Bea Orpen

Bea Orpen trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and at the RHA Schools (1932-1935), where she won prizes for drawing and painting from life. She also attended the Slade School of Art in London (1935-1939), where she was awarded a diploma in design. While in London she also studied textile and commercial design in the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. Back in Ireland, she taught art at several schools in Drogheda. The niece of the architect and painter Richard Caulfield Orpen and the painter Sir William Orpen, she played a fundamental role in establishing Drogheda Municipal Gallery of Art. She was a member of several important committees including the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin (1975-1978), the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (1974-1976), and the Director of the Arts Council courses for National Teachers, An Griánan (1959-1978). She exhibited every year at the RHA between 1934 and 1980, contributing over 100 pictures. She was elected an honorary member of the RHA in 1980