Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

Sotheby’s to Sell Orpen Portraits

January 17, 2012 by Marion Maneker

The Irish Times picks up on Sotheby’s Sir William Orpen portraits that were part of a famous society uproar:

Rose Boote (1878-1958) was, according to Sotheby’s, “the daughter of a comedian from Nottingham and a straw hat sewer” although a report in The Irish Times at the time of her death claimed she was “Irish and was educated in the Ursuline Convent, Thurles”.

Using the stage name of Rosie, she achieved great fame as one of the Gaiety Girls – not of Dublin’s South King Street variety – but rather the chorus-line girls who sang in musical comedy spectacles at the Gaiety Theatre on the Strand, London. The girls attracted the attention of aristocratic young men – known as “Stage Door Johnnies” – and, in 1900, Rosie’s performance in a hit musical The Messenger Boy apparently charmed the eminently eligible young Irish aristocrat, the 4th Marquis of Headfort, Geoffrey Thomas Taylour (1878-1943). She quit the theatre and they married on April 11th, 1901.

The wedding created a sensation in Edwardian London. He was a member of one of the most prominent Protestant families in Ireland with estates of some 22,000 acres in Cavan and Meath while Rose, apart from being on the stage, was a Catholic. They lived in Headfort House, Kells, Co Meath and a London townhouse and had three children.

He had succeeded to the title 4th Marquis of Headfort on the death of his father in 1894 and moved in the highest echelons of British society.

The Irish Couple Who Scandalized London Society (Irish Times)

Orpen Portraits PR May 2012

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Down the Chinese Art Market Rabbit HoleDown the Chinese Art Market Rabbit Hole
  • Christie’s PWC Day HighlightsChristie’s PWC Day Highlights
  • Marianne Rosenberg Signs Lease for NY GalleryMarianne Rosenberg Signs Lease for NY Gallery
  • LA MoCA Announces Pipeline of ShowsLA MoCA Announces Pipeline of Shows
  • The State of the RoseThe State of the Rose
  • ArtPrize Declares WinnerArtPrize Declares Winner

Filed Under: Dealers

About Marion Maneker

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

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • Selection Bias In Art Is What Creates Value
  • Phillips Includes $2.5m Norman Rockwell Painting in November Evening Sale
  • 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