William Orpen's 'To the Unknown British Soldier in France'

Vainglory

There is a fascinating story about this picture that not only highlights the pomposity and arrogance of the politicians of the time of World War I but has also introduced me to the word 'vainglory', which I hadn't heard before but which is no doubt appropriate for some of today's leaders.

Vainglory (noun) - An excessive or ostentatious pride especially in one's achievements.

Imperial War Museum Commission

When the war ended, the Imperial War Museum commissioned William Orpen to stay in France and paint three large group portraits of the delegates to the Paris Peace Conference. Throughout 1919 he painted individual portraits of the delegates to the Conference and these formed the basis of his two large paintings, A Peace Conference at the Quai d'Orsay and The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors. In both pictures, the architecture overwhelms the gathered politicians and statesmen whose political wranglings and vainglory had diminished them in Orpen's eyes.

'The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors' and 'A Peace Conference at the Quai d'Orsay'

The Third Painting

Orpen considered that the whole conference was being conducted with a lack of respect or regard for the suffering of the soldiers who fought in the war, and he attempted to address this in the third painting of the commission. This picture was to show the delegates and military leaders as they entered the Hall of Mirrors to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Orpen sent Evelyn Saint-George a letter detailing the original layout and composition of the work. Haig and Marshal Foch were at the centre with the other delegates on either side of them. Among the delegates, Orpen included two additional figures, a Grenadier Guards sergeant and Arthur Rhys-Davids, the young fighter pilot he had painted the week before he was killed in 1917.

After working on this composition for nine months, Orpen painted over all the figures and replaced them with a coffin covered by the Union Jack and flanked by a pair of ghostly and wretched soldiers clothed in rags, actually the figure from the painting Blown Up, Mad, with two cherubs above them supporting garlands of flowers.

To the Unknown British Soldier in France

This painting, now known as To the Unknown British Soldier in France, was first exhibited in 1923 at the Royal Academy. The public voted it picture of the year, but almost all of the critics who reviewed the picture condemned it; and, from a handful of critics and newspapers, Orpen received sustained abuse and was accused of bad taste, technical ineptitude and, for the two figures either side of the coffin, sacrilege. Orpen did receive some letters of appreciation from ex-servicemen and from family members of soldiers who had died in the war, but he still felt the need to issue a statement explaining the picture and his intentions. However, it was clearly not the group portrait the Imperial War Museum had commissioned, and the Museum refused to accept it.

Painting out the Cherubs and Soldiers

To the Unknown British Soldier in France

The picture remained in Orpen's studio until 1928 when, on his own initiative, he offered to paint out the cherubs and the soldiers if that would make it acceptable to the Museum. The then Director of the IWM replied that he would be happy to accept the picture as it was, or however Orpen wished to present it. Orpen painted out the soldiers and the painting was accepted by the Museum in 1928. 

Orpen, William (1878-1931) - To the Unknown British Soldier in France 1922-28

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William Orpen, War Artist - 61 High Resolution Images

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William Orpen, Artist - 56 High Resolution Images

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