskew
Located in Loveland, CO
Planes of the Head study by Lu Haskew Pencil 10x8" image size 14x12" framed as pictured, behind glass Graphite drawing. Shipping price includes the custom packing necessary for safe...
Category

Early 2000s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

'Young Woman', Figural, Chicago, Illinois, AIC
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'E Gatechair' for Eileen Stigall Gatechair (American, 1916- 2010) and dated, lower left, October 1986. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Eileen Stigall attended the Un...
Category

1980s Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Felt Pen, Graphite

Recently Viewed

View All