The Irish couple who scandalised London society

Portraits of a Meath aristocrat and his glamorous music-hall wife whose marriage enthralled Edwardian society are to be auctioned in London

TWO MAJOR paintings by Irish artist Sir William Orpen are to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in May.

The portraits of a Co Meath aristocrat and his glamorous music-hall wife - whose marriage scandalised and enthralled Edwardian society - have never before appeared at auction. Portrait of Rosie, Fourth Marchioness of Headfort and Portrait of Geoffrey, Fourth Marquis of Headfort go under the hammer on May 10th.

In monetary terms, the lady wins hands down. Her portrait is estimated at £300,000-£500,000 and his at £60,000-£80,000.

The commissioned portraits were first exhibited at the Royal Academy's 1915 Summer Exhibition in London, and are being sold by a family descendent.

Sotheby's said the difference in estimates can be attributed to the fact that the painting of the marchioness "can be classed as a high-society portrait of a great fashionable beauty of the time". The Stillorgan, Co Dublin-born Orpen was well-known for his portraits of London's "beautiful society women".

Grant Ford, a director with Sotheby's and an expert on Irish art, described the portrait of Rosie as "totally arresting" and said she looked "absolutely stunning and really gorgeous" in her cocktail dress, fur and diamond earrings. The actual earrings, incidentally, were sold by Sotheby's at auction in Geneva last year and made CHF 42,500 (about €35,000).

Rose Boote (1878-1958) was, according to Sotheby's, "the daughter of a comedian from Nottingham and a straw hat sewer" although a report in The Irish Timesat the time of her death claimed she was "Irish and was educated in the Ursuline Convent, Thurles".

Using the stage name of Rosie, she achieved great fame as one of the Gaiety Girls - not of Dublin's South King Street variety - but rather the chorus-line girls who sang in musical comedy spectacles at the Gaiety Theatre on the Strand, London. The girls attracted the attention of aristocratic young men - known as "Stage Door Johnnies" - and, in 1900, Rosie's performance in a hit musical The Messenger Boyapparently charmed the eminently eligible young Irish aristocrat, the 4th Marquis of Headfort, Geoffrey Thomas Taylour (1878-1943). She quit the theatre and they married on April 11th, 1901.

The wedding created a sensation in Edwardian London. He was a member of one of the most prominent Protestant families in Ireland with estates of some 22,000 acres in Cavan and Meath while Rose, apart from being on the stage, was a Catholic. They lived in Headfort House, Kells, Co Meath and a London townhouse and had three children.

He had succeeded to the title 4th Marquis of Headfort on the death of his father in 1894 and moved in the highest echelons of British society. He was a lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards and later fought in the first World War. He subsequently served as a senator in the Irish Free State - from 1922-1928. Although a marquess, the family preferred the spelling marquis.

Rose lived until 1958 when she died aged 80. She was one of the very few people who had attended three coronations in Westminster Abbey (Edward VII, George V and George VI). The Irish Timesreported that after "lying in state" at Headfort House, her grandson Lord Bective and employees of the estate carried her coffin to an island in the grounds of the house where she was buried alongside her husband.

Headfort House was sold off in 1981 but the title is still extant. Peerage records show that the incumbent is Thomas Michael Ronald Christopher Taylour, 7th Marquess of Headfort (born 1959) and the heir apparent is his son, Thomas Rupert Charles Christopher Taylour, Earl of Bective (born 1989).

Sotheby's has announced that its stand-alone Irish art sale in London - a traditional fixture in the cultural calendar - will now be incorporated into two larger auctions. The "British and Irish art" auctions will take place in May and November and each have a dedicated "the Irish sale" section.

Highlights of the May Irish sale - including the Orpen portraits - will go on view in Dublin at 16 Molesworth Street on April 24th and 25th and in Belfast at Waterfront Hall on April 26th and 27th.