William Orpen: An Onlooker in France

A Critical Edition of the Artist's War Memoirs

Robert Upstone and Angela Weight

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• Published: 2009
• Subject Listing: 20th Century Art, Memoir
• Bibliographic information: 240 pp., 100 illus., 97 in color, 7.5 x 10 in.
• Territorial rights: Rights in U.S. and Canada only
• Distributed for: Paul Holberton publishing
• Contents

Irish-born portrait painter William Orpen was the only offical war artist to publish an extensive memoir of his experiences in the Great War. First published in 1921 and reprinted in 1924, this fully revised edition includes 97 paintings and drawings reproduced in color and keyed to the narrative. The result is a perceptive and poignant account by an artist who moved easily between all levels of the military and was a close friend of many journalists. Orpen's sympathies were with the common soldier, whose post-war neglect embittered his view of the political classes. A witness not only to the war but to the greed and self-interest of the national delegates at the Peace Conference in Versailles in 1919, Orpen makes astute comments on the personalities of his sitters.

Robert Upstone assesses Orpen's career as a war artist and the pivotal impact the war had upon him, set against the wider ambiguity of Irish soldiers supporting the British war effort, while at home in 1916 the Irish Republican Brotherhood proclaimed an independent Ireland. Angela Weight provides a full commentary on contemporary figures mentioned by Orpen in his text, placing them in context and explaining their roles.

Robert Upstone is curator of modern British art at Tate Britain. Angela Weight is an independent curator and writer, previously with the Imperial War Museum, London.