Sir William Orpen, K.B.E., R.A., R.H.A. (British/Irish 1878-1931), "Self-Portrait of the Artist with His Wife Grace", ca. 1902-1912, conte on paper, signed lower right "Orpen", sight 11-3/4" x 11-1/4". Glazed, matted and framed. Sir William Orpen, a London-based artist, was one of the most prolific portrait painters in Edwardian society at the turn of the century. During World War I, he served as a war correspondent in France for the British government. His drawings, sketches and portraits of battles, soldiers and generals were so prodigious, Orpen was knighted for his service in 1918. In addition to his military works, Orpen is equally renowned today by curators and scholars for the visual complexity of his self-portraits, in which he often portrayed himself (sometimes mockingly) in multiples as well as from multiple angles. In "Ready to Start", 1917, in the Imperial War Museum, Orpen depicts himself in a mirror or painting within a painting, and in a series of self-portraits in pencil that recently sold at auction in Ireland, Orpen appears in 3/4 profile from the rear as he does in the drawing offered here. Art Historian Bruce Arnold has noted that the multiplicity of Orpen's portraits reflect "the shadow of death and experience, toil, passion and fulfillment" of his time that "few English artists have equaled." A fine example of Orpen's enigmatic nature is this touching self-portrait of the artist and his wife. Grace Knewstub married Orpen in 1902. Though their marriage was an unhappy one fraught with mistresses after 1908, Orpen's sketchbooks reveal much tenderness in the early years of their marriage, in which Grace is portrayed numerous times in profile, resting, modelling, and looking after their infant daughters. With her distinctive nose and poised chin captured in warm sanguine in this drawing, Grace is a beauty to behold and possess as one of Orpen's more intimate portraits and self-portraits.