Beschreibung:

Sir William Orpen KBE RA RI RHA (1878-1931)
Signature: signed lower left
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 29½ x 40in. (74.93 x 101.60cm) Framed Size: 38 x 48in. (96.52 x 121.92cm) Condition: The canvas is taut and stable. There is some very minor craquelure visible on close inspection above the horse’s head and above the figures on the left. The painting appears to have been treated by a conservator in the past; the canvas appears to be lined. Examination under UV reveals a single small dot of retouching to the left of the standing figures. The original labels have been preserved on reverse and the canvas is securely fitted into a sympathetic gilt frame; unglazed. Overall good condition. Provenance: Artist’s Studio Book record for 1923: Sergeant Murphy sold to 1st Baron Dewar of Homestall for £500; Collection of Viscountess Ward of Witley; Her sale, Christie’s, London, 14 July 1967, lot 89; Collection of E.J. Roussack, New York; His sale, Sotheby’s, London,18 July 1973, lot 52; Private collection; Christie’s, New York, 8 June 1984, lot 301; Private collection; Christie's, New York, 30 May 2002, lot 108; Private collection Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 1924, catalogue no. 655, as Sergeant Murphy and Things; '54th Autumn Exhibition', Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1926, catalogue no. 158; 'Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members', Royal Academy, London, 1933, catalogue no. 88; 'Orpen Centenary Exhibition', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1978, catalogue no. 124; 'Irish Horse', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (intended for April to December 2020 but cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic) Literature: The Artist’s Studio Book, 36/05-1923; P.G. Konody and S. Dark, Sir William Orpen Artist and Man, London, 1932, p. 192; AJ. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, p.153; The Connoisseur, July 1973, p. 63 (illustrated); Apollo, May 1980, p. 34 (illustrated); Arnold, Bruce, Orpen, Mirror to an Age, London, 1981, p. 420; S. Mitchell, The Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 340 (illustrated); S.A. Walker, British Sporting Art in the Twentieth Century, London, 1989, p. 37 It is not clear from the artist's records whether or not Sergeant Murphy and Things was a commissioned work. According to the Artist's Studio book Sergeant Murphy was purchased by Lord Dewar (of Dewar's Whisky fame), for £500 in 1923 prior to its fir...Read more It is not clear from the artist's records whether or not Sergeant Murphy and Things was a commissioned work. According to the Artist's Studio book Sergeant Murphy was purchased by Lord Dewar (of Dewar's Whisky fame), for £500 in 1923 prior to its first exhibition at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1924. Sergeant Murphy is depicted with the jockey who rode him to victory in the 1923 Grand National, Captain 'Tuppy' Bennet. The character on the left is the horse's owner, Stephen 'Laddie' Sanford, and the man next to him is his trainer, George Blackwell. Orpen, like Munnings, often combined the equine portrait with a landscape painting. As P.G. Konody explains (op. cit., p.192): 'To do justice to the 'points' of a famous thoroughbred requires a long course of specialised study, but here we find Orpen on the first isolated attempt competing on his own ground - and competing successfully - with A.J. Munnings, the painter par excellence of the small equestrian landscape-portrait. By landscape-portrait I mean the picture which the artist does not concentrate his attention upon his equine sitter, adding the landscape setting as a more or less conventional and perfunctorily treated background, but in which the horse and landscape are visualised as a pictorial entity and indissolubly connected by spatial and atmospheric values'. When first seen at the Royal Academy in 1924, it was only natural that Sergeant Murphy and Things should have been compared with Alfred Munnings' works, especially those that were exhibited at the same show, in particular, The Grey Horse (private collection) and Lord and Lady Mildmay of Flete, Helen & Anthony, also known as The Mildmay Family