An illustrated letter to his Wife, Grace

'This illustrated letter from Orpen to his wife dates to January 1912 when Anna Pavlova visited Dublin for a week. Orpen, being in Dublin, had invited his friend Theodore Stier, Pavlova's musical director to lunch. Stier, glad to accept, also brought along Anna Pavlova herself as a surprise, much to the delight of Orpen who was a great admirer of hers. Apart from this letter Orpen also made an illustration of the same event (but without himself) on Jammet headed paper, which is reproduced opposite p.76 in his book Stories of Old Ireland and Myself, London, 1924, as is his reminiscence of the event when he was in Jammet's again in the October of that year (opposite p.92). Orpen marked the visit and showed his regard, by giving the ballet dancer an Irish Shillelagh with a gold mounting which had been suitably inscribed: 'To Anna Pavlova, and the joy she gave to the four roads of Ireland and the plains of Meath''.