44
Sir William Orpen KBE RA RI RHA (1878-1931)
Estimate:
€250,000 - €350,000
Passed
Live Auction
Exceptional Irish Art
Size
29.50 by 40in. (74.9 by 101.6cm)
Description
Title: SERGEANT MURPHY AND THINGS; MR STEPHEN SANFORD'S SERGEANT MURPHY WITH CAPTAIN 'TUPPY' BENNETT AND THE TRAINER GEORGE BLACKWELL
Note: It is not clear from the artist's records whether or not Sergeant Murphy and Things was a commissioned work. According to the Artist's Studio book Sergeant Murphy was purchased by Lord Dewar (of Dewar's Whisky fame), for £500 in 1923 prior to its first exhibition at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1924. Sergeant Murphy is depicted with the jockey who rode him to victory in the 1923 Grand National, Captain 'Tuppy' Bennet. The character on the left is the horse's owner, Stephen 'Laddie' Sanford, and the man next to him is his trainer, George Blackwell.Orpen, like Munnings, often combined the equine portrait with a landscape painting. As P.G. Konody explains (op. cit., p.192): 'To do justice to the 'points' of a famous thoroughbred requires a long course of specialised study, but here we find Orpen on the first isolated attempt competing on his own ground - and competing successfully - with A.J. Munnings, the painter par excellence of the small equestrian landscape-portrait. By landscape-portrait I mean the picture which the artist does not concentrate his attention upon his equine sitter, adding the landscape setting as a more or less conventional and perfunctorily treated background, but in which the horse and landscape are visualised as a pictorial entity and indissolubly connected by spatial and atmospheric values'.When first seen at the Royal Academy in 1924, it was only natural that Sergeant Murphy and Things should have been compared with Alfred Munnings' works, especially those that were exhibited at the same show, in particular, The Grey Horse (private collection) and Lord and Lady Mildmay of Flete, Helen & Anthony, also known as The Mildmay Family (sold Christie's, New York, 1 December 1999, lot 144, for the world record price for the artist of $4,292,500, private collection). Munnings himself (op. cit., p.153) recollects one such comparison: 'A memory comes back to me. I was in America in 1924, and in one of the papers there I read an account of the Royal Academy, about Orpen's picture of Sergeant Murphy saying the Irishman's picture was better than mine of the grey horse … that my horse's head was too small. A queer thing memory'. Indeed, there could be some substance to the much-quoted anecdote that Orpen undertook the work to prove that he could paint a horse picture to rival, or better, those of Alfred Munnings.The whole composition is in fact a 'send-up' based on Munnings' work. Orpen appears to have taken various elements, often used devices, from several pictures, adapting them as necessary, yet leaving their source still recognisable to those knowledgeable enough. Even the title Sergeant Murphy and Things is a play on the title of Munnings' own picture, Sergeant Murphy and Trainer (National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs, New York). This picture was probably painted in 1923 or 1924, and was, according to Munnings, himself, a formal commission for the owner 'Mr Sandford - Laddie Sandford'. The trainer, George Blackwell, is in typical pose, holding the reins of an unmounted and un-saddled Sergeant Murphy, in a pose strongly reminiscent of Wootton or Stubbs. Their influences can be seen in a number of Munnings' works, and Orpen as a student of art history, would be acutely aware of this. Aspects of the trainer's stance, the position of the legs, and the way the swagger stick is held, have strong similarities with one of the characters in Orpen's picture, and could easily be the same man. Another favourite Munnings device, the presence of an oak tree, is also included in his own composition. In Orpen's work, the tree on the right with presumably Munnings leaning against it, is lifted from one of Munnings' pictures of the 1919 Grand National winner, Poethlyn, entitled Major Hugh and Mrs. Peel's Poethlyn' (private collection).Sergeant Murphy was a chestnut gelding by General Symons out of Rose Graft, bred in Ireland by G.L. Walker in 1910. By the time he died, the sixteen-year-old horse was a veteran of an astonishing seven Grand Nationals, spanning the period 1918-1925. By the time of the 1922 Grand National, the steeplechaser had been acquired from Benson by Stephen 'Laddie' Sanford, a young Americanundergraduate at Cambridge, with the intention of using him in the Leicestershire Hunts. However, being too much for the new owner to handle, he was placed under the Newmarket trainer George Blackwell. In the 1922 Grand National, with C. Hawkins up, he finished fourth, despite falling at the Canal Turn. However, ridden by Captain G.N. 'Tuppy' Bennet, he won the Scottish Grand National, atBogside near Ayr, in April the same year. Glory and success came in the 1923 Grand National, run at Aintree on 24 March, when Blackwell became one of a select ban of trainers who could boast a Grand National and a Derby winner, having won the 1903 Derby with Rock Sand. With the starting price 100-6 against, wearing No.10, the thirteen-year-old Sergeant Murphy, again ridden bythe leading amateur jockey, Captain G.N. 'Tuppy' Bennet, carrying 11st. 3lbs., won by three lengths, in the fast time of 9 minutes 36 seconds. Only six of the original twenty-eight starters finished. It was the first ever Grand National win for an American owner.Orpen Research Project2002 Literature: ’Irish Art in London’ , Freeman’s Journal, 26 April 1904, p.6 ‘Racing Pictures’ , The Sportsman, 3 May 1924, p.4 ‘The Royal Academy – A First Look Round’ , The Scotsman, 3 May 1924, p. 11 ‘The London Exhibition’ , Edinburgh Evening News, 3 May 1924, p. 5 ‘Irish Art in London’ , Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 3 May 1924, p. 4 ‘The Royal Academy … ’ , Belfast Newsletter, 5 May 1924, p. 9 ‘Art – The Royal Academy I’ , Truth, 7 May 1924, p. 863 W.G. Constable, ‘The Royal Academy’ , The Saturday Review, 17 May 1924, p. 501 By 1924 Orpen’s portrait commissions were all-consuming and with those of John McCormack (National Gallery of Ireland) and Mr Knoedler at the Royal Academy it was regarded as a brilliant year for the artist. For the contemporary press, the painter, who frequently courted controversy, provided good copy, and 1924 was no exception. The Irish paper, Freeman’s Journal, leaked in advance of the exhibition’s opening, that this year, Orpen ‘is expected to put Mr Munnings and the most famous painters of horses in the shade’ . A week later, other papers repeated the obvious comparison and Punch in its second tranche of Academy cartoons, ‘Second Depressions’ , even took up the case, suggesting that one of the protagonists on the left, identified by The Sportsman, actually thought Orpen was ‘Mr Munnings’. 1 Whether the picture was compliment or critique, remained an open question. Nevertheless, for the art historian, WG Constable, writing in The Saturday Review, it was obvious that Munnings, the most celebrated English horse painter, was becoming an ‘automatic machine’ , and Orpen realised it. Professor Kenneth McConkey November 2020 1. See Kenneth McConkey, ‘English the scene … English the atmosphere … ’ in An English Idyll, A loan Exhibition of the Works of Sir Alfred Munnings, 2001, (Sotheby’s London), p. 20.
Frame dimensions: 38 by 48in. (96.5 by 121.9cm)
Note: It is not clear from the artist's records whether or not Sergeant Murphy and Things was a commissioned work. According to the Artist's Studio book Sergeant Murphy was purchased by Lord Dewar (of Dewar's Whisky fame), for £500 in 1923 prior to its first exhibition at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1924. Sergeant Murphy is depicted with the jockey who rode him to victory in the 1923 Grand National, Captain 'Tuppy' Bennet. The character on the left is the horse's owner, Stephen 'Laddie' Sanford, and the man next to him is his trainer, George Blackwell.Orpen, like Munnings, often combined the equine portrait with a landscape painting. As P.G. Konody explains (op. cit., p.192): 'To do justice to the 'points' of a famous thoroughbred requires a long course of specialised study, but here we find Orpen on the first isolated attempt competing on his own ground - and competing successfully - with A.J. Munnings, the painter par excellence of the small equestrian landscape-portrait. By landscape-portrait I mean the picture which the artist does not concentrate his attention upon his equine sitter, adding the landscape setting as a more or less conventional and perfunctorily treated background, but in which the horse and landscape are visualised as a pictorial entity and indissolubly connected by spatial and atmospheric values'.When first seen at the Royal Academy in 1924, it was only natural that Sergeant Murphy and Things should have been compared with Alfred Munnings' works, especially those that were exhibited at the same show, in particular, The Grey Horse (private collection) and Lord and Lady Mildmay of Flete, Helen & Anthony, also known as The Mildmay Family (sold Christie's, New York, 1 December 1999, lot 144, for the world record price for the artist of $4,292,500, private collection). Munnings himself (op. cit., p.153) recollects one such comparison: 'A memory comes back to me. I was in America in 1924, and in one of the papers there I read an account of the Royal Academy, about Orpen's picture of Sergeant Murphy saying the Irishman's picture was better than mine of the grey horse … that my horse's head was too small. A queer thing memory'. Indeed, there could be some substance to the much-quoted anecdote that Orpen undertook the work to prove that he could paint a horse picture to rival, or better, those of Alfred Munnings.The whole composition is in fact a 'send-up' based on Munnings' work. Orpen appears to have taken various elements, often used devices, from several pictures, adapting them as necessary, yet leaving their source still recognisable to those knowledgeable enough. Even the title Sergeant Murphy and Things is a play on the title of Munnings' own picture, Sergeant Murphy and Trainer (National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs, New York). This picture was probably painted in 1923 or 1924, and was, according to Munnings, himself, a formal commission for the owner 'Mr Sandford - Laddie Sandford'. The trainer, George Blackwell, is in typical pose, holding the reins of an unmounted and un-saddled Sergeant Murphy, in a pose strongly reminiscent of Wootton or Stubbs. Their influences can be seen in a number of Munnings' works, and Orpen as a student of art history, would be acutely aware of this. Aspects of the trainer's stance, the position of the legs, and the way the swagger stick is held, have strong similarities with one of the characters in Orpen's picture, and could easily be the same man. Another favourite Munnings device, the presence of an oak tree, is also included in his own composition. In Orpen's work, the tree on the right with presumably Munnings leaning against it, is lifted from one of Munnings' pictures of the 1919 Grand National winner, Poethlyn, entitled Major Hugh and Mrs. Peel's Poethlyn' (private collection).Sergeant Murphy was a chestnut gelding by General Symons out of Rose Graft, bred in Ireland by G.L. Walker in 1910. By the time he died, the sixteen-year-old horse was a veteran of an astonishing seven Grand Nationals, spanning the period 1918-1925. By the time of the 1922 Grand National, the steeplechaser had been acquired from Benson by Stephen 'Laddie' Sanford, a young Americanundergraduate at Cambridge, with the intention of using him in the Leicestershire Hunts. However, being too much for the new owner to handle, he was placed under the Newmarket trainer George Blackwell. In the 1922 Grand National, with C. Hawkins up, he finished fourth, despite falling at the Canal Turn. However, ridden by Captain G.N. 'Tuppy' Bennet, he won the Scottish Grand National, atBogside near Ayr, in April the same year. Glory and success came in the 1923 Grand National, run at Aintree on 24 March, when Blackwell became one of a select ban of trainers who could boast a Grand National and a Derby winner, having won the 1903 Derby with Rock Sand. With the starting price 100-6 against, wearing No.10, the thirteen-year-old Sergeant Murphy, again ridden bythe leading amateur jockey, Captain G.N. 'Tuppy' Bennet, carrying 11st. 3lbs., won by three lengths, in the fast time of 9 minutes 36 seconds. Only six of the original twenty-eight starters finished. It was the first ever Grand National win for an American owner.Orpen Research Project2002 Literature: ’Irish Art in London’ , Freeman’s Journal, 26 April 1904, p.6 ‘Racing Pictures’ , The Sportsman, 3 May 1924, p.4 ‘The Royal Academy – A First Look Round’ , The Scotsman, 3 May 1924, p. 11 ‘The London Exhibition’ , Edinburgh Evening News, 3 May 1924, p. 5 ‘Irish Art in London’ , Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 3 May 1924, p. 4 ‘The Royal Academy … ’ , Belfast Newsletter, 5 May 1924, p. 9 ‘Art – The Royal Academy I’ , Truth, 7 May 1924, p. 863 W.G. Constable, ‘The Royal Academy’ , The Saturday Review, 17 May 1924, p. 501 By 1924 Orpen’s portrait commissions were all-consuming and with those of John McCormack (National Gallery of Ireland) and Mr Knoedler at the Royal Academy it was regarded as a brilliant year for the artist. For the contemporary press, the painter, who frequently courted controversy, provided good copy, and 1924 was no exception. The Irish paper, Freeman’s Journal, leaked in advance of the exhibition’s opening, that this year, Orpen ‘is expected to put Mr Munnings and the most famous painters of horses in the shade’ . A week later, other papers repeated the obvious comparison and Punch in its second tranche of Academy cartoons, ‘Second Depressions’ , even took up the case, suggesting that one of the protagonists on the left, identified by The Sportsman, actually thought Orpen was ‘Mr Munnings’. 1 Whether the picture was compliment or critique, remained an open question. Nevertheless, for the art historian, WG Constable, writing in The Saturday Review, it was obvious that Munnings, the most celebrated English horse painter, was becoming an ‘automatic machine’ , and Orpen realised it. Professor Kenneth McConkey November 2020 1. See Kenneth McConkey, ‘English the scene … English the atmosphere … ’ in An English Idyll, A loan Exhibition of the Works of Sir Alfred Munnings, 2001, (Sotheby’s London), p. 20.
Frame dimensions: 38 by 48in. (96.5 by 121.9cm)
Condition
This work appears to be in overall very good condition. The canvas is taut and stable. There is some very minor craquelure visible on close inspection above the horse's head and above the figures on the left. This appears stable and has not led to flaking of the paint.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed lower left
Provenance
Artist’s Studio Book record for 1923: Sergeant Murphy sold to 1st Baron Dewar of Homestall for £500;Collection of Viscountess Ward of Witley;Her sale, Christie’s, London, 14 July 1967, lot 89;Collection of E.J. Roussack, New York;His sale, Sotheby’s, London,18 July 1973, lot 52;Private collection;Christie’s, New York, 8 June 1984, lot 301;Private collection;Christie's, New York, 30 May 2002, lot 108;Private collection
Literature
The Artist’s Studio Book, 36/05-1923;P.G. Konody and S. Dark, Sir William Orpen, Artist and Man, London, 1932, p. 192;AJ. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, p.153;The Connoisseur, July 1973, p. 63 (illustrated);Apollo, May 1980, p. 34 (illustrated);Arnold, Bruce, Orpen, Mirror to an Age, London, 1981, p. 420;S. Mitchell, The Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 340(illustrated);S.A. Walker, British Sporting Art in the Twentieth Century, London, 1989, p. 37
Exhibited
Royal Academy, London, 1924, catalogue no. 655, as Sergeant Murphy and Things;'54th Autumn Exhibition', Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1926, catalogue no. 158;'Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members', Royal Academy, London, 1933, catalogue no. 88;'Orpen Centenary Exhibition', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1978, catalogue no. 124;'Irish Horse', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (intended for April to December 2020 but cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic)
