Beschreibung:

GLADYS COOPER Sir William Orpen RA RI RHA (1878-1931)
Signature: signed upper right; with exhibition label on reverse Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 30 x 25in. (76.20 x 63½cm) Provenance: The sitter's family;Thence by descent;Private Treaty sale, Sotheby's, 2001;Private collection Exhibited: ‘158th Summer Exhibition’, Royal Academy, London, 1926, no. 19;‘54th Autumn Exhibition’, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1926, no. 143 Literature: Cooper, Gladys, Gladys Cooper, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1930, p.264,265 (illustrated on frontispiece)Konody, P.G. & Dark, Sidney, Sir William Orpen Artist and Man, Seeley Service & Co. London, 1932, p.273 (Appendices, Chronological list of Paintings (1924);Arnold, Bruce, Orpen Mirror to an Age, Jonathan Cape, London, 1981, pp.409, 417 In 1924 former Gaiety girl and future screen star Gladys Cooper sat for one of the most soughtafter society portrait painters of the 20th century, Sir William Orpen Both artists were at the height of... f their celebrity at this juncture. The present work is a testament to the beauty of the performer and the skill and enduring quality of the artist. Gladys Cooper, born in 1888, had her stage debut in 1905. In 1913 she began a mutually successful theatrical partnership and lasting friendship with actor/manager Gerald du Maurier. She also ran the Playhouse Theatre on the Embankment with thespian and businessman Frank Curzon. The variety ofplays produced at the Playhouse brought financial success and praise from the critics. Her celebrity was further consolidated through her famed collaborations with Somerset Maugham in the 1920s.Among the fêted shows at London’s Adephi Theatre in the 1920s was J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. At the time the present work was painted Gladys Cooper wasrehearsing for the title role; that of the impish eternal boy with the gift of flight, and leader of his gang of Lost Boys on the island of Neverland. In her autobiographypublished in 1930 she records her time sitting before Orpen and lifts the curtain on their respective mindset.. “… I was never allowed to catch even a glimpse of it while it was being done, and when it was finished I found that I had been given a distinct Peter Pan-ish sort of look. This was rather strange, but I think I can explain it. While Orpen was painting me I was thinking very hard about playing Peter and it may be that he saw something in my face which was from my mind.Orpen wrote me the following letter aboutthe picture:Dear Miss Cooper although I was too shy to show you the picture I am really very keen on it- what do you think of making it into ‘Peter Pan’ just a little bit by bringingthe shadow along with you - it really was the idea I had when I painted out the white cloak – because your face became what I thought you looked like in the partor what Peter ought to look like. Yours ever,William OrpenJust say ‘rubbish’ if you don’t like theidea. 2”Miss Cooper must have been pleased with the nod to her stage role as the shadow is visible, hovering against her right shoulder next to the lighter coloured backdrop. Orpen shows her sitting sideways, relaxedwith arms crossed and gazing into the distance beyond – perhaps emulating the expression of Peter’s aloofness from this world, as observed by the critic Mr J. T. Grein, writing in The Sketch, as he reviewed Cooper’s revival of the part.3 Her timelessly beautiful elfin face and long elegant neck are accentuated by her fashionable flapper hair-style and a string of glittering beads, which add a hint of glamour to hermodest attire. The feeling of success around the painting was mutual as Orpen selected it to represent his oeuvre at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1926. Two years previously another celebrity was also chosen by him for the RA exhibition; Irish tenor Count John McCormack (Acquired by NGI 2009). The differences in their depictions are dramatic and a clear reflection of his method of expression. Bruce Arnold suggests, “Orpen’s view was that portrait painting, like conversation between two people, was a method