Sir William Orpen

Sir William McCormick

1920

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On loan

Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK): William Orpen: Method & Mastery

Artist: Sir William Orpen 1878–1931
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1270 x 1016 mm
frame: 1590 x 1345 x 135 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1921
Reference: N03628

Catalogue entry

N03628 SIR WILLIAM McCORMICK 1920

Inscr. ‘August 1920 Orpen’ b.r.
Canvas, 50×40 (127×102).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1921.
Exh: R.A., 1921 (14); R.A., Late Members, winter 1933 (87); Manchester, April–May 1933 (55).
Lit: Konody and Dark, 1932, pp.82, 222 and 271, repr. pl.18.
Repr: Royal Academy Illustrated, 1921, p.38; Pickle, 1923, pl.27.

Sir William McCormick (1859–1930) was a Scottish literary scholar, particularly of Chaucer, and administrator, being inter alia first secretary of the Carnegie Trust for the Scottish Universities, Chairman of the University Grants Committee, Chairman of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and Chairman of the British National Opera Company. He came to live in London in 1920, the date of this portrait; Konody and Dark also list a copy under the same year (op. cit., p.271).

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II