William Orpen, Irish, 1878-1931
Title: A Priest Blessing a Couple: Study for 'The Western Wedding'
Date: c.1914
Medium: Pencil and red chalk on paper
Dimensions:
74.1 x 62.2 cm
Signed: lower right (in pencil): ORPEN
Credit Line: Purchased, 2008
Object Number: NGI.2008.95
DescriptionThis meticulously drawn figure study, showing a couple receiving a blessing at the foot of a roadside crucifix, is a preparatory drawing for William Orpen’s now-lost painting The Western Wedding of 1914. The painting is presumed to have been destroyed during the Second World War. The Western Wedding was one of three major allegorical pictures of Irish subjects painted by Orpen between 1913 and 1916, the others being Sowing New Seed (Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria, Australia) and The Holy Well (NGI 4030).
ProvenancePurchased from the Artist by Mrs William Goodbody, 1915; purchased Jean-Luc Baroni Gallery, London, 31st October 2008
Exhibition HistoryMaster Drawings and Oil Sketches, Jean-Luc Baroni Gallery, London and New York, 2006
Inscriptioncolour notes on recto of sheet