Man from the West, Seán Keating – Orpen Print

Limerick City Gallery Collection.

Orpen painted this in a single sitting — two and a half hours. The model was Seán Keating, his most gifted student, dressed in the working clothes of a man from the West of Ireland, looking directly out of the canvas with an expression that asks nothing and concedes nothing.

Keating had come to Dublin from Limerick on a scholarship arranged by Orpen himself. By 1915 he was Orpen's studio assistant in London, the best young Irish painter of his generation, and the two men were as close as teacher and student get. When the war came, Keating urged Orpen to return to Ireland with him. Orpen refused. Keating went back alone, went to the Aran Islands, and began painting the images of Irish life and revolution that would define his career.

Orpen joined the British Army and went to the Western Front. They went in opposite directions, and Ireland got two completely different artists out of it.

Available in two sizes — 30x30 cm / 12x12″ and 50x50 cm / 20x20″ — as an archival giclée print on heavyweight fine art paper with fade-resistant inks, built to last.

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