William Orpen Painting "The Spy" The Full Story

our final memorable story from this season's road shows came to us at our last recording in a magnificent painted hall of the old royal naval college in Greenwich this must be our most important find of the year and it came under Rupert Martha's eager eye this is a copy of a painting by William open that's in the Imperial War Museum is that right that's right and and who is it the story is quite interesting because it started off by being cold the spy and then he changed his story and called it the refugee but then it turned out that it wasn't this is wartime this is this is during the 14 18 more I think in 1918 because he was official war artist wasn't that righteous and he was doing a job and he sort of slipped this one in and it turned out it was his mistress and she was called Yvonne a beak I think was the name and he got into a lot of trouble over this because he'd been doing a little bit of private work when he was supposed to be doing war work he would have got into trouble over calling a picture a spy in 1918 because that subject was very very sensitive the French had just shot Marta hari remember and the Germans had executed the English spy edith cavell and it was a very sensitive area and the idea that open might be working privately for himself painting a portrait of his mistress well you know it was all very sensitive and he would have got into a lot of trouble with the official sensor over it every picture that was painted by an official war artist had to be passed by the British Army's censor so he would've got into trouble having got into trouble he then might have liked to have tried to find a way out of it and in fact he did have to pull on his extensive connections to get himself reinstated he had to go back to England to explain himself and then get sent back to France but the finished picture ended up in the Imperial War Museum and the question is what is this I mean it's not an interesting inscription hasn't it I know yes I'm genuine do you think that is it's quite da Vinci Code isn't it because we've got copied by someone unknown yeah and it that provokes a mystery but then this thing that says a Miley were Nick Kroll sounds Hungarian or something anyway leave that aside for one moment and consider the picture um how good is it I think it's fantastic well I have to say I agree now this is very important and we'll come back to it and why it's so good the inscription we read it backwards it says William open yes I know aha right no well I think that this really is by William Walker yes I do Wow now why do I think that well look at it you're saying it's fantastic I agree I think the light in her eye is just brilliantly done and the highlights in her hair are they really work and all this free work down here it's so brief and yet so accurate and so wonderfully colored and the complexion of her face it's difficult to work up from that and still make a picture succeed you know oftenly if it's a slavish copy it becomes just a crude and over amplified pastiche of the original this is not that this is something better so I'm all excited well the thing is in 1418 war he wasn't sir william opened a terribly important society portraitist that he later became nonetheless he was a very sincere and very fine painter and some of the most emotionally brought and powerful pictures to come out of the first war are in the Imperial War Museum by him I've seen like yes they're very powerful of it and he was regarded by his peers as a prodigious Strassman he was very highly respected no one complained like him and I think that's why it's possible to see his hand in this picture you say it's fantastic well it really is and that's to me why it's by him all the time we've had it in our family we've always assumed it was a copy it's a copy but it's by him he had you so where does that leave us if we can prove that it's by orphen um presumably you didn't really value it no not as such no no certainly not twenty to thirty thousand pounds goodness goodness scriptures with you is about the mildest thing I can say well punch that's better we'll leave that in that's good thank you well I think that gives a clue as to who may be about to receive even more exciting news to close the show I'm heading to the art department at London's Imperial War Museum well I think you'll agree we've had some fantastic finds on the rota over the last 12 months and one painting has continued to exercise one of our experts and all that time now Rupert you've been thinking about this beatty ever since you saw it then back in Gretna chiminey yes I really have this is the roadshow picture here and this is the version in the Imperial War Museum now of course on the day in Greenwich which is very busy I saw this in the queue for hours beforehand and it slowly got closer to me and then I just prayed it was going to come to me and it did now the thing was at the time I was convinced in my mind just by looking at the picture that it was the quality of Sir William Alban but you know you never have much time to prepare for these things and I couldn't be absolutely certain not empirically so so after the show it bothered me it haunted me so I went and did some more work on it and I turned up some quite interesting stuff but we've brought John along with his painting today to the Imperial War Museum so let's bring him in so he can hear what you've got to say John very nice to see you I expect you're wondering why we brought you along with your painting yesterday the Imperial War Museum roof I'm gonna let you take out the story isn't it fun to see them together like that I find it quite extraordinary yeah it is isn't it yeah and what's interesting the very slight subtle differences yours is perhaps a little warmer in color but but they're close on a indeed so you're convinced now that this really is by so will you open it well I suspected as much then but since the roadshow I've been able to share to open experts and there's absolutely no doubt in their mind that they thought instinctively intuitively that this was by open it's amazing and we set about trying to find proof so we started to think why would he paint her again in this way and it led us to his great friend and benefactor Lord Beaverbrook who was Minister of Information at the time and it was Beaverbrook who got him off the hook over the business of being caught out lying about the title of the picture yes so Beaverbrook seemed to be the key to it for us and we looked in his archive I think we found a letter that actually refers to it and it talks about my lord please can we do something about these sketches now this would have been a sketch in opens parlance at the time these pictures can we do something about them meaning Beaverbrook what do you buy it from me effectively yes this is all very startling yeah but there can be no doubt it seems to me that he's talking about this picture in that letter in row but why did it help him if Beaverbrook bought this painting well it's money for a start and often always needed money and secondly it's a sort of a thank-you this is what I believe this painting is a thank-you to Beaverbrook for helping him out over this whole business and that's the reason it's here I'm beginning to understand but it's still and quite a sir quite a surprise Rupert you found out so much about this painting through all your research but you have another revelation up your sleeve don't you well I do because you see it's not often you get a second chance at roadshows situations and given the the things we found out about it and the conviction that we now have in fact we'd call it a certainty really that your pictures by open Wow then on the day I wasn't absolutely sure I had a personal conviction but I'm sure now but based on it being probably by open I said it was worth twenty to thirty thousand and you did yes and so I've got to revise your valuation but it's worth at least a quarter of a million pounds oh my god hold me mister if what nurse do you do with something like that I have absolutely no idea intercept enjoy it does it spoil you're enjoying it oh no no of course not but it's worth more than my house what am I going to do about it how do you feel about that John I'm completely gobsmacked Falmouth Adrian it really is a fairy story isn't it I think a cup of hot tea or maybe something even stronger will be required for John I think he was quite shocked wasn't he but what a fantastic way to end the series

Channel: Richard Ferguson

Views: 157,767

Keywords: William, Orpen, The, Spy, (The, Refugee), antique, painting, Yvonne, Aubicq, Antiques, Roadshow

Id: Ik15ef4fmwE

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 04 2012