William Orpen
, Irish, 1878-1931
Title
Cropped letter from William Orpen to Mrs St George with a sketch of 'Myself and Cupid' on the reverseDate1910
MediumInk on paper
Dimensions
19 x 11.3 cm
Credit LinePresented, Mrs Vivien Graves, 1974
Object numberNGI.7830.121
DescriptionOrpen greatly valued Mrs St George’s opinion of his work. He frequently sent her outlines of oil paintings that he was working on for her appraisal. In this drawing we see Orpen, standing in front of the large windows of his London studio, with the familiar statue of Cupid and a nude life model sitting nearby. On the verso, he explains that he brought the statue from Dublin to London to include in his painting Myself and Cupid, 1910.(Katie Buckley, Curatorial Fellow - Prints and Drawings, An Artist's Presence, 2025, Print Gallery)