[Study for the oil painting 'Gardenia St George' with drawings by a child on the reverse]

Preparatory study for the 1909 oil painting 'Gardenia St George'. The study includes a grid drawn over the sketch to assist the artist in transfering the image to a larger canves. On the reverse are numerous drawings by a child, including a donkey and figures resembling William Orpen and Mrs St George.

(1909)

Pencil on paper

Orpen painted four portraits of Gardenia St George between 1907 and 1910, all at Screebe Lodge, Co. Galway.

Private Collection

Prints & Drawings Department

 

 

Sir William Orpen, Irish artist, born in Dublin, Orpen trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art before moving to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. He remained in London and became a highly successful portrait and subject painter. Appointed Official War Artist in 1917, Orpen left for France and was stationed at Amiens and the Somme Battlefields. He returned to London after the war and remained there until his death.

Florence Evelyn St George, eldest child of New York banker George F Baker. In 1906 while married to Howard Bligh St George she began a relationship with Sir William Orpen.