Sir William Orpen, R.A., R.H.A. 1878-1931

The Artist's Studio at the time of his death, Artist's Estate ref.O.91;
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1932, sold for £300;
Private Collection;
Acquired by the present owner in 1981

P.G. Konody and Sidney Dark, William Orpen: Artist and Man, Seeley Service, London, 1932, p.277.

'...on its raised dais dominating the whole fantastic apartment, stood the great four-poster bed with its garlands and medallions painted by Angelica Kauffman...' (Vivien Winch, A Mirror for Mama, MacDonald, London, 1965). 

Vivien St George recalled that her mother was 'fit to be tied' when it was discovered that her beloved 'monster bed' was too large for her London apartment on Berkeley Street where the St Georges moved in 1912 from Clonsilla Lodge on the outskirts of Dublin.  Orpen galantly resolved the situation by designing  a smaller replica for his most famous patron and lover and enlisted his old Slade comrade, Charles T. Stabb to help with painting the decoration which included images of Vivien and himself (see fig.2, The Furniture Painter, shown at the Society of XII’s Exhibition in 1915).  It is the fruits of their labour that so dominates the present work.  The original Kauffman bed had already been the overriding presence in Orpen's iconic Interior at Clonsilla with Mrs St George (fig.1, sold in these rooms, 16 May 2002, lot 79) painted in 1908, importantly the year that Orpen and Mrs St George became lovers. 

They first met around 1906 through Orpen's mother, Annie, a woman who was well-connected and ambitious for her youngest child.  As Florence Evelyn Baker, daughter of the wealthy New York banker George F. Baker, Evelyn had wed the Irish land agent Howard Bligh St George in 1891; Howard was Annie's first cousin. Orpen first painted Mrs St George and her husband on separate canvasses, full lenth and a pattern of patronage was established that was to continue throughout the life of their relationship.

Like Interior at Clonsilla, the theatrical proportions of The Empty Bed are symbolic. As study sketches confirm, Orpen’s idea to associate the bed with a theatrical stage dates to as early as 1899, where the canopy of the throne on the set of The Play Scene from Hamlet (1899, Private Collection, fig.3) is based on a bed, which he probably discovered on his trip to Cany in the Summer of 1899. Certainly Orpen seemed fascinated with beds at this time, incorporating them into various compositions in the years around the turn of the century. It was probably the grandeur of the canopied beds of Northern France that was his inspiration for such works as The Bedroom (1900, Private Collection), and The English Nude (1900, Coll. Mildura Arts Centre, Australia). In returning to the idea in The Empty Bed, perhaps inspired by James Pryde’s ‘Bed Series’, (for example, The Death Bed (circa 1913, fig.4), and The Derelict (fig.5), Orpen revisits the geometric composition and line of the stage to the left of The Play Scene from Hamlet (fig.3).

The picture itself suggests a theatrical set where the performance is concluded and we are left gazing upon an empty stage. The man looks on from the wings – whether as spectator or former participant is not clear, but he does seem to be wistfully contemplating the past and his fate - striking a lonely figure – although the pose and dress is somewhat reminiscent of the “protecteurs” so frequently seen in the “dans les coulisses” pictures of Degas, Forain and Gavarni. There is, however, a new twist on these older works, the lack of the woman, powerfully suggesting mystery and former sexual tensions, some of which still linger. The viewer is able to visualise her ghostly imprint in the disturbed bedding, marking where she once was, perhaps in positions similar to that in Gervex’s Rolla (circa 1878) or Orpen’s A Woman (1906, Coll. Leeds Art Gallery, fig.6) or even The English Nude (1900). This implies a more complex and sophisticated relationship with the empty bed, and it’s absent occupant, than just that of a mere admirer; the shadowy figure is almost certainly Orpen himself, contemplating the emotional and psychological significance of this great bed decorated by his own fair hands.

With the onset of the First World War and Orpen's posting to France as part of the Official War Artists Scheme from April 1917 and the discovery of the affair by Mrs St George's daughter, Gardenia, around 1915 as well as his meeting Yvonne Aubicq (see lot 75), Orpen and Evelyn's affair came to end by 1921.  The Empty Bed was most likely executed circa 1921 - 1925 when Orpen was in a position to look back over the 13 years of their relationship during which time Evelyn had not only helped him commercially, securing him important commissions through her connections but also artistically through her assertive suggestions exemplified by the great 'swagger' portrait of herself, sold in these rooms, 16th May 2003, lot 57, which she insisted he paint without using any primary colours at all as an exercise in artistic brilliance. The composition certainly best fits the mindset of the post-war Orpen of the early 1920s, when he made frequent references to loneliness, solitude and retrospection and it was most certainly executed after 1912 when the bed was designed. Regardless of its exact date, like the Portrait of Yvonne Aubicq as a Nun (circa 1919, see lot no.75), the work obviously had great personal significance for Orpen, as it too was never sold, and, for a time hung over the fireplace in his South Bolton Gardens Studio.

We are grateful to Christopher Pearson of the Orpen Research Project for his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.

The present work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings of Sir William Orpen, R.A., R.H.A., (1878 - 1931), currently being prepared by Christopher Pearson of the Orpen Research Project.