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Sir William Orpen RA RHA (1878-1931)

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA
Sir William Orpen RA RHA (1878-1931)

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Auction Date:2004 Sep 21 @ 18:00 (UTC)
Location:Ireland
Sir William Orpen RA RHA (1878-1931)
LETTER TO TILLY WITH SELF-PORTRAIT, circa 1907
signed "O" lower right
illustrated manuscript letter; pen and ink on paper
24 by 17cm., 9.5 by 6.5in.
Signed manuscript letter to B. I. Tilly, registrar at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In the letter Orpen recommends his brother, the architect and painter Richard Caulfield Orpen, for the post of Headmaster at the school. The position was advertised in 1907, having been vacant since the sudden death of Richard H. A. Willis in 1905. Orpen writes that his brother "would be a good man and one who would understand you and I which is saying a good lot". He also asks after one of his favourite students, Margaret Crilly (later Margaret Clarke), and requests Tilly to "look after her for me like a good chap". The self portrait shows Orpen dressed head to toe in his dapper man-about-town clothes with bowler hat, three quarter length coat, buttoned shoes and a tasselled walking stick. Also with this lot is a second signed manuscript letter from Orpen to Tilly ("My dear old B. I. T.") written from the Hotel Majestic in Paris on 2 September 1922. The letter expresses sympathy ("what hard luck") most likely in response to Tilly having lost his post as Registrar at the School of Art as a result of his strongly pro-British stance during the War of Independence. (2)
€2500-€3500 (£1700-£2300 sterling approx.)