Exhibited 1900 Orpen and John met while studying at the Slade and became constant companions. Fifty years later John criticised this portrait for not conveying 'the shy, dreamy and reticent character of its model'. It is in fact one of Orpen's finest early portraits of a young artist whose behavior was often far from 'reticent'. [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03476/Augustus-John] Orpen's former friend Augustus John vilified him after his death... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orpen]