A preparatory study for a painting that no longer exists — Orpen's lost Irish Trilogy.
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The Western Wedding no longer exists. The finished painting was lost, and what remains is this — a preparatory study of two figures kneeling, hands joined, made around 1914 as part of Orpen's Irish Trilogy.
The female figure is Connie Martin, a professional model Orpen worked with regularly. The male figure is thought to be Seán Keating, then a young student of Orpen's who would go on to become one of Ireland's most important painters. Orpen posed them with the gravity of a Renaissance altarpiece — the kneeling figures echo Piero della Francesca's Nativity — but the setting is unmistakably Irish.
The Irish Trilogy was Orpen's most ambitious attempt to make monumental history painting out of Irish life. Two of the three finished works survived. This study is the closest we get to the one that didn't.
This archival print is made on heavyweight fine art paper with fade-resistant inks, built to last.
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