Sir William Orpen: The Roscommon Dragoon

Sir William Orpen (Irish, 1878-1931)
The Roscommon Dragoon
Collotype print on cream wove, signed by the artist in pencil
From a limited edition of 300, blind stamp of the Fine Art Trade Guild (bottom left)
45 x 35.5cm

Stock Ref: LH 1145

Literature: Bruce Arnold, "Orpen - Mirror to an Age", Jonathan Cape, 1982, p.285.

Note: The original painting depicts Miss Vera Brewster of Cincinati, later to become Mrs Vera Hone, wife of W.B. Yeats's biographer, Joseph Hone. Painted in 1913, it shows Mrs Hone wearing the tunic of the Armagh Infantry dating to c.1865, and holding a Shako of the Roscommon Infantry militia dating to c.1830 - both borrowed from the National Museum of Ireland especially for the sitting. In 1919, a limited number (300) of signed reproductions were made of the original before the painting left Europe bound for a Canadian collector.