Mrs.Oscar Lewisohn nee Edna May,1915
Madame Errazuriz



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Mrs. Ruby



Portrait of Gertrude Sanford



Portrait of Grace Knewstub



*William Orpen met Grace Knewstub whilst holidaying with Augustus John (1878-1961) and Charles Conder (1868-1909) at Vattetot-sur-mer, France, in the summer of 1899. Grace was the daughter of the minor Pre-Raphaelite figure, John Knewstub, and Orpen and Grace married in London in August 1901.

**Madame Errazuriz, née Huici, was born in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1860, the daughter of a wealthy silver mining family. She was educated in a convent run by English nuns where she was instilled with strict religious principles and became fluent in English and French. The young girl evolved into one of the beauties of the day and in 1880 she married the wealthy diplomat José Tomás Errazuriz.

Eugenia Errazuriz was a favourite subject of John Singer Sargent, but was also painted by Giovanni Boldini, Augustus John, Charles Conder and, of course, William Orpen. Her most famous admirer, however, was Picasso with whom she had a friendship lasting some thirty years.

When Orpen painted this magnificent portrait Errazuriz was in her late fifties, and a central figure in London’s cultural and social world. Orpen did a series of narrow format full-length female portraits at this time, but Madame Errazuriz is arguably the most striking. The painting is a veritable symphony in hectic red, from the rouged cheeks and glistening lips, through the splendid low cut gown, and down to the stockings and low-heeled shoes. Despite the outré colour of her ensemble Madame Errazuriz retains an air of diffidence, almost self-deprecation, as she gazes at the viewer.

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Mrs. St George
Bridgit - a picture of Miss Elvery(Beatrice Elvery)1909




Self-portrait with Glasses was painted in 1907, the same year as Orpen’s Portrait of Grace. It was inspired by the bohemian life style the Orpens and their good friends the Nicholsons were then enjoying, the immediate inspiration for the painting being the occasion of a fancy dress party.