Major William Orpen | War Artists | Great War

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Major William Orpen (later Sir William Orpen 1878-1931) born in County Dublin and trained as an artist at the Slade School. Orpen elected ARA in 1910. When War commenced in 1914, Orpen raised funds for the War Effort by auctioning blank canvases on which the purchaser’s portrait would be painted. In 1915, commissioned into the Army Service Corps and carried out routine administration work at Kensington Barracks.

He served as an official War Artist on the Western Front from 1917 and knighted for his services in 1918. After the Armistice, he served as Official Artist at the Versailles Peace Conference. Orpen appointed RA in 1919 and died in 1931, aged 53.

Western Front

William Orpen commissioned as an official War Artist and served on the Western Front from 1917-1918.

German Prisoners by the Roadside

Self-Portrait in Battledress

Self-Portrait in Battledress in an area under bombardment image: A sketch of the artist in tin hat and sheepskin gilet standing up to his ankles in mud; his face with strangely corpse-like features.

He stands holding a sketch pad in one hand and pencil in the other while shells explode like fireworks in the sky above his head. A line of German prisoners of war led by a British soldier can be seen in the distance.

Amiens

Mr. Dudley Forsyth, designer of Church Windows, Captain R. Maude, A.P.M. of Amiens and Major Orpen.

WAR ARTISTS AT WORK ON THE WESTERN FRONT © IWM (Q 8257)

The first and last are sketching, Amiens, 25 August, 1918.

The Mad Woman of Douai (1918)

Orpen’s narrative to this painting found in his memoir, An Onlooker In France.

“In one spot in the mud at the side of the road lay two British Tommies who had evidently just been killed. They had been laid out ready for something to take them away … Death all round, and they themselves might be blown into eternity at any moment … Another day I went to Douai, and there I saw the mad woman. Her son told us she had been quite well until two days before the Boche left, then they had done such things to her that she had lost her reason. There she sat, silent and motionless, except for one thumb which constantly twitched. But if one of us in uniform passed close to her, she would give a convulsive shudder. It was sad, this woman with her beautiful, curly-headed son.”
William Orpen, An Onlooker In France

The Girls College, Péronne

Adam and Eve at Péronne

The same soldier (in same pose) appears in The Mad Woman of Douai (1918).

Yvonne Aubicq

This portrait caused considerable problems with the British military authorities as Orpen gave the piece the provocative title ‘A Spy’. But rather than being a spy or a refugee, the subject was in fact Yvonne Aubicq, a young French girl who was Orpen’s lover.

Mata Hari

Lieutenant-Colonel A N Lee, the British censor of official artwork, requested an explanation and Orpen elaborated on his provocative title with a false story. He claimed that the sitter was a German spy executed by a French firing squad. This was a subject particularly sensitive as Mata Hari had recently been executed by the French and the German execution of the British nurse Edith Cavell, who had aided the escape of Allied soldiers, was commonly used in Allied propaganda. Orpen was recalled to London and had to retract his story. He was severely reprimanded and only through his War Office connections did he manage to retain his status as an official war artist in France. Despite this episode, Orpen and Lee became good friends.

The Refugee (A) © IWM (Art.IWM ART 2964) A half length portrait of seated in front of a background draped in fabric, her hands resting in her lap.

A half length portrait of Yvonne Aubicq seated in front of a background draped in fabric, her hands resting in her lap.

Yvonne later married Orpen’s chauffeur, Captain William Charles Frederic Grover-Williams.

Yvonne – The Crossing Guard

Is it possible? Could the mysterious Yvonne, the Crossing Guard, be Yvonne Aubicq?

O-1475 Yvonne, somewhere near the Canadian rest camp.
O-1474 Yvonne, wishing a Canadian Good Luck.
O-1473 Yvonne, the pretty railway crossing gate keeper, attending to her signal lamps,
O-1471 Yvonne, A car held up at a railway crossing and not by a train.
O-1450 Yvonne, the railway crossing gate keeper just behind the Canadian Lines.
O-1472 Yvonne, the pretty railway crossing gate keeper, who is never without a helping hand from the Canadians.

Flyers

William Orpen painted several flyers of the Great War. He spent part of September 1917 visiting airfields and during October 1917 he was based with No. 56 Squadron near Cassel.

Major J B McCudden, VC, DSO, MC, MM

Reginald Theodore Carlos Hoidge MC & Bar

Reginald Theodore Carlos Hoidge MC & Bar (28 July 1894 – 1 March 1963) a Canadian Great War flying ace, officially credited with 28 victories.

Lieutenant Arthur P F Rhys-Davids, DSO, MC

Portrait of the young pilot Lieutenant Rhys-Davids, killed shortly afterwards in a dogfight.

Flight Sergeant William George Bennett

Bennett’s portrait done when he was back in England recuperating, with the sitting starting on 24 June 1917. He was wounded by machine gun fire from the ground during a contact patrol on 4 May 1917 and returned to England at the R6 Auxilliary Hospital in Perth on 18 May 1917.

He then went on furlough on 16 June 1917 and officially returned 25 June 1917, the day after the first sitting for the portrait. It’s unclear whether he went back to France after that, but he was declared unfit for service as a pilot on 27 September 1918, so if he did then it was back as an Air Mechanic again, which he was before becoming a pilot on 20 October 1916.

Peace

A full-length depiction of a haggard and worn Kaiser Wilhelm II. He is naked and sits hunched, with folded arms and crossed legs, on the ground.

Major William Orpen in the Great War