The Mirror – William Orpen Art Print

Orpen painted The Mirror in 1900, the year he left the Slade. The model was Emily Scobel — his fiancee. She is shown in profile, seated, the shallow pictorial space arranged with the care of a Dutch interior. On the wall behind her, a convex mirror catches the room in miniature, and in it, reflected small and precise, is Orpen himself at his easel.

He borrowed the device from Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, which had been hanging in the National Gallery in London since 1842. But Orpen made it his own — the mirror as a way of being in the painting without being the subject of it, present but hidden, watching. He used the same device throughout his career. This is the first time.

Emily ended the engagement in 1901. Orpen married Grace Knewstub the same year. The Mirror is in the collection of the Tate, London.

Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), born in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, trained at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and the Slade School in London, becoming one of the most successful portrait painters of his generation. His work hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Sizes & Format

• 40 × 50 cm / 16 × 20″
• Available framed (black, white, wood) or unframed

Print & Frame Details

Archival matte paper, 250gsm (110lb), acid-free and FSC-certified — off-white, uncoated. Framed prints: solid oak or ash wood frame, 20mm thick, with shatterproof protective glazing. Ready to hang, hanging kit included. Unframed prints up to A4 ship flat; larger sizes ship rolled in a protective tube.

Free Worldwide Shipping

Framed prints are packed with protective corners and wrap, boxed with reinforced edges, and braced with internal supports for extra rigidity (max 3 frames per package). Every order ships free, made to order and delivered from the hub closest to you: Ireland 3–7 business days · UK 4–8 · USA 5–10 · Canada 6–12 · Australia 7–14.