Lot 103 SIR WILLIAM ORPEN KBE RA RI RHA (1878 - 1931)
Title: Portrait of Emily Scobel - Study for 'The Mirror' (1900)
Medium: Pencil, Red Chalk, and Grey Wash
Signature: Signed and Dated Upper Right
Provenance: The Artist;
By Whom Given to Mary 'Guinea' Price;
By Descent to Kathleen Fairbanks (1866 - 1966) (Niece of the Above);
and Thence by Descent;
Christie's, '20th Century British and Irish Art, London, 27 May 2010, Lot 91;
Private Collection, London;
Private Collection, Ireland
Exhibited: New English Art Club, London, Winter 1900 (Orpen's First Post - Slade Exhibition)
Literature: The Artist, August 1901;
Antiques Trade Gazette, 10 June 2023, Illustrated Pg 43
Notes: One of the most important studies by Orpen, it was known as 'The Pink Lady' in the
Fairbanks family, and was chosen to illustrate the first-ever in-depth article on Orpen,
in the August edition of 'The Artist' Magazine.
Framed
A superb work by William Orpen, this drawing in red chalk, pencil and grey wash depicts the model Emily Scobel standing, dressed in a shift, while taking off an elaborate tiered dress. Although a sensual and intimate image, the artist has concentrated on depicting the folds and textures of material, rather than the sitter, whose face is shaded by the brim of her hat. In its polished technique, the drawing reveals Orpen’s debt to artists, such as earlier artists Frederico Zuccaro, Peter Paul Rubens and Jean Antoine Watteau, all of whom practised drawing ‘aux trois crayons’, using different tints of chalk. Orpen adapted this technique, combining chalk and pencil with grey wash. The result is a refined and elegant work of art,
yet one that also conveys something of the passions that animated Orpen throughout his life.
While a student at the Slade School of Art in London, Orpen frequently sketched and painted Amelia (Emily) Scobel. An aspiring architect, Scobel had run away from home and earned her living as a life model at the Slade. It is likely that she and Orpen became lovers, and her modelling for the artist extended beyond his years as a student. In 1900, Scobel was the subject in three of Orpen’s most important paintings - 'The Mirror', 'The English Nude' and 'The Bedroom'. The first of these was completed early in the year although, as Bruce Arnold recounts in his biography Orpen – Mirror to an Age, it was not exhibited until November 1900, when it was shown at the New English Art Club. 'The English Nude' probably dates from the early summer of that same year, while 'The Bedroom' was painted at Cany, in Normandy, later that summer.
Although Orpen and Scobel were in a relationship that went beyond her being a model in his paintings, while at the same time, he was courting Grace Knewstub. However, as Knewstub was not prepared to model for Orpen, Scobel posed for both his drawings and paintings. In his magnificent 'The English Nude', he depicted her on a four poster bed in his studio at 21 Fitzroy Street. The resulting painting was kept by Orpen in his own collection until his death. In the painting 'The Mirror', the pose used was not that adopted by Scobel in the present drawing, but instead she is depicted seated, beside a circular mirror, looking at the viewer, her eyes shaded by the brim of her hat and her hands folded. While Scobel was fond of Orpen, and they were even engaged at one point, she was eventually put off by his obsession with work and left him to marry one of his contemporaries at the Slade, Max West.
Dr. Peter Murray,
August 2026
€5000 - 8000
Image: 31 x 16cm Framed: 58 x 41cm (approx.)
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