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Lot Essay
'William A. Sinclair was a friend of the artist in the days before the First World War when Orpen would regularly return to Ireland to teach at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, or take his summer holidays at Howth. The Sinclairs had a cottage on the Hill of Howth, and would often entertain their Dublin artistic and literary friends there. This group of letters seems to be in response to the publication of Orpen's book Stories of Old Ireland and Myself in 1924. Sinclair had moved to Kassel in Germany in 1922 with wife, the portrait painter, Frances Beckett and their five children. Sinclair wrote to Orpen and these letters are Orpen's response, circa March 1925.
Orpen had used Sinclair as the model for the 'Fiddler' in the Western Wedding and perhaps the family group in that work includes his wife Frances, or 'Cissie', and their two children. As in the study of the 'Tramp' (see lot 177) Orpen also did a study of the 'Fiddler' group, presently untraced, but reproduced in colour in The Studio, 86, no. 367, 1923, p. 182. There is a strong similarity between Sinclair in this study and the sketch of him playing the fiddle in the present work'.
Orpen had used Sinclair as the model for the 'Fiddler' in the Western Wedding and perhaps the family group in that work includes his wife Frances, or 'Cissie', and their two children. As in the study of the 'Tramp' (see lot 177) Orpen also did a study of the 'Fiddler' group, presently untraced, but reproduced in colour in The Studio, 86, no. 367, 1923, p. 182. There is a strong similarity between Sinclair in this study and the sketch of him playing the fiddle in the present work'.