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Self-portrait in her Painting Room at Baddesley Clinton

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1829/30 - 1923)

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

1885 - 1896

Materials

Oil on canvas

Measurements

914 x 800 mm (36 x 31 1/2 in)

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Collection

Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire

NT 343187

Caption

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen was a prolific and dedicated amateur painter. Her creative life allowed her to record her family lineage, honour the people and places that mattered to her, express her devotion to the Catholic faith, and create a sense of rich beauty in the interiors of her serene, moated home, Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. Orpen was born in County Cork, Ireland. It is likely that she was given some instruction in painting by her aunt Lady Georgiana Chatterton (1806–76), an experienced oil painter with whom Rebecca lived for most of her life. Orpen used oils, watercolours and pastels, and worked in a dress she had specially ordered (‘a plain warm dress for painting in’), so she didn’t need to worry about getting it dirty. A rare artist’s dummy or lay figure – a life-sized posable model used in the absence of a live one – now in the collection at Packwood House, Warwickshire, may have originally belonged to her (NT 557908). Orpen and Lady Chatterton planned the refurbishment of the Chapel at Baddesley Clinton, collaborating to create ornate triptych paintings, with Orpen painting the reredos behind the altar and scenes from the Rosary inspired by Old Master paintings. In the 1880s, as a way to refine her skills, Orpen was directly copying works at the National Gallery, London. Amateurs and professionals could apply to be a copyist at the Gallery for three months by sending the Keeper a written application and an example of their work. Orpen’s copy of Pietà after Francesco Francia remains in the collection at Baddesley Clinton (NT 343202). A different copy work is her version of Katherine Read’s pastel portrait of Elizabeth Gunning (NT 343143), made in about 1770 and later much reproduced in print. This expressive self-portrait shows Orpen presenting herself as an artist. She stands, mahlstick in hand, in her Painting Room at Baddesley Clinton, where she could take advantage of the light streaming in through the bay window. On the easel behind her is a view of her home from the north-east side, a view she returned to paint on several occasions. A portrait of her second husband, Edward Heneage Dering, hangs on the panelling to her left.

Summary

Oil painting on canvas, Self-portrait in her Painting Room at Baddesley Clinton, by Rebecca Dulcibella Ferrers Orpen, later Mrs Edward Dering (1830 – 1923). A full-length portrait of the artist, in the Banqueting Room, which she used as her studio, at Baddesley Clinton, wearing a long dress and standing to right and looking towards the spectator, a mahlstick in her hand. On an easel behind her is a small unfinished cameo of the house; on the wall at the right hangs the sketch of Edward Dering which appears in this list as No.34. Inscribed. Daughter of Abraham Orpen. Married (i) 1867 Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884) and (ii) in 1885 Edward Henege Dering (1826-1892) Retained Baddesly Clinton for her lifetime

Makers and roles

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1829/30 - 1923), artist

References

Richardson 2007 Clare Richardson, “A life in pictures: Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen at Baddesley Clinton.” Apollo, supplement Historic Houses and Collections Annual, 2007, pp. 30-35, fig. 1 Rowell 2018 Christopher Rowell, ‘Women Artists, Collectors and Patrons’, National Trust Historic Houses & Collections Annual, 2018, pp. 9-10 Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 136-7

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