Legendary myth of Orpen painting lives on in sale value

The Irish artist created an intriguing story about paintings of his lover Yvonne Aubicq, writes Des O’Sullivan.

A beautiful young woman, a German spy; the London War Office and an execution — the story behind William Orpen’s Nude Girl Reading, which comes up at Sotheby’s Irish Art sale in London on October 21, is stranger than the truth.

The Irish artist enjoyed success and notoriety in equal measure and the sitter for the work was his lover, Yvonne Aubicq, daughter of the mayor of Lille.

As an official war artist, Orpen passed off his two earliest portraits of Yvonne as pictures of Frieda Neiter, a fictitious German spy.

His cover story cast Yvonne as a Hungarian sentenced to be shot. Granted one last request, she chose to pick out her own costume.

As the officer in charge of her execution shouted “one... two...” she dropped her blue velvet cloak to stand naked before the firing squad.

This sensational account was published in England and the US. Even after the truth emerged that she was in fact alive and Orpen’s mistress, Frieda Neiter became a legendary figure. After the war the two paintings — now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum — were exhibited in the US.

The affair continued until 1928 when Orpen gave Yvonne his black Rolls Royce. She subsequently married the chauffeur Charles Grover Williams.

During the Second World War she and Charles formed part of a small unit of the Resistance just outside Paris. Nude Girl Reading is estimated at £300,000-£500,000.

After a gap of several years Sotheby’s will re-launch standalone sales of Irish art this year.

Arabella Bishop, head of Sotheby’s in Ireland, said: “We anticipate that the market for Irish art will continue to gather pace and feel that the moment is right to re- launch an annual dedicated sale”.