Beschreibung:

PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN COLIN DAVID BRODIE, 1928 Sir William Orpen RA RI RHA (1878-1931)
Signature: signed lower left Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 30 by 23in., 75 by 57.5cm. Provenance: A wedding gift from the artist to Daphne Cecil Rosemary Harmsworth, daughter of Lord Harmsworth, on her marriage to the sitter;Given by the sitter to Lord Swinfen;1Thence to Averil, Lady Swinfen;With James Robson 1983;de Vere's, 21 November 2000, lot 276; With an original letter from the sitter to Lord Swinfen, 6 May 1964.In 1937, remembering Orpen, Seán Keating produced the most succinct assessment of his master's abilities, 'What he observed', he wr... rote, seemed to go in through his eyes, be analysed and arranged by his brain, and written down with inevitable rightness by his unerring hand, as one complicated movement of his will'.2 There was a sense of immediacy in this: the painter could uncannily read the mind's construction on the face of his sitter and express it with concision. The glimpse, not the gaze, was enough. His later work was as 'authoritative as the shot of a pistol', Keating concluded. While later critics, coloured by the vitriolic comments of his nephew, John Rothenstein, dismissed the portrait cavalcade of Orpen's closing years, his pupil's encomium rings true as we examine the Portrait of Captain Colin David Brodie. This present work sets out the essential character of a man who despite his chequered career, was handsome and debonair. His strong jaw, regular features and trimmed moustache indicate a Scot, secure in his class identity.3 The second son of an insurance company secretary, Colin David Brodie (1893-1969) was born in Edinburgh. At the age of seventeen he was dispatched to Manitoba, Canada to work on a farm, but only remained there for a short time, before travelling to East Africa where, in 1915, he enlisted in the Uganda Volunteer Reserve, rising through the ranks of the King's African Rifles Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He repatriated to the family home, by that stage at Wokingham, Berkshire, in 1919. Failing to settle, he returned to Canada and the United States in 1923, describing himself as a 'retiredArmy Officer' and giving his occupation as 'salesman'. However, by the time of his return to England in July 1923, he had upgraded to 'stockbroker' and during the next four years his fortunes improved. Probably through his friend, 'Carol' Charles Swinfen Eady, second Baron Swinfen, he met, and in March 1928, married Daphne Cecil Rosemary Harmsworth, the daughter of Lord Harmsworth, the publisher and newspaper proprietor.4 It was probably through Cecil, Harmsworth's son, that the contact with Orpen was established, he having painted various members of the Harmsworth dynasty since 1907.5 In this instance the painter agreed to produce the portrait as a wedding present and no fee is recorded in his studio book.6 Orpen's wife, Grace, along with one of their daughters attended the wedding.7What appeared before Orpen was a young man in his mid-thirties wearing a 'Balmoral' bonnet with his clan insignia and an 'Argyll' waistcoat and jacket, traditionally worn for stalking in the Highlands. His tie is knotted and pulled forward, and after the fashion of the day, a brightly coloured handkerchief emerges from his breast pocket. Although this is not a military costume, it must have called to mindOrpen's eighteen months as an Official War Artist and he even shows Brodie facing right and turning to engage the viewer, in a favourite pose used for his own self-portraits. Despite the claim that these last years were fuelled by alcohol, there is no diminution of Orpen's powers in the handling of the portrait. The figure is confidently executed and brushstrokes crossing the left shoulder follow the direction of the formdown into the sleeve before they fade into under-paint. Close examination reveals that the hat ribbons have been repositioned, and its contour softened and sharpened around the crown of the head. Keating accurately observed Van Dyck, Hals and Goya in Orpen - but in this instance we have