Conversation piece

Irish-born Orpen was a key proponent of the New English Art Club, an organisation established in the late nineteenth century in direct opposition to the Royal Academy of Arts, the latter being considered somewhat conservative at the time. Orpen was something of a child prodigy, with his artistic skill recognised early in his career. He was appointed an official war artist during the First World War, during which time he produced profoundly moving visual accounts of the destruction and suffering wrought by this catastrophic event.

Domestic interiors or ‘conversation’ pieces were popular during the Edwardian period and were a tool for showcasing changing social mores and ideals. This delightful painting depicts the Birkbeck family in their elegantly appointed parlour. The patriarch, Geoffrey Birkbeck (a well-known watercolour painter), dominates the composition and is dressed in his dinner suit, standing with one foot propped on the sofa, while the rest of his family remains seated. Surrounding the family are the accoutrements of middle-class British life in the early part of the twentieth century, the items displayed around the room suggesting their status and interests – the blue-and-white crockery on the cornice, the red lacquer frame mirror, with its nod to Chinese design, the gourd-shaped vase on the mantelpiece and the adjacent lantern.

Tansy Curtin, Curator, International Art pre-1980