The Artist's Model, Yvonne – Orpen Print

Orpen met Yvonne Aubicq in a military hospital in Amiens in the winter of 1917, while being treated for blood poisoning. She was working as a nurse. He painted her portrait and submitted it to the War Office.

When his commanding officer demanded to know why he had painted a woman instead of the war, Orpen told them she was a spy. He was hauled before Intelligence, severely reprimanded, and later wrote that his behaviour "could not have been worse." He painted her again anyway.

Yvonne became his constant companion through the worst years of the Western Front — through the Armistice, through the Paris Peace Conference, through the collapse that left him bedridden for two months in November 1918. She nursed him then too. He painted her dozens of times, in dozens of moods. This is one of the earliest — loose, warm, direct, made in the middle of a war by a man who had found the one person he wanted to paint.

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.