The Artist's Model, Yvonne – Orpen Print

The Artist's Model, Yvonne – Orpen PrintOrpen met Yvonne Aubicq in a military hospital in Amiens in the winter of 1917, while being treated for blood poisoning. She was working as a nurse. He painted her portrait and submitted it to the War Office. When his commanding officer demanded to know why he had painted a woman instead of the war, Orpen told them she was a spy. He was hauled before Intelligence, severely reprimanded, and later wrote that his behaviour "could not have been worse." He

Orpen met Yvonne Aubicq in a military hospital in Amiens in the winter of 1917, while being treated for blood poisoning. She was working as a nurse. He painted her portrait and submitted it to the War Office.

When his commanding officer demanded to know why he had painted a woman instead of the war, Orpen told them she was a spy. He was hauled before Intelligence, severely reprimanded, and later wrote that his behaviour "could not have been worse." He painted her again anyway.

Yvonne became his constant companion through the worst years of the Western Front — through the Armistice, through the Paris Peace Conference, through the collapse that left him bedridden for two months in November 1918. She nursed him then too. He painted her dozens of times, in dozens of moods. This is one of the earliest — loose, warm, direct, made in the middle of a war by a man who had found the one person he wanted to paint.

Available as a 40x50 cm / 16x20″ archival print on heavyweight fine art paper with fade-resistant inks, built to last.

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