Item NMC/0121 - The Geography Lesson

Member of staff at The Glasgow School of Art: Assessor for diplomas, scholarships and bursaries (Drawing and painting) 1914/1915. Judge for Haldane Travelling Scholarship 1914/1915.
The Irish painter William Orpen was an official war artist during World War I, and was deeply affected by the horror of what he saw. He was also a very successful portrait painter to the rich and famous. It made him wealthy but destroyed his reputation with the critics, who considered he had done all his best work during his youth. Orpen had come to London to study at the Slade, where he became friends with Augustus John. He joined the New English Art Club and was exposed to new developments in painting coming from France. He became very interested in techniques of earlier painters like Velázquez and Rembrandt and developed a very refined painting style. For his war work, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1918 King's Birthday Honours.