Le Chef de l'Hôtel Chatham – William Orpen Print

In 1921, Orpen painted the second chef at the Hôtel Chatham in Paris. Not a nobleman, not a politician, not a patron — a working chef named Eugène Grossrieter, known as Chester, standing with his hands on his hips in an immaculate white jacket and toque.

It is one of the great portraits in his career, and one of the most deliberate statements he ever made. Orpen had spent years painting the wealthy and the powerful. Here he gave the same scale, the same technical ambition, the same unflinching attention to a man whose job was to cook. The bottle of stout on the table — Chester's preferred drink to keep cool in the kitchen — is rendered with the same care as the still-life passages in a Dutch master.

Orpen submitted it as his diploma work to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1921. It was painted in Paris, where he was living at the Hôtel Majestic following the Peace Conference. The Royal Academy selected it under the Chantrey Bequest but ultimately deemed it ineligible — it hadn't been painted in Britain. The painting stayed at the Royal Academy anyway, where it hangs today.

Available as a 40x50 cm / 16x20″ archival print on heavyweight fine art paper with fade-resistant inks, built to last.

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