Bea Orpen
| Bea Orpen | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Beatrice Esther Orpen 7 March 1913 Lisheens, Carrickmines, County Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | July 12, 1980 (aged 67) Cottage Hospital, Drogheda |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Alma mater | Dublin Metropolitan School of Art |
| Known for | painting and graphic design |
| Style | abstract |
| Spouse(s) | Chalmers Edward FitzJohn ('Terry') Trench |
| Awards | RHA First Prize for Life Drawing (1933), RHA First Prize for Painting from life (1934), First Prize in decorative composition (1936) |
| Elected | Honorary member to Royal Hibernian Academy |
Bea Orpen HRHA (7 March 1913 – 12 July 1980) was an Irish landscape and portrait painter and teacher. She aided in the establishment of the Drogheda Municipal Gallery of Art.
Beatrice Esther Orpen was born at Lisheens, Carrickmines, County Dublin, on 7 March 1913. She was one of a pair of twin girls and was the youngest of five daughters and one son of Charles St George Orpen and Cerise Maria Orpen (née Darley). Her father was a solicitor and served as the president of the Incorporated Law Society from 1915 to 1916. Orpen was the niece of the architect and painter Richard Caulfield Orpen and the painter Sir William Orpen. She was educated privately at home by a governess until age 13, when she attended the French School, Bray, and then Alexandra College, Dublin. Orpen took private lessons on the fundamentals of colour and line under Lilian Davidson, going on to enrol in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) from 1932 to 1935. Whilst studying, she was a pupil of Seán O'Sullivan, and won first prize for drawing from like in 1933, and painting from life in 1934. Orpen moved to London to continue studying at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1935 to 1939. She excelled at decorative design, going on to win first prize in decorative composition in 1936, earning her diploma in design in 1939. Orpen attended the School of Typography, Fleet Street, and was trained in textile and commercial design at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. On 5 July 1940, Orpen married Chalmers Edward FitzJohn ('Terry') Trench, and they went on to have three sons and one daughter.
Orpen made her début at the RHA while still a student in 1939, and she exhibited with them every year until 1980, exhibiting over 100 paintings in total. She also exhibited with the Water Colour Society of Ireland almost every year from 1936 to 1980. Whilst still studying in London, she received a number of commercial commissions to design posters, brochures, book jackets, and greeting cards. Orpen returned to Ireland in 1939 and mounted her first solo show that October in the Country Shop, St Stephen's Green which was managed by Muriel Gahan. She is best known as a landscape artist, favouring gouache and a sombre palette on tinted paper. She perfected a rapid method early in her career, which was a requirement for this quick-drying medium. She often worked in watercolour, and apart from a period in the 1960s, rarely worked in oil paint. Orpen would often go on painting holidays in Ireland, painting scenes in counties Louth, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, including those on the west coast. She travelled to Norway and Brittany early in her career, and later went to continental Europe in the 1960s and 1970s to paint. She mounted a number of solo shows over the course of her career, at the Grafton Galleries in 1947 and 1954, the Neptune Gallery in 1977, and in Drogheda in 1978. Orpen was a regular contributor at the Oireachtas, the Irish Exhibition of Living Art from 1943 to 1958, and the Exhibition of Modern Irish Art, Wexford from 1945 to 1980, as well as several local exhibitions and festivals. Orpen and her husband established the Drogheda Municipal Art Collection, serving on its committee which collected over 60 works by 1980, and the collection is now part of the permanent collections of the Highlanes Gallery.
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