Self-Portrait with Sowing New Seed – Orpen Print

In 1913 Orpen painted himself standing before his own canvas — furrowed brow, black cap, brushes in hand, staring out with the expression of a man who has something to say.

The painting behind him is Sowing New Seed, his satirical allegory attacking the Irish Board of Agriculture for pouring money into farming while starving Irish art of funding. The nude female figure sows new ideas. The naked children are the progeny of intellectual enlightenment. The peasant couple on the right represents the Board's backward attitude to culture. Orpen was furious, and this is what furious looked like on him — contained, precise, unsmiling.

It is one of the great self-portraits in Irish art. Not a painter at his easel, not a man in costume — just Orpen, standing in front of the thing he believed in, daring you to disagree.

The original hangs in the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri. This archival giclée print is made on heavyweight fine art paper with fade-resistant inks, built to last.

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