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

The sitter and thence by descent to the present owner

London, Royal Academy, 1929, no. 257

Royal Academy Illustrated, 1929, repr. p.76;
Time, The Weekly Newsmagazine, Vol. XXI, no.25, 19 June 1933, cover repr. in colour

STRUCTURE This picture is unlined and in excellent original condition with bright colours and stable paint surface throughout. There are no signs of craquelure and the paint surafce is clean. The picture is therefore ready to hang. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are no visible retouchings. FRAME This picture is contained in a moulded plaster frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Writing in 1952, William Orpen's nephew, John Rothenstein, characterised his uncle's portrait practice in the 1920s as a 'golden treadmill'. The implication was clear. The politicians, industrialists and financiers who came to the Oriel studio in South Bolton Gardens, were painted with a mechanical efficiency that lacked inspiration. Today however, faced with works such as The Rt. Hon. Neville Chamberlain, MP, this criticism palls and what we see is an exceptional rendering of one of the most important twentieth century government ministers, then at the height of his powers.

Chamberlain sat to Orpen early in 1929 in the run-up to the General Election which took place at the end of May. His portrait is likely to have coincided with a series of six portrait photographs by Bassano taken at the end of February (National Portrait Gallery, London). These show the sitter dressed in similar attire, in a number of poses, one of which includes clasped hands, as in the present work. One can imagine Orpen using this for reference, to assist in resolving composition and pose. This and the canvas size, may have reduced the number of sittings required and could help explain the relatively low fee of £1000.

Arthur Neville Chamberlain, (1869 - 1940), was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. The son of Joseph Chamberlain, MP for Birmingham, and half-brother of Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, Nobel Peace Prize winner, he came from an influential political family.  In the second half of the 1920s, as the Member for Birmingham Ladywood, his zeal for social reform led him to the post of Minister of Health in preference to the more prestigious Chancellor of the Exchequer, an office he briefly held 1923-1924. Between 1925 and 1929, he successfully introduced twenty-one pieces of legislation, including the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925, and the Local Government Act , 1929,  the effect of which was to radically alter local government finance, and abolish the Boards of Guardians thus finally eliminating the iniquitous workhouses. He also oversaw the building of over 900,000 houses in an attempt to solve Britain's post-war housing problems. However, despite his achievements, the Conservatives lost power to a hung Parliament in the 30th May 1929 General Election, although he regained his seat, now Birmingham Egbaston.

Chamberlain's legacy as an enlightened moderniser is nevertheless tainted by his appeasement of  Adolf Hitler over the annexation of Czechoslovakia and the Munich Agreement of 29 September 1938. His "Peace with Honour - Peace for Our Time" speech, delivered in front of newsreel cameras as he disembarked at Heston Aerodrome, has gone down in history as a moment of folly, while the many significant achievements of the years leading to 'Orpen's Chamberlain' have been forgotten. At Heston he was possibly already suffering from the cancer that was to take his life at the end of 1940.

In 1929 when the portrait was exhibited, the critical response to it, and Orpen's other two exhibits, Sir Ray Lankester KCB (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and The Earl of Meath (National Portrait Gallery, London) was diametrically opposed to Rothenstein's later jaundiced opinion. Comparing these with portraits by Augustus John and Walter Sickert, The Times applauded Orpen's 'emotional sympathy' with his sitters (4 May 1929, p. 14). Orpen had demonstrated his sympathetic understanding of character in works like his great Portrait of Winston Churchill, 1916 (private collection). However in contrast to the Churchill portrait, Chamberlain was a confident, self-contained and modest politician in his ascendency when painted. When in June 1933, Britain hosted the World Monetary and Economic Conference, described as the "most crucial gathering since Versailles," Time Newsmagazine featured Orpen's  Chamberlain, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, on its cover (FIG. 1), referring to him as "that mighty mover behind British Cabinet scenes, lean, taciturn, iron-willed" (The World Confers: Time -  Monday, 19 June 1933).

Chamberlain's beautifully rendered clasped hands readily convey his self-assurance and self-sufficiency. His formal attire reflects a sense of duty, propriety, probity and decorum, while the warmth in his eyes belies any accusation of shallowness. As someone who had represented the social residue in iconic works such as The Knacker's Yard c.1909, (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), Orpen would have respected Chamberlain's ideals. Churchill counted the Orpen portrait as his favourite, and Chamberlain must have had similar regard for his portrait, as it hung in his dining room. As an image of the reformer, it contrasted favourably with Henry Lamb's later rendering of the ailing appeaser, and as such it must be counted as one of the most important British political portraits of the twentieth century.

We are grateful to Chris Pearson of the Orpen Research Project for preparing this catalogue entry.