Lot 78: James Sinton Sleator PRHA (1885-1950) YOUNG WOMAN IN A FUR-COLLARED WRAP, circa 1914-16 signed and inscribed '[Sl]eator / [5]4 Upper Sackville St'

James Sinton Sleator PRHA (1885-1950) YOUNG WOMAN IN A FUR-COLLARED WRAP, circa 1914-16 signed and inscribed '[Sl]eator / [5]4 Upper Sackville St' on reverse oil on board 42 by 30cm., 16.5 by 12in. Sleator was one of Orpen's most successful students at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and worked for a period in 1914 as Orpen's assistant in his London studio. However, the pull of Ireland was too strong for Sleator to resist, and by 1915 he had returned to Dublin and established his own studio at 54 Upper Sackville Street (present- day O'Connell Street). It was a short-lived venture, as the studio was soon destroyed by fire in the 1916 Easter Week Rising. Orpen's influence is in full evidence here, with the careful modelling of the girl's head and the precise yet still visible brush-strokes. Sleator maintained this technique for the rest of his highly successful portrait and still-life painting career, which culminated in his Presidency of the RHA, from 1945 until his death. E3000-4000 (GBP2000 2700 approx.)