When the Living Sleep and the Dead Awake

Between about 1902 to about 1908, Orpen embarked on a series of vignettes, mostly but not exclusively, featuring Grace, Orpen's wife. These are collectively known as 'The Window/Night Series'. All featured the same window in the artist's Chelsea Home at 13 Royal Hospital Road. He was inspired by and relished the deep cobalt blue of the night sky, also a common feature. The current sketch, which shows Orpen's fascination with the spirits of the Dead, relates to these works, but the inscription suggests that it was produced when Orpen was in Huddersfield. This likely dates the drawing to 1906 when he was fulfilling his commission to paint Miss Lumb in that town.
The Orpen Research Project.