Lot Essay
These drawings, executed on Metropolitan School of Art headed paper in a letter to his wife, Grace, depict George, Edith and the Bear, the Hungarian gypsies with their performing bear who Orpen met in Dublin in 1909. They are the subject of a watercolour (Johannesburg Gallery) and two major canvases in which they are seated with the bear against a distant view of the Hill of Howth: 'In the Dublin Mountains' (Oldham Art Gallery), and 'The Rest' (Private Collection).