Sir William Orpen

Portrait of Miss Annie Harmsworth

Orpen is described as having started his portraits by painting in great detail only one of the sitter's eyes, and filling in the rest of the canvas later. This portrait of Miss Annie Harmsworth was probably painted at about the same time as that of her sister. While the portrait of Violette is reminiscent of Velasquez, that of Annie recalls John Singer Sargent. The relaxed pose of Annie, with her hands delicately crossed, lends her an almost cosmopolitan air. Though depicted in a similar white satin dress, Orpen has succeeded in capturing the demeanor of slightly older Annie. Born in 1900, and so two years older than Violette, Annie's more delicately styled hair, as well as the suggestion of a more carefully tied pink sash, lend her a worldly self-consciousness still lacking in Violette.

But it is truly in the eyes that Orpen has captured the personalities of the two sisters. Gazing at Annie, the viewer senses a quiet confidence in her brown eyes. She has grown accustomed to the social habits of the environment in which she is depicted. Annie is eight, and looking toward the time when she will take her place as a young lady in the adult world of upper class parlours and sitting rooms. Looking at Violette, the viewer senses a certain melancholy behind her eyes, as if she is gazing at the cultured world she will come to inhabit from the less cultured space of childhood. The natural landscape is one that she, perhaps with some misgiving, will be required to leave soon.