Clevedon Salerooms
Lot 96
After Sir William Orpen (1878-1931) - Oil on canvas - The Refugee (B), unsigned, 76.5cm x 63.5cm, unframed This portrait is a contemporary copy of 'The Refugee (B)' of 1917-18, which is in the collection of the Imperial War Museum (IWM ART 3005). The original is one of two portraits Orpen painted of his French mistress, Yvonne Aubicq, when he was serving as an official war artist on the Western Front. The other portrait known as The Refugee (A) is a larger half length and is also in the Imperial War Museum collection (IWM ART 2964). Aubicq was the daughter of the mayor of Lille and not a refugee, this is the misleading title Orpen gave to the work. Worse, he had originally called it 'A Spy' which upset the official censor and resulted in a reprimand for Orpen. In May 1918 a large exhibition of Orpen's war paintings and drawings, including the two 'Refugee' portraits, were exhibited at Agnew's gallery in London. It was very well attended. Correspondence now in the IWM's large Orpen archive includes a letter dated 12 July 1918 from Colin Agnew, on behalf of his business partner Charles Romer Williams, requesting permission for the 'most excellent copyist' working at Agnew's to copy both portraits of 'the pretty refugee woman'. (Imperial War Museum, First World War Artists Archive, File number: 78A/3.) The copyist is not named, but permission was evidently given because A. Yockney at the Ministry of Information saw one of these copies and reported in a letter to Orpen on 22 July 'it seems to be remarkably good'. It is very likely that the present painting is this copy, as there was hardly time for the larger Refugee (A) to have been copied yet. As Orpen's official war portraits were presented to the nation he was regularly asked for copies. The IWM archives show he often used another artist, Alfred Hayward (1875-1971), to lay them in for him. Orpen 'particularly' used Hayward to help make copies, which suggests he employed other artists for the work. However, the copyist of The Refugee (B) seems to be the unnamed 'excellent copyist' working at Agnew's. Research by Sheena Stoddard BA, M.Litt Condition: Some very slight wear to the extreme edges where the picture was once in a frame, would benefit from a light clean, the picture is not framed - **General condition consistent with age
