THE NEWS this week that Christie's will sell two Jack B Yeats paintings from the collection of English novelist Graham Greene has generated significant interest in next Thursday's auction of 20th-century British and Irish Artin London.
The sale will also include a major work by Irish artist Sir William Orpen, whose Portrait of Gertrude Sanfordis on the market for the first time. But who was she?
The mystery belle was 22 when she sat for this portrait, in 1922, in London. Daughter of a wealthy horse-breeder, politician and carpet manufacturer from Charleston, South Carolina, she lived a life of adventure, travelled the world, hunted big game, married a handsome tennis player (Sidney Legendre) and worked as a spy for the Allies during World War II.
At the age of 85, she published her autobiography recounting a lifetime of meetings and friendships with “kings, presidents, maharajahs, potentates and world leaders” and declared: at my age, friends ask me if I would have done things differently. I can’t really say I would. I look ahead. I always have. I don’t contemplate life, I live it, and I’m having the time of my life!”
By then known as Gertie Legendre, she had always kept the portrait. She died in March 2000, aged 97. Christie’s said the “superb” painting, which has an estimate of £250,000-£350,000 (€286,000-€400,399), was being sold by her heirs.
