Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Christie's Preview: Orpen

January 26, 2010 by Marion Maneker

William Orpen, In Dublin Bay ($700k-$1m)

Christie’s is selling Irish painter Sir William Orpen’s In Dublin Bay. Here’s a description of the setting and its importance. The portrait is Orpen’s wife:

Orpen’s summer holidays at Howth Head, the promontory to the north of Dublin Bay, provided some of his most celebrated works. Having completed one of his annual teaching periods at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, he would rent the Bellinghams’ house known as ‘The Cliffs’, where he, his wife and children would take headland walks, bathe in the sheltered coves and occasionally pitch an ex-army bell-tent on the hilltop for impromptu picnics.1 Sorties to and from his Dublin friends, models and students were frequent. Despite its fabled poverty, the city had been experiencing a cultural renaissance. After the defeat of Parnell and the Home Rule movement, the pendulum of radicalism, as W.B. Yeats noted, swung towards the arts. Young painters, particularly those who sat in Orpen’s classes, were at the center of this ‘Celtic Revival’ and although his fortune lay in London, the artist, consorting with Hugh Lane and Augusta Gregory, was arguably the prime motivating force behind the emergence of a new cultural identity in the visual arts in Ireland. To students, his work provided an exemplar of modernist tendencies that would inexorably be linked to the broader movement leading to Irish regeneration and independence.

Piers Davies, Christie’s specialist explains more:

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Picasso Portait of Jacqueline Leads Christie’s NY Sale in NovemberPicasso Portait of Jacqueline Leads Christie’s NY Sale in November
  • The New Gossip Game Isn’t Who Bought What, It’s Who Guaranteed WhatThe New Gossip Game Isn’t Who Bought What, It’s Who Guaranteed What
  • Christie’s Has a Lot to Prove … and Does ItChristie’s Has a Lot to Prove … and Does It
  • Christie’s Wants to Wow Consignors With Imp-Mod ResultsChristie’s Wants to Wow Consignors With Imp-Mod Results
  • Christie’s NY Imp-Mod Eve = $289.2mChristie’s NY Imp-Mod Eve = $289.2m
  • Christie’s Announces Sale of Works from Death in America CollectionChristie’s Announces Sale of Works from Death in America Collection

Filed Under: Artists Tagged With: Christie's, New York, Orpen

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor
 

Loading Comments...