Auction: European & Irish Fine Art, Furniture & Decorative Arts and Japanese Articulated Insects. October 9th, 2024 10:00 AM EDT.
The Potomack Company, 1120 N. Fairfax St. Alexandria Virginia 22314. US.
Lot: 3033.
By Sir William Orpen, R.A., R.H.A., IRISH 1878-1931.
CHELSEA WINDOW – Portrait of Grace Orpen (Née Knewstub) Reading by a Window (c. 1901).
Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm.), Frame: 31 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches (80 x 69.9 cm.).
Estimate: $40,000-$60,000.
The following text is from the sale catalogue.
Provenance: From the artist to his daughter Kit Casey (Née Orpen); Christie’s “Sale of Modern British and Irish Paintings” November 12, 1982, number 18 as “Grace Orpen reading by a Window, ca 1901” and “Property of Mrs. Kit Orpen Casey, William Orpen’s daughter;” Cynthia O’Connor Galleries until November 1982; purchased from the above by Hon. Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., Baltimore, November 29, 1982: the Estate of Diana Edwards Murnaghan.
Exhibited: (possibly) Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1903, number 6 as “A Window in London Street” Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Works by Sir William Orpen, K.B.E., R.A., (1878-1931), 1933, number 3, “A Chelsea Window (1902),” Lent by Lady Orpen
National Gallery of Ireland, “William Orpen 1878-1931, 1-15 November 1978, number 24 as “Chelsea Window” and Provenance always in the family, lent by Mrs. Kit Orpen Casey;
Cynthia O’Connor Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, “19th and 20th Century Irish Paintings, 29 November-24 December 1982; number 6, illustrated.
Walters Art Gallery, 17 March – 26 April 1983 “An Irish Perspective,” number 23, “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife,” c. 1901.
Back of Frame.
Post by Dominic Lee, Orpen Research Archives.