Sir William Orpen R.A., R.H.A.

Beaux Arts Gallery, London, by 1932;
Possibly sale, Christie's, London, 11 December 1931, lot 58;
Sale, Sotheby's London, 12 March 1952, lot 134;
Sale, Christie's London, 12 March 1982, lot 65;
Pyms Gallery, London

London, Beaux Arts Gallery, Leading British Artists, 1932, no.40;
London, Beaux Arts Gallery, Flower Pieces and Still Lives, 1935, no.26.

P.G. Konody and Sidney Dark, William Orpen: Artist & Man, London, 1932, p.267, as Still Life : A White Chinese Figure against a Black Background;
Kenneth McConkey, A Free Spirit: Irish Art 1860-1960, London 1990, no.34, pp.138-139, illustrated.

Original canvas. The grain of the canvas is visible in the background and the varnish has slightly discoloured otherwise in good overall condition. Under ultraviolet light, there are flecks of retouching throughout the black background, some further minor flecks to the white figurine and to the white pigments in the foreground. Held in a plaster gilt frame.
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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."

During 1906-8 William Orpen painted several still-lifes while sharing his studio at 8 South Bolton Gardens with William Nicholson. Orpen eschewed books, candles and skulls - the conventional ingredients of the genre -  in favour of a blanc-de-chine figure seen here, a Rodin bronze entitled Brother and Sister, a cream coloured ceramic Buddha, a glass globe, and a blue-grey and white patterned shawl - all the objects carefully selected for the task. Dialogues between objects, a kind of spatial theatre emerges.

Three still-lifes in Mildura Arts Centre, Australia are closely associated with the present work. Of these Still-Life with Buddha and Blanc-de-Chine Figure c.1906-1908,  has the same porcelain Chinese figure, but viewed from the side and in the company of the Buddha. Nicholson shared Orpen's enthusiasm for this cast of personalities and his Statuettes and Rodin Bronze, 1907 (Fine Art Society, London), shows the same Chinese figure, Buddha and bronze that Orpen used. This important strand of Nicholson's work is likely to have been the result of his interaction with Orpen. The sequence coincides with Orpen's most elaborate portrait interiors, in which sitters are surrounded by their possessions  - little still-life elements which add character to J.H. Fitzhenry, 1908 (untraced), Charles Wertheimer, 1908, Sir Arthur Birch, 1908 (Private Collection), and Hon. Percy Wyndham, 1907 (Private Collection). The pressure of commissions like these meant that Orpen's engagement with still-life was relatively short-lived. Nevertheless the series, with its self-evident delight in detail is something of a tour de force.

The Orpen Research Project