In 1917, William Orpen went to France as an official war artist, serving with the British Army. In 1921 he published An Onlooker in France, a memoir articulating his personal struggle to comprehend the conflict, destruction and suffering. Drawing on key passages, ‘Aftermath: The War Landscapes of William Orpen’, at the National Gallery of Ireland, explores a selection of his landscapes as representations and expressions of profound human trauma, as well as reflecting on his own personal struggle to understand the reality of what he witnessed. In addition to archives and a first edition of the memoir, the display will be formed around a series of paintings from the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London.
William Orpen: 11 November – 11 February 2018
