Sir William Orpen, R.H.A., R.A. (1878-1931)

Orpen was known as a prolific self-portraitist, and would often discuss ideas with Mrs St George, including his Self Portrait, The Man from Aran (1916), to which this item possibly relates. However the illustration and comment is also very revealing about how Orpen felt about representations of himself generally, and may go a long way to explain why there are so few portraits of him by other artists. No one could know him like he did.
The Orpen Research Project.